Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Night Training


Jack (shown above with his two robot friends) has been succesfully potty-trained for quite a while now. He's also been dropping hints that he would like to ditch the pull-ups at night and wear his awesome Star Wars underwear to sleep, too.

So far, I have smiled cheerfully and said, "You're doing so great with the potty, buddy, and I just know that soon, your body will be ready to go all night. But until then, we'll wear the pull-ups just in case."

But let's be honest. What I really mean is, "Mommy really does not like having to wake up in the middle of the night to clean pee off of you and change the sheets, so suck it up and put on your pull-up."

It has been, literally, months since Jack last had a nighttime accident in his pull-ups. I have been throwing away $15-20 a month in unused disposable underwear.

So, I told Jack, "Guess what! Your body is now ready to go all night without a pull-up! And guess what else? I bought you a new mattress pad to make your bed even more comfy! You are such a big boy!"

This roughly translates to, "Guess what! Mommy figured out that a one-time investment of $20 in a waterproof mattress pad is a better deal than buying pull-ups that you don't need!"

The key, it seems, to effective parenting, is occasional laziness.

5 comments:

Andrew is getting fit said...

Taking copious notes here!

Lisa said...

Way to go Mom! you are right... night training is often more about the parents than the child, ESPECIALLY if they are waking up dry.

With my first, he woke up dry every day for a week and insisted that he was ready to ditch the pullups. It took a while to get used to the idea, but we have had a very successful night trained venture with him. My almost-three-year-old? She has NEVER woken up without a wet pull-up. My friends tell me that with diligence and patience I can get her out of them. Nope. This lazy mom does not want to 1)change wet sheets in the a.m. and 2) doesn't want to get up in the middle of the night to ensure that she stays dry.

Congrats, Jack and becoming a big boy!!

KB said...

Let me know how it goes, as Jack is a solid two weeks older and more mature.

Andy is getting better about having a dry pull up, but I would say one morning in three he still wakes up wet. I have told him when he goes a whole week dry, we can go to underwear.

As for throwing away unused disposable underwear, is there anything wrong with using it again?

Oh, one trick I do occasionally is to let him wear underpants and put the pull up on top, just in case.

Anonymous said...

Yay, Jack! I used to call that the Parenting of Least Resistance.

Aileen said...

Awwwwwww! Brave move there, Betsy!