A Potty-Training Tale

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Atom.

He had an older brother named Jet.



When Atom turned 3 years old, his family's life was in a bit of a turmoil. His dad was living in Utah, where he had a new job, and the rest of his family was living in Arizona, where they owned a piece of real estate that they feared would be theirs forever. (They loved it but it was no longer convenient to own it.)



Which made it impossible to acquire a new piece of real estate in Utah.



This made Atom's mom not at all anxious to embark on the adventure of potty-training, with everything so up in the air. Besides, potty training and a house with brand-new carpet that must always look and smell immaculate is not a good mix.

Shortly after Atom turned 3, his family moved to Utah anyway, and were graciously allowed to live in Atom's grandparent's home.



This also did not seem to Atom's mom to be a good time to attempt potty training! Life was still up in the air, and she didn't want to have Grandpa and Grandma's carpets suffer.

When Atom was 3 1/2, the piece of real estate in Arizona finally sold (hooray!) so Atom's family could move into their own house in Utah.





About this same time, Atom's older brother, who was 7, and had, in theory, been potty-trained since age 4, was still having problems. So Atom's mom finally decided that she couldn't wait to see if it got better when life "settled down" and took him to the doctor, which led to discovering some unknown medical issues, which led to going to see specialists, which led to new programs and medicines with charts and stickers and etc. etc. Which made Atom's mom decide that there was no rush whatsoever to potty train Atom. Especially since Atom not only showed no signs of interest in the whole process, but actually expressed resistance to it.

So Atom's mom decided that she would rather wait until Atom was begging her to wear "big boy underwear" before she would "allow" him the privilege of potty training.




And so life went on and Atom turned 4. No begging.



And Jet turned 8. No begging from Atom.



And the regimens and medicine and stickers and charts continued. And Atom never even came close to begging to wear "big boy underwear."



So time went on. And Atom's mom started babysitting two little girls--almost 2 and 1 month old which definitely didn't make her feel like it would be a good time to try potty training reluctant Atom. And Atom still wasn't even close to begging.

So Atom turned 5. Still no begging. Atom was perfectly content to wear diapers forever.



Jet was almost 9 by then and almost 5 years of almost daily accidents and frustration and charts and stickers and medicine didn't make Atom's mom feel inclined to push Atom about potty training. After all, it's much easier to change diapers than to clean up messes.

Then one day right before Christmas, Atom's dad decided to "set a date" with Atom. A date to potty train. Atom's mom said, "Go for it, Dad!" So they decided that a few days after Christmas would work and Atom agreed to try it. Atom's Dad got all the supplies he thought he would need, and re-read the book about potty training in less than a day that didn't work on Atom's three older siblings.

And the fourth child was the charm. Piece of cake. It's like he's done it all his life. Atom is happy, and Atom's mom is oh so happy. And Atom's mom loves Atom's dad even more than before (is that possible?) and thinks he is just that much more wonderful than she realized before (is that possible?) And every time she realizes that Atom is finally totally potty trained with no fuss at all, it fills her heart with joy!

Now if we could just get Jet there.

The End