A New Take on Training

Today, a child at my house used the back yard as a toilet. Though this is not a new or heretofore unknown phenomenon, it hasn't happened for a long time; I was hoping it would never happen again! But, alas, it has. Now, I get to embark on yet another adventure with toilet training. The reason I am embarking on yet another adventure is because each of my four older children have, at one time or another, tried the same toilet-testing technique.

Many years ago, when my oldest daughter was but three (and I had two other children, in diapers), my husband had a brilliant idea. If our very-recently-toilet-trained three year old couldn't make it to the toilet, she could go outside in the bushes. Boy, oh boy, talk about a license to kill. All of a sudden, our little girl had NO accidents, but our grass had lots of brown spots surrounded by lush green rings. She even showed a visitor's son how to leave his mark on the great outdoors.

Of course, having told one child (even though we changed that directive, QUICKLY) she could go outside, each child has gotten the first message without the second. Hmmm? Wonder how that happened? Don't tell me! Now, with two three year olds (my sister and niece are here) running around, yet another "generation" of kids are challenging my sanity.

So, now for my new take on toilet training; if you rub dogs noses in their pxxp when they leave deposits in the house, will it work to rub a kid's nose in it when a kid pxxps in the yard? I'm not sure it will work, I'm pretty sure I don't want to clean up the resulting mess, and I'm not brave enough to try it. But, it is something to ponder. If I rubbed a little girl's nose in her mess in the back yard, would she try making a mess in the backyard ever again?!