Potty Training

I have been trying to potty train Anna Claire off and on now for over a year.  Nothing works for this kid.  She cares nothing about using the potty.  She knows what to do and when to do it because she has used the potty at home more than once.  I've tried rewards, sticker charts, letting her go around in her underwear {tried this twice and the same thing happened both times}, pull ups, asked her not to pee pee on Dora, the Princesses, Ming Ming, Minnie Mouse, Hello Kitty, etc....., pretty much you name it and I have tried it.  She started a few months ago using the potty at daycare on occasions.  They would get her to sit on the potty and sometimes she would go and sometimes she wouldn't, but there was no drama about it.  I had pretty much given up. I've been told more than once that she will go when she is ready.  She is a very head strong child.  She does what she wants, when she wants, and I cannot change that.  It's not that she's not smart enough, it's just something she can control.  {I guess she gets that from her Momma}

Well, she moved to the 3yr old class at daycare a few weeks ago and it has been a nightmare ever since.  We have been on a waiting list for a new daycare for a while because of past issues.  I thought it would get better when she changed classes, but that is not the case.  I was told when she moved that she was not the only one not potty trained yet and that my price wouldn't go down until she was potty trained.  No big deal!!  I am OK paying extra until she is potty trained because that is extra work for the teachers.  Anna Claire gets a sheet sent home every day that she is at daycare telling me about her bathroom visits, her meal and snacks, and her mood.  I no longer get snack updates, so I don't even know if she's getting 2 snacks a day and I'm not sure when she is using the potty and when she is not.  I only get a check mark on tried.  The 2yr old teacher would mark tried and then write used the potty or did nothing.  For all I know, my child may be holding her pee all day.  She has been at this daycare for over a year and I have NEVER gotten a sheet that was marked "easily upset" on it.  We have only had maybe 3 checks on "content".  All the other days she was always "cheerful" because that is my Anna Claire.  The past 3 or 4 days at daycare she has gotten a check mark on "easily upset" with the comment, "she cries every time we make her sit on the potty."

I handled this well the first few times, but yesterday was it!!   I was SO MAD!!  The teacher, who by the way has ZERO children, talked with me about Anna Claire crying when she had to sit on the potty last week.  I told her I had no suggestions because nothing seems to work with her.  I told her I was sure she would do it when she was ready and the teacher informed me that she was the only one not potty trained in the class and that she needed to get potty trained.  I just smiled and walked off, while in the back of my mind I was thinking "if the crying is an issue, stop forcing her to sit on the potty".  The note yesterday, for some reason, just got to me.  Anna Claire was ill when I picked her up and between her and the note, I was in tears on the way home.  This teacher makes me feel like a horrible mother because Anna Claire is not potty trained.  She has no children, so she had no clue what it's like.  I cannot make this child use the bathroom!!  There is NOTHING that I can do to force her to pee in the potty.  I can force her to sit on the potty, but I feel like they do that enough already.  I've read that forcing them to sit on the potty will only make it worse.  I don't know what they do or say to her to make her cry every time she has to sit on the potty.  Maybe she has to sit there too long, while the other children do fun things, I don't know!! 

I do know that she is unhappy there.  She told me yesterday on the way to daycare that she didn't want to go to that school anymore, which broke my heart.  This was suppose to be the best daycare in town.  What happened?

I decided to try underwear one more time last night, since I was so stressed about the whole potty training issue.  She wanted to wear her boots, so she had on her shirt, underwear, and her boots.  She kinda looked like the naked cowboy, only with a shirt on and she wasn't wearing her hat.  LOL!!

  I told her not to pee pee in her panties because if she did, it would get in to her boots.  She agreed that she would go use the potty.  I asked her about every 10 minutes if she needed to go potty.  The last time I asked her she said, "I know Mommy.  I won't pee pee in my boots."  About 30 seconds later she was yelling to her Daddy that she had pee peed in the floor.  I have to give it to her, she didn't pee pee in her boots.  I'm not sure what she was doing because she left a puddle in the floor, but her underwear were barely wet.  Maybe she did it on purpose to prove a point.  At this point, I have to just surrender to her.  When she's ready, she'll do it, until then I will continue to buy diapers and pull ups.  I will love her no matter what.