Potty Training Blues

I am not your typical dad, especially during the summer months, when I stay home with the kids. One of the challenges I have taken on this summer is potty-training our two year-old daughter (just to go ahead and jump on the potty-training blog bandwagon). My daughter’s day-care started the process back in the spring, getting her on a schedule and routine that kept her diaper dry nearly all day. I was determined to continue this routine and I wanted more. I wanted her completely potty-trained by the end of the summer.

Now, I have helped potty-train two boys (which are blogs for another day), so I am not a complete novice and although I think two is a little young for potty-training (both boys were three before they were completely potty-trained), her day-care laid the foundation. Now it was my time to build.

I will admit right now, I have failed. Although I had the best intentions, my daughter has taken a step backward this summer and no longer even comes close to staying dry during the day and you can forget about “going poppy on the potty”. I realize that the problem is the summer schedule and routine. Between running one son to the CCVI every morning and picking him up in the afternoon, swimming lessons, Cub Scout camp, baseball games, baseball practice, going to the pool, and running the hundreds of errands that need to get done every day (at least that is what it feels like), we are rarely in a position to get her to the potty when she needs to go to the bathroom. We are either on the road, driving to and fro, sitting at a bathroom-less baseball field, or in the middle of the grocery store. I should probably scout out the bathroom location at each one of our destinations, but I just don’t have the time, the patience, the will, or the energy to make this happen. I have failed.

As July quickly comes to a close and school is almost upon us, I can see the look on the faces of my daughter’s day-care teachers when they realize my daughter has regressed instead of progressed this summer. They will look at me with disappointment and ask, “What have you been doing all summer?” To which I will have to reply, “Everything, except potty-training.”