“He’s In Such A Good Place Right Now… I Don’t Want To Do Anything To Rock The Boat”

I find myself saying that a few times a year when it comes to Mr. Kyle when it comes to mom and dad trying to teach him / train him on something big…

Like potty training for example. Kyle was potty trained twice before. And the training stuck when it comes to poops, but he lost his potty training when it comes to pee-pee.

So twice we went thru this intensive potty training, first every 15 minutes, then 20, then 30, etc, etc, taking data the whole way, praise, corrections, etc, etc.

Again twice it worked and he was trained and in big boy underwear and twice he lost it (which is very common for Kyle)

So we had a behaviorist come in and give us an even more intensive potty training regimen/ routine which involves staying on the potty for 10 minutes at a time, bring all his favorite things in there, etc, etc.  And when I say intensive I mean that it’s just as intensive and difficult on mom & dad as it is on Kyle.  Anyway, we’ve had this new plan for close to a year now and haven’t worked up the nerve to start it.

It is so intensive that it means we should be home all day for 2-3 days straight and in the past we’ve always found a reason to put it off. Nice weather “we should wait for a rainy weekend” or a weekend event “we can’t do it this weekend we’ve got the Sesame Live show on Saturday and ____’s birthday party on Sunday.”

Now this upcoming weekend would be the perfect opportunity. Kyle’s school is closed this Thursday & Friday for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, so the wife could get 2 intense days under her belt and then I can help take over in the evenings and on Sat & Sun…

But Kyle is coming out of an EXTREMELY ROUGH summer behaviorally and as you may have read he just started school last Monday after a 2 week delay due to major f–k up by our towns board of Ed.

And his first week of school has been AMAZING! He’s done a 180. No tantrums or meltdowns and SO much better behaviorally at school AND at home. So after a crazy 4 weeks of summer + an extra 2 weeks our lives are FINALLY getting back to a sense of normalcy, well as normal as our lives can be.

Kyles back in school, the wife’s getting back into her routine of going to the gym and having some autism mommy lunches during the school day, and filling Kyle’s afternoons with fun productive activities (swim, ABA, movement class). And I’m not wasting vacation days on school tours and lawyer meetings.

So do we really want to rock the boat now and start an intensive potty training regimen when Kyle’s in a good place and our lives are finally getting back to normal? Can’t it wait til ___? (Columbus day weekend, Thanksgiving, Christmas)

Or is that a cop out and we are gonna put it off for another year?  I mean, we don’t want to do it when Kyle is in a bad place, right?  It’s just mom & dad who have to work up the nerve to dive in head first to that craziness again…

Maybe Thanksgiving, yeah Thanksgiving weekend sounds better…    🙂

Decisions, decisions…