How potty training attempt #1 ended -- or -- Why you should never go to a play place while potty training

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To make a long story shorter, I'm going to just say, I convinced my husband this last weekend that it would be a good idea to try and potty train our 2-year-old.  We tried it for the weekend and I worked on it again Monday.  For three days, we didn't leave the house and she ran around naked from the waist down. 

We had moderate success.

Miss M had numerous accidents, but she also was able to stop herself most of the time and finish going on the potty.  She even told me before she started and got both #1 and #2 in the potty with no accidents at all a couple times.  But...she was far from "trained" to tell me beforehand and seemed to be getting resistant to the idea by Monday.

Also by Monday, I was going stir crazy.  I had a play date planned with a friend of mine I haven't seen in a long time (That's you, Megan!), and there was no way I was canceling because of mildly unsuccessful potty training.  I thought going out in public would be the ultimate test--and let me tell you--it was.

I debated what method would be best: just panties under her pants, panties plus a plastic cover, or panties with a large diaper over the top.  I was going to try the diaper over the top, but she protested loudly once it was installed and so we ended up with just panties under the pants.  The panties were training panties, and I knew if there was an accident, the panties would keep most of it away from public surfaces.  I did bring three extra pairs of panties and pants, just in case.

My friend and I LOVE thrift shopping so we met at the local thrift store and shopped for about 45 minutes.  I reminded Miss M a number of times that she needed to tell me if she needed to go potty and asked if she wanted to sit on the potty as well.  She stayed dry the whole time we were at the store.

Then we decided to take the girls to a play place and get them some deep fried yummy-ness for lunch (a.k.a. chicken nuggets and french fries).  We arrive and get our food and everyone eats before running off to play.  Poor Miss M is too short to get herself up more than one step on the big portion of the play place, and the small kids portion is rather lame, only having a slide--but she's a good sport and just runs around after the big kids as much as she can.

At one point, Miss M comes back over to me and I remind her that she needs to tell me if she needs to go potty and ask if she will come sit on the potty for a minute.  Her response is to yell "No! NO! No!" at me at the top of her lungs.  So, I let her go and turn back to my conversation.

Suddenly, Megan looks over at me and says something along the lines of, "Uh, oh.  Sabrina, look."

I turn around to see Miss M on the step of the big portion she can get to, removing her pants and underwear and saying, "Wet, Mommy!  Wet!"

I rush over to try to get her to stop denuding in public, but of course my verbal attempts are completely ineffectual and I can't get to her physically.  The step she is on is gotten to through a crawl space that then connects to a small square hole in a mesh floor.  Even if I could crawl through the crawl space with an enormous belly, there is no way in H-E-double-hockey sticks I would be able to fit through that hole.

So I lay down on my back and scoot as far as I can toward the hole, telling Mira to come down and let Momma help her the whole time.  She doesn't listen until she's gotten everything off at which point she crawls through the hole with her naked bum for all to see, leaving her wet pants and underwear on the step.  I grab her and haul her and her nakedness over to our table and as quickly as possible, get some clean panties and pants on her, glancing warily around to see who besides me is horrified by this incident.  I check the mesh floor to see if she got any pee on it, but it looks like it got through unscathed.  The pee must have been all soaked up by her panties, pants and socks which are disgustingly wet.

Luckily Miss E was in a good enough mood to crawl through the crawl space and get her soiled clothes for me and luckily, Megan had a plastic bag to put the wet clothes in.

I let Miss M go with a warning that she needs to tell me before she needs to go potty or I'm going to put her back in diapers.  She doesn't wet herself the rest of the time we are there--which is not long--but as we're leaving, I realize she has pooped in her panties.  This time, not even giving the slightest hint that anything was wrong.

Thus, the end of our potty training session.  She obviously was not in the mood to get it down right now.  And as long as I don't have to endure this particular type of humiliation again, I am okay with being un-economical for a good long while.