Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Is my 2 year old gifted?

I like the idea of having to leave grandma's because she wet her pants. I might have to use that one -- thanks for the tip.

Today, we're giving the underwear a rest. Everyone involved was getting frustrated and it didn't help that DMIL has been telling me to back off -- she watches DD two times a week and doesn't exactly stick to the routine I've set up at home, much to my dismay. "I've raised 4 boys!" she says. I think it's fabulous she's raised 4 children, but she hasn't raised mine! DD is WAY different than her boys, even she admits. Can you tell I harbor some bad feelings about this?

I leave in about a week for a 5-day out-of-state trip for work, so I think I will start it back up in a couple of weeks. Give DD a chance to cool down with no pressure. And give my DH a break the week I'm gone!

Thanks for everyone's advice. If you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. This potty business is the pits!

My ds5 is still in nappies at night! He was potty trained at three and a half, I waited to get his agreement and we counted it down for several weeks. He was dry the first day.
I presented it to him as his idea.

One idea is to get training pants, very uncomfortable for them, but no mess for you! Also don't take them off straight away. They will feel very uncomfortable. Good luck!

I started this thread a few weeks ago and then had some computer problems and now it's 8 pages long - I had a lot of catching up to do!!

Thanks for the link to the Denver II test. I used it on dd2.3 this morning and it confirmed what I already knew but it was good to have a more objective tool (although the instructions were sketchy at best). I estimated her skill level at:
Personal-Social: 3 years
Fine Motor-Adaptive: 3 years
Language: 4.3 years
Gross Motor: average for her age

As for potty-training, if gifted kids train later, my dd5 is a genius!! He was 4.5 before he was trained. It was ridiculous.

HoosierMom - my dd2.3 is very strong-willed so I understand. We are doing O.K. with potty training but it is definitely a process for us. We did go to the store so she can see the big girl panties that I will buy for her when she can stay dry all the time. She often begs me for a Pull-up when she doesn't feel like staying dry. I had to put them out of reach. They are only for bedtime and some outings.

I think what I find so frustrating about this whole potty issue is that the regular things for ND kids do not work. So we're stuck trying to devise some type of master plan to work on her. What makes it more difficult is the fact she does not care about being in wet underwear -- she could run around in it all day and not say a word if I gave her the chance. How do you teach someone who doesn't care or want to learn something? As far as she's concerned, pull-ups are fine.
Maybe I'll go out and buy some underwear with some characters she cares about -- it hasn't worked for other things, but maybe it will work for this. Who knows.

I haven't read this whole thread so I may be repeating what someone else said. But really children typically know when they are ready to be trained. I found it worked to just lay low and let him decide. DS was "late" training, but the day he woke up and said he wanted to wear his big boy underwear, he never had an accident. I took a very non-chalant approach and left it up to him to decide. It could be that because you want her to train, she can sense your desperation and is actually enjoying making it hard for you.

I once heard a pediatrician say that a child naturally trains around 3 years; if you work hard at it, though, you can get them trained by 36 months LOL.

HoosierMommy - We turned a corner the past few days with dd2. She started going potty and staying dry. My point is that I don't think I had anything to do with it. She just decided to do it. I'm sure encouragement, bribes, other tactics help but if she didn't decide she would do it, nothing would have helped at this point. This is my reward for having ds train at 4.5, right? My C-section was less painful than that experience.

The only thing I can say with certainty about potty training is that kids are all different. What worked with DD was a complete failure with DS. Keep trying, change tactics if necessary

OK I'll confess to being such a clueless mother of one that I don't even get the joke

I got my approach from my mother who had 3 kids and used cloth diapers. I figured if she could wait until we were ready, i could wait for DS to be ready.

We did give up the underwear a few days ago because it was going absolutely no where. Not one single improvement after a week and a half, which isn't a real long time but long enough when you're changing wet/soiled underwear every hour or so. I think I'm going to try the laying low method for a bit and see if she takes the lead instead.

Asc, I liked the joke about training 3 vs 36 mos.

What about letting her go bare below the waist around the house? That worked for my DS. When he was wearing something (even underwear) he would "forget" until it was too late. Being bare was a reminder to use the potty.

I also put the training potty in our main living area (on linoleum!) so he wouldn't have to go all the way to the bathroom to use it. He seemed more willing to interrupt his play if he could still see his toys, etc.