Shit Ya Pants?

I am not cut out for this shit. Literally shit. Pant loads of the stuff.

I knew the success of potty training week was too good to be true too. We had about 10 days of excellent work. Then, at his nana's house this weekend, Felix managed to do not one poo in his pants, but four. Yes. FOUR poos in the space of five hours. Not one of them on a toilet or potty.

I thought maybe this would be a one off. Different location, lack of attention from mummy (I was cooking, not in any way relaxing or taking time off - I wish), maybe it was because there was so much going on. But it was not a one-off.

Yesterday, whilst my outspoken grandmother was visiting (more on that another time)...

Hold on, I have to pause writing, as he's now sitting on his potty doing a poo. WAHOO, YEAH!

... where was I? Ah yes, yesterday. He spent the day 'trying' to poo. That meant, standing still, clothes on, pushing. I could see he was trying so kept asking him and requesting he sit on the potty. He kept objecting to sitting on the potty. I must have taken him to the toilet 3 times during lunch alone. Well the long and short of it is, we achieved another FOUR dirty pairs of pants (not full on poos, but enough of a mess to warrant clean pants). We also had an overturned potty during lunch. What a way to treat our visitors.

On the plus side, he DID finally produce something rather spectacular on the potty at the end of the day.

Today... the exact same process. With a wet pair of pants, trousers and socks to add to the four dirty pairs of pants. "No, I not do my poopoo", "well why are you squeezing then honey?". Four more pairs of dirty pants. I've totally lost my cool about having a carefree attitude to potty accidents. I've started to demand he sit on the potty and although I haven't actually told him off, I've made subtle digs and other awful sneaky ways of making him feel like a failure. At least he finally produced.

So, who has some good tips for persuading children to sit on the potty every single time they need to TRY for a poo, even if it's not ready to come out yet? Because I reckon another day of this is going to send me over the edge.

The Terrible Twos

I've been feeling like a terrible parent a lot recently. I keep losing my temper and really shouting at Felix. I realise I am probably still setting my expectations of his capabilities and cooperation too high, but knowing this hasn't yet worked in changing my behaviour.

I can't decide what has led to my loss of patience. Is it the pregnancy hormones? Or the fact I've been busy working? Has this interfered with quality time spent with him to such an extent that he absolutely cannot behave for me now? Is his behaviour actually getting worse or is it just my tolerance levels?

I'm desperate to find the time to re-read some of Toddler Taming. Hopefully, this will do the same for me as the first time I read it. Remind me that he is NOT an adult and cannot be expected to behave like one. That his behaviour is perfectly normal and I have to get more clever if I want to manipulate it. And mainly, to remind me to remain calm and patient.

I want to provide a few examples of what he's been doing to make me so angry, but I know that all will sound pathetic once written down. It's things like, getting ALL of his toys out at once (see, pathetic - ALL kids do that, right?) and throwing unwanted food on the floor (doesn't really take long to clean up, does it?) and ignoring me as I try to pleasantly distract and entice him away from doing something I really don't want him to do, until I have to march over to him and physically remove him from the activity.

It's getting me down. I get cross with myself for getting cross with him. And then I try to make up for it by spending time playing with him and he rejects my attempts, pushes me away and makes me cross again. Then I get upset. It's becoming a bit of a repetitive circle.