O Potty! My Potty!

A few weeks ago Penny graduated to the “Trainers” class at school. This has been a big change in our lives. No longer does she co-exist with the babies in the nursery building and her fellow toddlers, but she is in the “big kid” building with children as old as five!

The other obvious and more significant change is that she has begun potty training at school. We have a potty already, and we have been reading a few books, watching a few videos. (The first video we viewed warrants a blog entry all its own.) But, these new parents wonder, maybe our little toddler might be more interested in potty training if the literature were more compelling…more riveting…like this?

O Potty! my Potty! our fearful sit is done;
The parents encouraged every trip, the prize we sought is won;
The stars and stickers I covet, the parents all exulting,
While follow eyes the daily trips, the vessel grim and daunting:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the tinkling drops of yellow,
Where on the floor my potty lies,
Waiting cold and shallow.


O Potty! my Potty! it sits beneath the paper;
Rise up—grab four little squares—and take no more later;
For you treats and toys a plenty—for you the bathroom crowding;
For you they call, the parents plead, their eager faces turning;
Here Potty! dear potty!
This bum atop your head;
It is some dream that on this spot,
I sometimes fear to tread.


My Potty does not answer, its lid plastic and still;
My potty does not feel my bum, it has no pulse nor will;
The bathroom feels safe and sound, its door closed and done;
From fearful trip, to now I sit, waiting for an object won;
Exult, O mom, and ring, O dad!
But I, with lesser dread,
Walk the to the place my potty lies,
Waiting for me instead.

(With sincere apologies to Walt Whitman).