Being a young mum of only 22 years old, I really had to learn things the hard way when my children were born. There was no such thing as forums, internet, Facebook etc. I was the only one in my group of friends to have a baby, so sometimes I felt very alone and while all my friends were doing the travelling thing, I was at home breastfeeding. Was I too young? This was obviously my choice but sometimes I did feel I was missing out but to this day I never regretted it.
Tackling all the milestones of motherhood were sometimes very tough but not as tough to me as tackling potty training. I used to think to myself ‘How on earth am I going to get this little boy out of nappies when he is quite happy doing his business in them?’ and ‘where do I start?’. I spoke to my health visitor and she gave the best advice she could but to be honest I did not feel it was enough to give me the confidence to start this journey.
I was in Mothercare with George one day and he ran towards a Thomas the Tank Engine potty and insisted on taking it home. I decided to go with the flow as I believed if he showed an interest at least in the potty that maybe I should give it a go. I bought big boy Thomas pants and hunted down Thomas stickers and made my own reward chart and George was super excited. My philosophy was if I was going to do it I was going to do it fully….so the next day the nappies came off!!
Day one was quite a challenge and after a few accidents it would have been so easy for me just to give up. Knee deep in pee and poo all over the house with George denying he did any of it and blaming his two-week-old sister! But I was not going to be defeated so constant reminders and stickers with bribes to sit on the potty resulted in a eureka moment where we had our first wee in the potty! I screamed so loudly with excitement that I made George jump and the potty tipped over still stuck to his bottom…yet again there was wee all over the floor but this time it was my fault!
After a couple of days George just totally got it and could see his Mummy’s delight of how proud she was of him.
The poos were a bit of a challenge as they were with Hollie my second child and for some reason my children loved to hand the poo to me (even when I was driving in the car!). So I used a different reward system as I could see the stickers were beginning to be not as exciting. I had a tin which had special treats inside and the children could not wait for me to open this and it really did encourage them to do a poo in the correct place.
The thought and fear of going out and about and making sure I had everything with me was immense; I needed the potty which was in a plastic bag, spare clothes, wipes. Not only did I have to remember everything for a toddler, I had a baby who was only a few weeks old and had to make sure I had everything for her too! It took me three hours to get out of the house, kids strapped in car seats, and George needed a wee as soon as we started driving. I am not going to lie, my stress levels were sky high! So I pulled over got the potty out the boot and sat George on the front seat and he did one drop of wee, but at least he asked.
When I eventually got into town and had everything loaded up in the pushchair, we set off to look around the shops. After a visit to the Boots breastfeeding changing room, we set off when I heard those little words, ‘Mummy I need a wee’. Trying not to panic, we found a quiet place on the high street, put the pushchair in front of George and let him do his business. He did a great job telling me and making it on time with no wet pants, it was a real proud Mum moment! When he had finished and we were ready to go, I spotted the nearest drain and poured the wee down the drain. At the same time a horrible foul-mouthed man shouted at me for doing this. I felt absolutely awful not only did he make me cry (new Mum hormones) he made George cry too. I was absolutely devastated. I decided to give up on this expedition and just go home.
That night when the kids were finally settled and that overwhelming feeling of the day’s events kicked in, I started thinking to myself there has to be something else better than this. As upsetting as it was I never let this man put me off as it was important that George felt confident to ask to go for a wee when he was out of the home. I wondered why can’t there just be a potty with a lid on so we can just shut it and dispose of the contents at our convenience? ‘Right!’ I thought, ‘I am going to make this!’ and the rest, as they say, is history!
With Love
Amanda xx
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