"You Will Eat Those Thoughts Later."

That's me to myself.  Yesterday when I was on Facebook I ran across a post by a friend about potty training.  Since I am in the midst of this myself  - with my two year old - (I, myself, am potty trained for the most part), and since it can be quite time consuming and a fairly painful experience I took the time to read through the 27 or so comments to her post to see if I could find any good tips.  I found one comment particularly interesting.  It was from a person who will remain nameless to protect her innocence and she said something like (and I am paraphrasing), "My two year old is terrified of her potty.  I have done basically everything I can to make her potty beautiful and engaging, but she still acts like Carrie when I place her on the potty."

Now, four children has taught me to be a little kinder and gentler to other moms.  What I have found in attempting to parent four children is that God thinks it is quite amusing when I am smug or condescending to other parents or to their parenting nuances, and He usually lets me know He thinks it is amusing by sending me the exact problem I am being smug and condescending about in the next 24 hours.  Or sometimes He waits about two years just to give Himself an extra chuckle.  SO, I try not to judge other parents in any way shape or form just in case I am faced with the same problem later.

BUT, when I read this post, I admit, I giggled out loud, and I experienced a teensy bit of smugness (in my MIND).  I found myself thinking, "Jeesh.  At least baby is not terrified of the potty for heaven's sake.  And I would NEVER decorate a potty just to make it more agreeable.  And I would NEVER go to the lengths of this woman to get my kid to actually GO potty on the potty.  No, never.  That's not for me.  AND besides my kid would never act that way.  Baby would never be terrified of the POTTY."  I may have even thought, "Humph."  (At the end.)

Well, I have now (like so many other times) apologized profusely in my head (because I didn't actually SAY the above in words I just thought them).  Because it has come to pass that what I was being critical about actually happened.  In less than 24 hours.

Baby woke up this morning terrified of the potty.

I know.  It's scary.  She woke up terrified of the potty.

She looked normal and like the same baby when she woke up.  So, I innocently said to her after removing her night diaper, "Hey, baby.  Let's try and go potty, okay?"

To which she responded, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I NO GO POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And, me being a little slow and not quite having had my third cup of coffee thought, "Hmm.  That's weird."  And then I actually said, "Oh, come on, baby.  Let's go on your princess potty.  Want to?"

To which baby threw herself on the ground and began to squirm and shake like I needed to stick a wallet in her mouth to keep from her swallowing her tongue all the while screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOO I DON'T LIKE THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I was then terrified.  I remained silent and promptly put a clean diaper on her. 

I am not going to read anything today about potty training and I am not going to have smug or condescending thoughts about other parents and their particular problems. 

Just in case.