“I wanted to reach out and see your thoughts on exploring toilet training with Brantley.”
I must have read that sentence 5 times before I could move on. So many emotions flooded my mind. I had accepted that I would likely be changing diapers and combating diaper rash for the rest of my life. After all, I have been changing that little cutie’s behind for 8 1/2 years.
It’s not that I never wanted him toilet trained. When he was 3 years old he frequently used the toilet with success. It was during that time our ABA team moved into our bathroom to tackle toilet training with the “potty party” method.
I won’t go into all the miserable details, but it didn’t work. It turned out the success we had previously seen was because Brantley was urinating every 10 minutes. While it seemed we were seeing success, in reality he was peeing 144 times a day and we happened to catch a few of those on the toilet each day.
It’s been 5 years since those dreadful 3 weeks. I am confident that everyone involved is still nursing some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result.
While Brantley continued to use the toilet occasionally after our failed potty party, he stopped more than 2 years ago.
When his school messaged me this week to let me know he was currently having some success voiding on the toilet, a shock hit me that must be comparable to reading the winning power-ball numbers on your ticket. I gave his school the green light to work on toilet training my 8 year old. I also gave myself a pep talk to be consistent with it at home as well.
I talked to Brantley about the email I received and told him I knew he had been going to the bathroom for his teachers and I was so proud of him. I also told him I couldn’t believe he was holding out on me, he laughed and then he peed on the toilet for me for the first time in years.
That is Brantley.
Everything in life will be on his terms. The question which only time will answer is if he sees this round as being on his terms.
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