False Alarms

The past two weeks have been full of false alarms, in potty training that is. It reached an almost unreal level today at church when throughout meetings she would say, "poo poo!" We'd rush out to the bathroom, sit her down, and wait. Two seconds later she'd say, "All done! See!" and look behind her to see if anything happened. Nothing did. I guess I've never contemplated, and obviously don't remember from my own experience, how basic a lesson it is to recognize your own body's signals. She recognizes something, but can't discern whether it is real or just gas. Then again, maybe she can but isn't patient enough to see it through. She just looks back and hopes it happens without having to put in the time or effort. Who knows? This raises the question of whether a two-year old is ready to take such a big step as potty training. A friend told me that in the days of cloth diapers, parents were so ready to be done with them that they potty trained at 18 months. I told him that I heard that kids who potty train early tend to be more organized. Then he told me that parents started putting their kids in pull-ups until 4-5-years old when Dr. Spock came around telling parents that early potty training gave kids complexes. I guess that all depends on how it's done. We know now that it is different with every child. I'm confident that our busy little girl is ready, but we've yet to figure out a way to fit consistent successes into her busy little schedule.