"I hope this works."
Oh boy. I hear this a lot on first postings in the forum. I receive this sentence through email on a regular basis. I see this on Facebook statuses and threads.
"Starting potty training! I hope this works!"
"Oh. You bought her book. I hope it works."
Now my question is, what exactly are you hoping works? That your kid will be potty trained?
Well…yeah. I can tell you right now, your kid will be potty trained. Eventually. No matter how you do it. I'm 99% certain your child will not go to college in diapers.
Are you hoping it works in 3 days?
Well…there's a reason there's like 80 billion 3 day Potty Training methods (someone even copyrighted that!). It takes about 3 days to potty train your average kid.
Are you hoping your kid has just been waiting for this day and upon asking, will do it perfectly?
Well…that COULD happen, it HAS happened but it MIGHT NOT happen.
I'm really asking. What are you hoping for?
"I hope it works" in potty training is a little like sending your kid to Kindergarten saying, "I hope this works!". Wow. That's a bit vague, right? Probably, like most parents you send your kid to Kindergarten expecting…well…typical results. Basic knowledge of letters, numbers and colors. Reading and writing. Basic problem solving. Yeah? You have faith that the teacher set an appropriate curriculum based on the average kid. Does that mean your child is going to sail through? Not necessarily. Your kid may hit a glitch or be slow about some learning, fast about other learning. This is all part and parcel, yes?
You don't hope it works. You use the curriculum as a guide line. You go from there. You handle things as they come up. You try not to have a preconcieved notion that your kid is a genius. Or really lame. You honor their learning curve.
What I have done for you is laid out a curriculum. Given the amount of kids I've worked with this curriculum should cover most of the kids. Does it always? No. Your kid is super special.
This never ceases to amaze me: we all think our kids are so special, so unique and yet many, many parents want this done just like their neighbor. Or in 3 days flat. Pronto. But your child has his own learning curve.
So part of my reason for this post is to virtually shake some parents: don't hope this works. Get a curriculum (doesn't even have to be mine) and start doing the work. And yes, like school, you have to work within your child's own learning curve.
Caveat Emptor. Latin for "Let the buyer beware."
Any program, method or guide that "guarantees" your child will be fully potty trained in 3 days, isn't worth it's salt. Any program, method or guide that offers follow up help for your child's learning curve is most likely a good one. Like a curriculum in school; you're going to have kids who do the work quickly and quietly. You're going to have your average kid who does everything "right on schedule". You're going to have your kids, that for whatever reason, need tutoring or more at-home help.
And thank God for that. Otherwise, we'd have little robots instead of little humans.
And that would just suck.
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