Tuesday, May 3, 2016

A Poo Poo Party... The Weirdest Party I've Thrown Yet

*Copyright Notice - Pinning of the party decorations is welcome, but please DO NOT pin pictures of my children.*

Potty training.  Ugh.  For those of you who have small children, I know you feel my pain.  For those of you who don’t… well, if you plan on having babies then your time is coming and all I have to say is good luck.  I had always heard that boys are the worst to potty train, and that is probably the most accurate statement that I’ve ever heard about parenting to date. 

We started with Jacob just a few months after he turned two.  He awoke one morning with a dry diaper, so I plopped him on the potty and to my surprise, he went right away!  I was shocked, proud, and very pleased.  I remember thinking, “Wow, maybe he’s a genius baby and this won’t be so bad after all.”

Oh how wrong I was.

Fast forward to seven months later and he still wasn’t peeing on the toilet consistently nor had he even attempted to poop on the toilet.  And he was about to turn three.  A couple of months later around his third birthday, we finally felt comfortable putting him in underwear around the clock as he was no longer having pee accidents, but there was a still a major problem.  He refused to poop on the toilet.  And there was nothing that we could do to make him do it. 

Over the next year (that’s right, I said year) we tried every single thing you can imagine – praise, stickers, candy, a trip to the toy store, gifts from his grandparents, a daily chart with stars, blowing a whistle (which is actually what helped him finally pee in the toilet consistently), YouTube videos about pooping, the Everybody Poops book, a personalized book about potty training with his picture in it, a video from Santa Clause telling him to poop on the toilet, reasoning with him, positive words from his grandparents, teachers, and friends.  We even tried washing our hands of the entire situation and ignoring the behavior completely.  Everything.  We. Tried. Everything.  We even got so desperate toward the end that we tried negative reinforcement, and word to the wise, don’t ever go that route no matter how frustrating it gets.  Trust me on this one. 

Throughout this trying year, he did manage to finally poop on the toilet, but he did it exactly five times.  Five times.  In a whole year.  It was horrible.  When he started pre-k last fall, I was a complete wreck because I thought they wouldn’t let him stay once they discovered his lack of potty skills, but fortunately the school was kind enough to work with us.  Bless his teacher’s hearts…

Many teachers had told us that they often see kids blossom after the halfway point in the school year, but when January of this year rolled around he still hadn’t improved.  If anything, things had gotten worse.  I continued to seek advice from family, friends, teachers, counselors – everywhere.  I was all ears for any piece of advice.  Anything.

Then one blessed day I received a text from one of my aunts whom I don’t see very often as she lives out of town.  Apparently my mom had mentioned the situation to her in conversation and she had an idea that we hadn’t tried.  She said that one of my cousins had a tough time learning to poop on the toilet when she was young and the thing that had finally gotten her to do it was to tell her that when a poop is flushed down the potty it goes to a party, so if you don’t go on the potty, it misses the party and that makes it sad. 

Sounds completely insane, right?

Well, we tried it, and at first Jacob seemed to look guilty every time we told him that his poop had missed the party, but ultimately it didn’t work.  So one night, as I was pleading with him in pure desperation, a light bulb went off in my head and I blurted out, “If you start pooping on the potty all the time, we will throw you a huge party – decorations, cake, presents, the works!” 

He was absolutely thrilled with the idea, so I told Brian what I had done and we sat down to set the ground rules: If Jacob could go 30 days with zero accidents we would have the party, but every time he had an accident the clock would start over.  We made a chart to count down his progress so he could see it.  The first couple of weeks were a little rocky and he continued to have accidents, so we decided to put on the pressure by telling him that we were going to start potty training Olivia soon (not completely true, but whatever works!), and whoever went 30 days with zero accidents first would get the party.  Well, that seemed to do it.  He wasn’t about to let his little sister steal his party. 

He started pooping on the toilet all the time after that and he ended up going 30 days with no accidents.  We praised him and scheduled the party and continued to talk about how proud we were of him, but the week leading up to his poo poo party, we experienced a setback.  He pooped in his pants twice.  Twice.  Brian and I were beyond upset, and at that point we didn’t know how to proceed.  Have the party as originally promised or cancel it and make him wait a little longer?  We consulted with the grandparents to get their opinions, and ultimately decided that even though he had completed the initial 30 day period, we were going to postpone the party and make him go another 30 days so that he would know just how serious his mistake had been.

After that he was a champ and he hasn’t had an accident since.  #KnockOnWood

The weekend before last we finally got to hold that party and it was the culmination of one of the most mentally exhausting periods in my life.  It was, by far, the strangest party I’ve ever thrown, but it was also one of the very best because it meant the end of a very, very rough era.

How does one decorate for a poo poo party, you ask? 

Poop emojis and toilet paper.  #Duh

Easy, cheap, and hilarious.

I made the banner and the signs myself, everyone brought gifts (mostly of the things that he loves right now plus some funny poop gifts), and we dined on chicken salad sandwiches, Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fruit, chips, lemonade, and the cutest – and probably only – poop emoji cupcakes that you ever did see. 

It was just like a birthday party except for some of the gifts were wrapped in toilet paper.  
































A good time was had by all, and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of the idea sooner.  I pray that Olivia is easier when it comes to the ol’ pooping on the toilet situation, but just in case she isn’t, I’ve saved the poop emoji decorations, and I won’t hesitate to use them again.

#TakeThatPottyTraining


*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk, and Stang & Co. and Crown Me in Glitter for Talk About It Tuesday.






29 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness - what a great idea! The party is definitely hilarious with the decorations - who knew the poop emoji would be so handy?! So happy for all of you that you got through this and now are on the other side of it! Congrats!

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  2. That was seriously genius!! Not only was it a great motivator, but it looked like so much fun. Jacob's happy face is just priceless. So glad this rough time is over and you guys can move on. :)

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  3. This is hilarious!!! I love your decorations and even the cupcakes look like the emoji!!! So funny! I will file this away in case I ever need to use it ha!
    Sarah at MeetTheShaneyfelts

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  4. I'm so glad you finally posted about this! This was awesome! Yay for pooping on the potty!

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  5. Oh man I'm totally tucking this idea away for future reference. I have a feeling we will be struggling too. Right now Jack won't even sit on the potty before bath. So glad you got through it and what a fun party!

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  6. Oh my gosh, lol!! What a brilliant idea! I think potty training is the only thing about parenting that legitimately scares me!

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    1. At least you have a girl!! Hopefully she'll be a lot easier to train than crazy boys!

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  7. Oh
    My
    Gosh!

    Lindsay, you're amazing! Holy cow, this has me cracking up and I must admit... It's genius!!! I hope this goes viral! Haha! Great job, Jacob-man!!!

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    1. Thank you, Marie! That would be hilarious if my first viral post was about a poo poo party. Lol.

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  8. Ok, first of all, you are seriously such a good Mama!! You kept trying to find answers/help and never gave up! Next, this party idea was pure genius!! And making him really commit to that 30 days was a real good idea too. I really hope this is the end to that era for you!!

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  9. I am dying. This is the most hysterical and amazing thing all in one. Greatest party ever!

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  10. I so wasn't expecting this, but I love it. Thank you for sharing as we all start down towards the potty training stage. It looks like it was a great party. Love the decorations!

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  11. You are brilliant! Who would have thought that throwing a poop party would get him going in the potty! That's too funny, but hey, he did it and that's all that matters! Such a great idea, Lindsay!
    xo, Lily
    Beauty With Lily

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  12. This made me laugh! What a funny party theme, but hey, I'm so glad it worked!

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  13. Oh my goodness, this is genius! Emerson will not poop on the potty. He waits until he's alone in his room for nap and then goes. He knows he has to, he's tried to poop on the potty before [and has a few times], but it just doesn't happen for him. I've told him stories about the poopy parties in the potty and he giggles and likes to listen. No poop. I've sat with him, given him privacy, read books with him, taken him five time in seven minutes with no end results. I feel like we've done everything. But now, we are going to have a poopy party for him! I love this idea - cupcakes, presents, the emoji! yeah, we'll be giving this route a try for sure. I'll pray it works for us like it did for you all! And yay for Jacob pooping on the potty [finally]!!

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  14. Oh this is odd and too funny, but I am so impressed and glad that it worked for you! Also props on the tough love and glad he responded well!

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    1. Definitely odd, right? You can file that under "things I never thought I would do as a mother." Lol.

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  15. This is hilariously amazing! I'm so sorry you guys have had such a long struggle with this. It is really hard to imagine years of this. Now I'm scared, haha, but all the advice is so good. I'm really proud of you guys for getting to this point. It sounds like a super tough situation, and you guys are awesome.

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  16. This may be the absolute best thing I have ever seen in Blogland. It is hilarious and brilliant! All the decorations are amazingggg. How has Jacob been doing since the party?
    Evelina @ Fortunate House

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  17. I just love you! This is hysterical. Oh the glamorous Mommyhood!

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    1. Seriously, so glamorous! Lol. And thank you! Have a great weekend!

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  18. This is the best thing on EARTH! Potty training is seriously the worst thing ever. My little man pooped in the bathtub yesterday. Not while bathing either. He took of his pants and pooped in the empty bathtub and smeared it everywhere.
    Blessed Messes

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    1. OMG! Hahahaha I'm cracking up. I know you probably didn't, though. Fortunately for us it never got bad enough where poop was smeared on everything... I would have died.

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  19. this is the cutest thing I've ever seen!!!!!! I wish I had known about this with Austin. Poop was our problem too, it took him until he was 3 1/2 to consistently poop on the potty. You are such a fun Mom!!!! I love that you wrapped his presents in toilet paper!!!!

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  20. my daughter would love this. She's into anything gross thee days #rewindfriday

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