Pookie is the potty king these days. He’ll pee anywhere and everywhere and has even walked himself to the bathroom without our prompting in a few public places.
On Sunday, we went to church for the first time in several months and the first time since potty training. He was very nervous in the bathroom and tried to go out of peeing. It took me a second to realize that he was afraid of the toilet because he had never heard that particular one flush before and had no way of knowing what the flush would sound like.
After about a minute of consideration, he did line up and pee but tried to leave the stall before flushing; in fact before even pulling up his pants.
Me: Can you flush the toilet?
Pookie: No. No flush the toilet. I don’t want to flush the toilet right now.
We repeated that conversation very calmly a couple times and then he flushed the toilet and quickly covered his ears. He stood and watched the water go down and listened to the roar. Then he pulled up his pants and went to wash his hands.
He confronted the scary toilet and now when we go back, I bet he won’t worry about flushing those toilets at all.
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Hooray for Pookie! My boys both did that (and Little P, who’s 3, still does sometimes). One thing we do when we know it’s a new place is ask them if they want to see the toilet flush before they potty. If they say yes, I let them stand outside the stall and I flush the toilet and just let them watch. That way, they know what to expect before they are stuck with their pants down. On the motion-sensitive kind, I put my hand over the sensor so it won’t flush when they are peeing, and I tell them that once they get their pants up I’ll move my hand. They still rush away from those…
No idea if that’s an option for Pookie, but thought I would share. It does waste a bit of water, but if it makes them more relaxed, I’m all for it!