My 3 year old, Audrey has always been so sweet, kind to others, cuddly, and really…just an all around lovable girl. But, then something happened. Her little sister was born. Audrey was still perfectly sweet…until I was out of the room.
If I wasn’t looking, she was quietly coloring on the walls, pouring nail polish on the carpet, dumping baby powder on every object in the house, breaking decorations, you name it! Between juggling four young kids and one of them being a new baby…I was literally losing my mind! Her messes were absolutely infuriating! They weren’t just a little spill….she was creating projects for me. Projects I don’t have time for.
If you think I’m exaggerating…allow me:
(I had to take pictures of these disasters…KNOWING that one day I would laugh. I’m not quite laughing yet, but I’m working on it.)
Audrey’s brand new bed – decorated from top to bottom with permanent marker and nail polish.
Of course, she couldn’t leave out her expensive bed spread. That’s just a small part of the damage.
There’s no canvas quite like the walls for magic marker.
Who needs Halloween decorations? And, how about a little lipgloss on the couch pillows??
Maybe, a hair cut…some bangs.
Wouldn’t it be fun to sprinkle baby powder on every object in the house?
Dumping nail polish on the floors is fun.
This wall looked a little plain before.
So, why didn’t I hide the magic markers, paint, scissors, and nail polish?? Oh, I did. Every potentially messy, damage-causing item I put in a hiding spot as HIGH as I could. I would even lock the doors behind me. But, she took it as a challenge. She would unlock doors with her hair clips, climb on stools, counter tops, you name it. Now you’re wondering why I didn’t beat the snot out of her, right? Oh, I did. Okay, I did not. But, this girl spent a large part of her days scrubbing walls, sitting on her bed, missing her favorite toys and cleaning up her messes (…or at least whatever wasn’t a permanent mess).
On top of that, our potty-training success was thrown right out the window. She had to go back to wearing diapers every day….and let me tell you (though, I’m sure many of you know), changing the diapers of a 3 year old is pretty crappy (literally). So, not just one babe in diapers anymore…two…and lots of messes all over the house. I can’t stress enough how overwhelmed I was feeling. And, then…it got worse. Audrey started hurting Isabelle (the babe). Just minutes after I would leave the room I would have to rush back in to see why Isabelle was screaming her head off. Audrey would usually confess that she “sat on her head”. Oh, that’s good. One time I walked in on her pushing Isabelle over repeatedly…every time Isabelle would stand back up. It broke my heart. I cried, for real. Several times. Ugh.
So, I did what I know best…get on the computer. I’m googling “toddler reverting back potty-training“, “toddler hurting baby“, “toddler jealous of baby,” “toddler destroying house“, “selling toddlers on ebay“, anything I could think of! Everything I read came down to this…the toddler needs more attention. Positive attention. I was a little annoyed because I felt like I had already thought of that and had been trying it, with no luck. Then I remembered something. A while back I did this potty training post where I recommended this DVD, Potty Power – For Boys & Girls, that got insanely good reviews…and I mean insanely good. I instantly went to Amazon and bought it. I was up for anything!
Let me tell you, this video was a-freakin-mazing! It talked about the differences between a baby and a big kid (how big kids can do so much more). It showed lots of kids, around the age of 3, who are sitting on the toilet exclaiming that they have “POTTY POWER!!” They are throwing diapers in the garbage and making a huge, huge deal about being a big kid and having this “potty power”. Audrey was pretty fixated with it all…and I didn’t say a word. Within an hour, Audrey was back on the toilet and telling me she had “potty power”. I jumped on it! I called everyone I knew and told them to ask Audrey about her potty power and make a HUGE deal of it. If someone came over, I whispered to them to ask Audrey about it. I had Audrey call her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, and tell them the fabulous news…she had Potty Power!
Once Audrey had her “Potty Power”…everything else was fixed too. She finally realized there is something pretty special about being a BIG girl. We reinforced it with frequent comments about “potty power” and how we are so glad she’s a “big girl”. We planned special dates just for her that Isabelle wasn’t invited on because “Isabelle’s a baby.” Audrey’s messes and mischievousness stopped almost overnight. She has never hurt her sister again…and I am soooooooooo happy. There were a handful of times when she wet her pants and got lazy…but, a quick reminder and a sigh that she “lost her potty power” was all it took.
