Potty Tales

One of my friends who has a one year old wanted to know if she could start potty training. I said "sure" but make sure you have loads of patience and endurance because personally from my experience, they have better body control as well as communication by 18 months to 2 years. She asked me about my experience and i was more than happy to share.

We started out at around 18 months and by 2 years A was doing fairly good but i still used diapers when we went out. We started by taking him to the bathroom at regular intervals and doing away with diapers during the day. I used diapers at night initially but gradually used a plastic sheet. We also used to take him for bathroom breaks at night. I used to sleep like a log earlier but after A every small movement of his wakes me up and i have to check if he is allright. This kinda made me aware of his discomfort if he wanted to pee but was too sleepy, he would crawl in bed. I do not remember how i managed in deep sleep, used to seem like a dream the next day ;-)

The training took a backseat when we relocated and A took a little time to get used to the new surroundings and drastic changes. But, this time in a month or two, he was completely potty trained and we did not need diapers either while going out or at night. We have had very few accidents since and i am one happy mother :-))

So, now we have our share of potty tales whenever we go out. One of the most recent ones had me and H in splits. When i take A to a public restroom, the first thing he will want to do is explore and flare my temper. So, everytime we go the first thing i tell him is

Me: Don't touch anything.

A (as always!): Why should i not touch anything?

Me: Because there are germs.

A: Why?

This happens every time and by now i have reached the stage of acting busy by rolling up tissue etc and we get the work done.

This week after one of these instances, i washed his hands and gave him tissue to wipe. A looked innocently at me before taking it and asked:

Mamma, does this have germs?!