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On lowering our own sense of what is possible
My husband and I thought that potty-training Tabitha was going to be a snap. We brought home the little potty, and the first time she sat on it, she seemed to have an innate grasp of what she was supposed to do.
That was over a year and a half ago, and Tabitha is still in diapers. For some reason, she has it in her mind that she absolutely does not want to use the potty. This is starting to become a problem, because, being tall, the sizes of clothes she wears are starting to not be accommodating to wearing diapers.
For the last several months, though, Tabitha has been fascinated with bicycles, and desperately wanted one. Every time we go to a store like Wal-Mart or Target, she wants to go over and see them. She's of an athletic enough disposition that I'm sure she'll have no problem riding one of her own.
And so, we came up with the idea to tell Tabitha that if she starts using the potty, she can have a bicycle. We assumed that this would be a motivation to her to get rid of the diapers.
So far, we've been quite wrong. It would be hilarious how she's changed her tune about wanting a bicycle if it weren't so sad that she'd give up on something so precious to her over something so trivial as potty-training. She still wants to visit the bicycles in the stores, but now she's convinced herself that she doesn't need one. She'll look in books with pictures of bicycles and tricycles, and point to the tricycle and say things like, "I have a tricycle, and I can have fun with that."
Now, I'm sure that this issue with potty-training will work itself out. It's not like she'll be 15 and still walking around in diapers. However, it strikes me as crazy that even at three, when something seems like it will be difficult, instead of rising to the challenge for the greater reward, she is trying her hardest to convince herself that she is satisfied with the status quo. It also serves to remind me how often we do this in our own lives, but unlike potty-training, there are many things that we walk away from entirely because we're so uncomfortable with the effort needed to attain bigger and better things.
That was over a year and a half ago, and Tabitha is still in diapers. For some reason, she has it in her mind that she absolutely does not want to use the potty. This is starting to become a problem, because, being tall, the sizes of clothes she wears are starting to not be accommodating to wearing diapers.
For the last several months, though, Tabitha has been fascinated with bicycles, and desperately wanted one. Every time we go to a store like Wal-Mart or Target, she wants to go over and see them. She's of an athletic enough disposition that I'm sure she'll have no problem riding one of her own.
And so, we came up with the idea to tell Tabitha that if she starts using the potty, she can have a bicycle. We assumed that this would be a motivation to her to get rid of the diapers.
So far, we've been quite wrong. It would be hilarious how she's changed her tune about wanting a bicycle if it weren't so sad that she'd give up on something so precious to her over something so trivial as potty-training. She still wants to visit the bicycles in the stores, but now she's convinced herself that she doesn't need one. She'll look in books with pictures of bicycles and tricycles, and point to the tricycle and say things like, "I have a tricycle, and I can have fun with that."
Now, I'm sure that this issue with potty-training will work itself out. It's not like she'll be 15 and still walking around in diapers. However, it strikes me as crazy that even at three, when something seems like it will be difficult, instead of rising to the challenge for the greater reward, she is trying her hardest to convince herself that she is satisfied with the status quo. It also serves to remind me how often we do this in our own lives, but unlike potty-training, there are many things that we walk away from entirely because we're so uncomfortable with the effort needed to attain bigger and better things.