PTLC

July 1^st, 2014

So it all started exactly a month back with an email informing that Aarav would be moving to preschool in a month. I and my hubby were so excited that our lil boy is promoted from daycare to preschool status!! The only hitch being the pre-requisite that the child should be fully potty trained L

Both of us were eager for his transition and didn’t want any stone left unturned to get his promotion done. After being in software industry for so long we have been mutated from normal human beings to SDLC followers.  So SDLC (Software Development Life cycle) got translated to PTLC (Potty Training Life Cycle).

The first phase in this Life cycle is Planning. We started our long hours of internet search on potty training. We skimmed everything we could on web and made our strategy.

We finalized on a 4 key point strategy- Bribe him, Make a big deal about it, Emotional blackmailing and Potty Alarm.

So the next phase was making the design which meant going for a shopping spree.

 I bought dozens of his favorite character underwears- Thomas chu chu train and Macqueen/Mater. The Disney brand underwears costed me a fortune, it hurt even more knowing that at daycare they just throw the underwear away in case of number 2 accidents. But never mind anything is worth seeing your lil one being a preschooler.

Next stop was to buy bribes for him. Didn’t want to spend a fortune on these as they had to be given very frequently. Stocked up on some sticker sheets for regular bribes (pee pee) and some a dollar each toys from party city for his big deed (poo poo).

As for potty watch, hubby set up an every hour alarm on his mobile to remind us that we have to make him sit on the potty hourly.

The biggest challenge for us was the carpet cleaning in case of any accident (side effects of living in US). Stocked up on disinfectant wipes and foam cleaner. Removed all the expensive rugs from the floor and my pretty cushions from the bed. Also got a high quality mattress cover to save our only mattress from India.

After setting up the stage, now came the time for the performance. Nervously stripped Aarav off his pull ups and showed a bright and shining Mac queen smiling at him. Aarav fondly looked at him and I knew it was my chance to get wicked and emotionally blackmail him. I said, “See Aarav Macqueen is so happy, if you wet him, he will get an ouchee and will be sad. No making Macqueen/Thomas yucky” (This was to be our mantra for the next month, repeated every time I left him at daycare and at home).

The first 2 weekends were both tiresome and frustrating, making him sit every hour as soon as the alarm rang off. His accidents when he didn’t want to leave the TV and peed happily while watching Thomas chuff away. Or when he didn’t know how to apply pressure while sitting on potty, he could only do it standing and I had lot of yucky underwears to wash after accidents.

But we still kept to our promise and awarded him every time he did the task successfully. To make an even bigger deal about it, every time he relieved himself while carefully balancing him on the seat, I and hubby did our cheerleader dance and sang the song we composed then and there, waving our both the hands to and fro, we went-“yayyyyyy pee pee on the potty, pee pee on the potty, Aarav is a big boy, he peed on the potty…yayyyy”  Must say even Sea Hawks cheer leaders could not have brought that smile on our lil prince, he felt so proud doing the big boy thing!

Gradually Aarav started telling us when he needed to pee, but the number 2 was still a problem L

He just didn’t know how to do it. As soon as we saw him hiding himself and getting it out, we used to practically throw him on the potty to get the rest of the business done on potty. Slowly he started seeing the fun in filling up the bowl and flushing it swirl all away.

It’s been a week and there have not been a single accident!

He is very regular and has his bowel movements right in the morning after waking up. Its Aarav’s Dad’s duty to sit with him for about half an hour in the morning and keep coaxing him for more. Aarav asks his papa to wait patiently as he explains-wait Papa, it’s downloading. J

There was another selfish motive in potty training Aarav. We would save on 500 bucks every month as his daycare charges less for a potty trained child. It was the last week of June and I told his teacher that he is ready and has been using potty every single time. She replied understandingly that if there are no accidents this week, she would inform the office and we could pay the reduced fee July onwards. Both of us had our fingers crossed, one poop=500 dollars (30,000 in Indian rupees). We nervously waited all week and religiously spent the potty time with him in the morning.

Squeezing this extra half an hour in our morning schedule hasn’t been very easy. I have missed all my team status meetings this month, but somehow there are no regrets. Surprisingly it’s more gratifying to see our toddler achieve his big milestone than giving status to my boss…

And what more, I proudly cut the cheque for just $1230 in the morning! J J

PS: I know PTLC is not complete yet, there will come a phase of regression and have to do monitoring and maintenance for a long time. Life Cycle goes on!!

Some of Aarav's underwear-