I went to pick up my daughter after child care today only to notice that she seemed to be slimmer than when I dropped her off. At first I was little concerned because it wasn’t instantly obvious to me in what way she had changed. It was the same feeling of unease, I get when Wife comes home with a new haircut - I know there is something askew, I just know that something isn’t right, but for the life of me, I can’t work out what it is. This leaves me in the invidious position of wanting to ask what has changed, but knowing that one of the following is about to occur:
1. I take a tentative stab and guess what has changed only to discover that nothing has changed, so I am accused of not paying any attention, otherwise I would know nothing has changed.
2. I pick the wrong change, mention the new haircut when it is new shoes, or new shoes when my wife has gone from a blond to a redhead - I just inevitably get it backwards.
3. I say nothing in the hope that it is just paranoia on my behalf and nothing has in reality changed. This gets me accused of being an insensitive, brain dead slob who is more interested in the TV than my wife.
I went for option three with Little Miss - the say nothing approach, which is very risky indeed given Little Miss’ tantrums are even more impressive than Wifes.
Luckily for me one of the carers actually mentioned that Little Miss was sans nappy and asked whether we wanted to put one on for the trip home. What appears to have happened is that Little Miss is toilet trained at childcare so one day a week she happily goes without a nappy for most of the day and uses the toilets there, but at home, she is still very very insistent that even though she may try ‘pretend’ to use the toilet she still needs a nappy at home.
This is apparently not that unusual a phenomenon, but it does strike me as strange that someone ho barely even speaks at childcare feels comfortable enough there to go without a nappy.
Or maybe peer group pressure just starts at an early age.
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Peer pressure is amazing at helping the potty training process along. That’s why Princess was moved from the younger to the older 2s classroom so quickly earlier this year. She had started potty training but would slip up when it came time for the other kids to get their diapers changed because she wanted that extra attention. So she graduated and started getting attention in the form of special trips to the potty like the other kids.
Hopefully Little Miss will start doing this at home too and then you can happily say goodbye to the nappies!
Caitlin was potty trained at home; we haven’t started her on pre-school yet. What we did was “grumble” at her in the morning if her overnight diapers were wet, nothing major, just a “hmmm look, it’s wet”; and full of praises when it’s dry, and when she does tell us when she needs to go during the day.
She is now completely free of diapers 24×7. Only downside is we have to rush to her when she does exclaim she needs to go, cos she gives very little notice!
I may recall the whole story of this at a later date..
The one thing about potty training is that it is a complete roller coaster ride - I am just not sure who it is more emotionally exhausting for, us or the kids