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Naked and mad

We have made a discovery in our ongoing efforts to potty train Tad.

He REALLY HATES being naked.

Actually, he doesn’t mind actually being naked. It’s the “needing to go and being naked” part that really makes him mad.

One of our greatest frustrations has been that Tad seems to treat underwear or cloth training pants as he does his regular cloth diapers. Being wet doesn’t bother him one bit. And neither does pee running down his legs. He simply strips off his underwear and asks for a new, dry pair. He even does us the courtesy of tossing his soiled underwear in the bathtub.

But leave the boy naked from the waist down and he can walk around for hours on end, holding everything in. Even when we let him play in the backyard (not the front – we really don’t need to expose the neighbors to a display of full-frontal nudity), Tad will play happily, but continue to hold it in. And he will hold it until he is wearing something that will cover him up – and THEN he will release.

This all came to a head last evening. Tad had been naked for at least 3 hours – playing outside, playing inside, eating dinner. Because I was willing to push this experiment as far as I could, I even refused to put anything on him while he ate dinner. I just layered a couple of cloth diapers underneath him so his skinny little buns would not have to sit on hard plastic, and would catch anything – just in case.

Nothing.

After dinner, he wanted to follow the Webmaster outside as he was putting our garbage out and chatting with neighbors. The Webmaster blocked the door so that he couldn’t come out – which made him mad. He even laid down on the living room carpet and yelled, “I lay down!” This is his usual cue to say, “Put something clean and dry on me!”

But I knew the second he had something on, he’d let himself go. So I refused, and told him to go to the potty.

Cue the hysterics. Ohhhh, he was SO mad.

But the Webmaster handed him a cup of juice and had him sit down on the toddler potty again. I went to check on him a few minutes later.

SUCCESS!!!!!!

The treats were broken out (fruit snacks for all!), praise was given, Grandma was called.

Good thing it’s been so warm around here. I don’t feel bad at all about keeping Tad naked.

I can handle the mad if it means we’re finally making some progress.

3 Responses to “Naked and mad”

  1. Ressis
    August 4th, 2009 06:29
    1

    Keep it up, Tad! Well, not the hysterics.

  2. Laurie
    August 4th, 2009 08:57
    2

    That kid!!!!!!

  3. Aunt Lynda
    August 4th, 2009 11:25
    3

    What a cute story. He does have his idiosyncracies! Sounds like you have him figured out pretty well.