Oh Crap! Potty Training

many accidents doesn’t really count as being potty trained. What
most likely happened is that something went wrong somewhere along
the way, and your child has a gap in his understanding. You don’t
have to go through the whole process again, but be sure to cover the
basics. The problem is this: if a child has a gap in his learning or
understanding, he will quickly transition his attitude into what I call
“the inner ‘f**k it.’ ” This is the “I don’t care” attitude that comes
from being stuck and not knowing how to get out of it. Think of the
punk in high school who talked back and skipped classes. Nine times
out of ten that kid had a learning disorder or other circumstances
that interfered with his ability to succeed. The attitude was just a
front. The same thing can happen with potty training. We humans
like to be good at what we attempt. When we can’t do something
well, we tend to pretend we don’t care about it. Of course, this isn’t a
logical or conscious thought process, but it’s what’s going on. Go back
and breeze through Blocks One, Two, and Three with your child, and
figure out where the gap in learning is. (I’m betting it’s between being
naked and wearing clothes.)
So, those are most of the major snafus that can arise in your first
month of potty training. There’s still a lot more information yet to
come in this book, in addition to some really random questions (and
their answers) in chapter 19, cleverly titled “Random Tips and
Questions.”