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I’m so frustrated. Those that follow us on Instagram know that we are trying to finish off potty training with Cara. She’s been pee trained for months but the other one… well. She just hasn’t figured that out. I couldn’t stand the thought of buying another box of Pull-Ups so we told her that was it! She had to be a big girl and go in the potty now.
5 days and no action, so we finally bought a suppository to give her some relief. That was yesterday morning. This morning (since its about high time she had to go again) she’s still doing nothing. In the meantime I feel trapped. Unable to go anywhere or do anything since we told her she has to stay in the trailer until she goes. We were hoping she would get incredibly bored and that would be incentive enough, but it just doesn’t seem to be working. We’ve tried treats, stickers, leaving her behind, you name it. Nada.
I don’t know what to do. For some reason my brain can’t handle planning an outing or excursion for just Rachel, Andrew, and I. It just doesn’t sound… fun. Being left behind doesn’t seem to motivate her either since she says she’ll just have fun playing toys in the Airstream.
Do we just go about our normal day and clean up what happens? Would that be better than being in a beautiful city I feel like we can’t go see? I’m not sure what the answer is, but before too long something has got to change or I might explode.
Hi,
I had to post because I can feel your frustration and just wanted to tell you it will be okay. It sounds like she is just not ready yet. Let it all go and come back to it when you all are more calm. I’m guessing there is a fear there and talking about it and understanding why she won’t go may be helpful to you both. But for now, I would put the whole potty situation on hold, and leave the trailer. You will feel better and you know from your other two that eventually your youngest will master this too. She just needs more time.
PS. Love your blog. I have 3 kids and an airstream trailer too. We are newbies, only owned it for 6 months now and are using it when we have the time. I’m impressed how you are able to live full time in it. We just got back from a week in it and I’m a little happy to take a break from it. Still need to figure out the battery life as we tried to dry camp for 2 days and were not too successful in our first attempt of dry camping as we froze at night. Hang in there. Thanks for letting us all follow you. Much to learn still.
Thanks so much for your thoughts! We took a step back, and although we are leaving big girl undies on her, we are not stressing about being home. This led to a giant accident at a National Park, but my husband was awesome and cleaned her up. We are still struggling, but I feel less cranky, more loving, and more optimistic!!
We are working on the battery too! If we are careful we maaaaybe can go 2 nights. We hopefully have a generator coming this week which has us really excited! Should open up more possibilities for places to go. Where are you guys located?
do you know WHY? Scared? Hurt? doesn’t know the signals? Indifferent? Sometimes if you know the why – it can help. Have you let her have an accident in her underware? If you haven’t I would highly recommend it.
I really don’t understand why. She seems to understand what is going on, but then she’ll say that it “takes too long” to go in the potty, or she’s afraid that it will hurt (although she HAS gone before and we keep reminding her she told us it didn’t hurt). I think she is just intrinsically motivated. Nothing we do seems to get the right response out of her. 🙁