Bean,  Boys,  Milestones,  Parenting,  Potty Training,  Toddlers

Score One for Mom

December 14, 2011 /

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There are few things Bean loves more in this world than his underwear. He likes to count it, carry it, stack it, fold it, and wear it.

For a while, we really encouraged it. It was keeping him excited about going potty and it kept him interested in potty training. But, we started drawing the line the day that he tried to carry three pair into his Sunday School class. And it was getting awkward to have a kid carrying underwear sitting in the grocery cart at Target. I felt the need to explain to strangers that he was carrying CLEAN underwear. But that explanation just made things weirder. Finally, Chris and I made the rule that underwear stays in the house, unless we are wearing it out.

Bean protested this new decree.

He protested much.

While the carrying of the underwear thing was weird, it didn’t become a problem until recently. In the past two weeks, Bean has suddenly become obsessed with changing his underwear each time he goes to the bathroom. We don’t let him change because we want him to learn how to wear underwear the, you know, normal way…one pair at a time. But every time he’d go potty, he’d start asking for a different pair of underwear.

“I want Thomas!” he’d cry. “Let’s wear Thomas now!”

When he realized that this wasn’t going to get him a change of underwear, I think Bean got a little smarter. This past weekend, Bean started having multiple accidents in one day. He’s been really good about going potty, but on Sunday he had two accidents and on Monday in school he had three. That was highly unusual. And what got my attention was that when I’d pick him up from school, he would announce very proudly, “MOM! I PEED ON WALL-E AND NEMO! NOW I WEARING BUZZ!” He was so happy that he had gone through so many characters.

Now, I had a dilemma. I didn’t want to discourage Bean from going potty and I didn’t want him to think he was in trouble for having accidents (we’ve tried to keep potty training as positive and upbeat as possible so far), but clearly he needed to know that going potty was not a way to get a change in underwear. So, in a fleeting moment of parenting genius, I had a shining moment.

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I went to Target and I bought two packs of plain white underwear. This morning, I explained in my happiest voice to Bean that he would get to pick one pair of fun underwear that he would wear for the day. If he had an accident at school, then he would have to wear the white underwear until tomorrow. He just kind of stared at me a little and I couldn’t tell if he understood or if he thought he was in trouble. When we got to school, Bean stood there with me while I explained the new system to his teacher (who thought it was a great idea). Then, both his teacher and I reminded Bean that he needed to tell someone when he needed to go potty so that he could keep wearing his Cars underwear. He kind of nodded his head and I thought that maybe this idea wasn’t making sense to him.

But when I picked him up at daycare today, guess what! NO ACCIDENTS! ALL DAY! And Bean came running up to me saying, “Mom! I still wearing Cars!”

There are a lot of things I mess up as a parent. (Remind me to tell you how I may have been starving Gracie for the past month…) So when I solve a problem, I very seriously pump my fists in the air and yell, “SCORE ONE FOR MOM!”

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