This post is about things that happened in the past (how’s that BubandPie?).  I have been meaning to write about how we started to potty train Piper.

Well, it was the new daycare, really.  They are eager beavers when it comes to this sort of thing. So two weeks ago, they began with the potty training stuff.  Sure, I went out and bought the little training undies and the plastic panty covers.  I sent Piper to school with five changes of clothes each morning.  I did everything they asked.

Except potty train her.

The minute we would get her home, we would throw a diaper on her.  The kid wasn’t ready, I would say. She has no control over her bodily functions, I insisted.  Every day we got a plastic bag of soiled clothes coming her with her.  Enough times to convince me that she just wasn’t ready. And frankly, I wasn’t ready.  I wasn’t ready to clean up accidents all night long. That was the last thing I needed to add to my already busy and hectic evenings. 

I meant to post about this, really I did.  I kept insisting she just wasn’t ready and the bags proved my point.

But then the other day, Piper put her little hand in mind and asked me to take her to the potty.  When I took her diaper off, it was completely dry. She proceeded to sit on the potty and do her thang.  Then it happened again.  And again.  And again.

I meant to post about this too, I really did.

This week there were no plastic bags of clothes coming home with her.  In fact, they gave me back the extra sets stating they didn’t need them anymore.  Tonight they are giving me back my stash of diapers.

It’s like over. She did it! She is potty trained! (more or less, still wearing the diapers overnight though)

And here I am posting about it now. Only I can’t bitch about it now because it’s already a done deal.  It seemed to happen so fast. We really only have her for a few hours after work and before she crashes, so a week goes by pretty quick when you are talking about a pee here, a pee there. 

But I can brag about it now, right?  My little one is all grown up wearing big girl panties now! I have a right to brag even if I had nothing to do with it, stuck in denial while she worked hard all on her own.

And yet, I am sort of sticking to my guns here. I still don’t think she’s completely ready just yet.  In my opinion, they aren’t fully ready until the day they can walk up the steps on their own, reach the light switch, do their thing without spillage, sufficiently wipe all traces clean, flush, wash their hands without creating a mini flood and then get back down the steps alone in the dark.

That’s when they’re ready!

I have to say, potty training our daughter didn’t turn out to be that hard for us, but having a potty trained daughter is a lot of work!

*******************************

Also way after the fact is my heartfelt thanks to Slackermommy for handing me the Nice Matters award!  I am passing it on to these nice people!

Radical Mama, Stolen Moments and Lawyer Mama.  Although I have to say everyone that comments here is very nice and it does matter.  So consider me passing it on to you too.

See this, I bought it for Piper before she was born:

It is the cutest thing. Each time you put one of the puzzle pieces back into its correct spot, the animal makes a sound.  The lion roars, the monkey does the cutest little “ooh,ooh,ooh” and the penguin does a sound that makes you want to move to the North Pole and adopt them all. 

The way it works is with light. When you take the pieces off, the light hits a little sensor.  So when the sensor goes dark again, the sound plays. Piper had a ball with this toy. She played with it all the time and just like her mommy, the monkey was her favorite. Soon she learned she only had to hover the pieces over the slot and it would go off. Endless rounds of “Ooh,ooh,ooh.” 

Anyway, as of today all of the pieces have gone missing.  I am sure if I tried to really search for the pieces I could find them in the bottom of the toy chest or in the many handbags, purses and bookbags my child has all over the place.  They are too big to be vacuumed up, so they must be in this house somewhere. But Piper really isn’t interested in the puzzle anymore now that she has out grown it.  So the empty board sits on shelf completely unattended, collecting dust.

And yet I can’t bring myself to to throw it out or tuck it away somewhere never to be seen again.  I know what you are thinking.  That I am sentimentally attached to it because it was the first toy I bought her even before I knew her.  It has such nostalgic value and all.

You would be wrong.

I mean sure, that’s a big reason, but it is not the main reason. I can’t bare to throw it out or bury it because it is my toy now.  I have grown attached to it and play with it every night.  It’s pathetic, I know.  But I get such a thrill every evening when I turn out the light and am immediately greeted with a symphony of jungle noises, as all the animals sound off at once.

It’s rather quite nice and now I can’t imagine ending my day without hearing all my little buddies bid me a good night. 

Slackermommy is debratting her kids.  She even created a cool button to proudly display her new family values.

Mind you, I personally think her kids are terrific, as is she. But hey, what kid can’t use a few more lessons in control, respect and discipline, right?  So, she has recently given a shout out to all us moms to share our own favorite ways we attempt to keep our kids in line (and win a great tooth fairy pillow while you are at it!).  Considering my daughter is only two, I am not a wealth of information when it comes to these things.  I am still finding my way around the discipline trail.  The best part about her being two is that I can switch gears and introduce new tactics at any time and act as if this was always how things were done here at chez Momish.  She has no clue and accepts her new fate.  So yeah, I too plan to devour all the sage advice flowing Slackermommy’s way.

But still, there is one thing I think I can offer.  This isn’t much in the way of behavioral control, but does lend itself to self-discipline and in a way, a sort of debratting when it comes to material possessions, which is a major battle we all face.  It’s about saving and BUDGETING! Because discipline goes hand in hand with giving our kids the skills they need to do things right.

When I graduated college and started a career in social work, I was dirt poor (key words there are social work).  Struggling financial, I had to figure out a way to stay afloat, yet still manage to obtain the things I needed. So, I can up with a formula that helped me know how to live within my means.  I plan on using this formula with Piper when the time comes and she starts to have an allowance.

The formula is simple.  You can only buy things you can afford to buy twice.

If you want the $1 candy, you have to have $2 in your savings. If you want the $30 toy, you have to have $60 in your savings.  If you want the $350 iPhone, you have to have $700 in your savings.

This works, believe me. My husband is constantly amazed how much I manage to save.  Because with this formula, the bottom line is absolutely true.  If you can afford something twice, you can afford it once and then you are living within your means.

It has other benefits too that aren’t so obvious:

1. You are never penniless.
2. You are never attached to an object because you poured your entire life’s savings into it. So when the cat knocks the new vase off the shelf, it’s not the end of the world. You can get another one if you so desire and you are not left with nothing.
3. You make more prudent decisions. More often than not, you end up buying down.  When you have to save $800 in order to get the $400 new CD player, eventually you break down and buy the $200 model the minute you have $400 in your savings.  Beats waiting another six months for the more expensive one that isn’t really giving you anything extra in the end.
4. You learn comparative value. Rather than buy the $100 dress, you opt for four $25 dresses.

The formula teaches kids (uhem, and adults like me) how to grasp the concept of money as well as the concept of living within your means. It helps show them just how much work it takes to acquire something.  (Especially helpful in today’s age where kids think a hundred dollars is nothing for mom and dad to shell out on new sneakers.)  It also teaches them to know what they can truly afford, rather than what they think they can afford.

After a while, it becomes second nature because you get use to having a savings, money on hand and watching your assets grow.  I still keep to the formula for my major purchases.  This year, when I figured out how much I could afford for a new car, I bought one that cost half of that. This way, I only had to shell out half my savings for the down payment and I also have the means to double my payments each month. 

When I think of disciplining my kid, I sometimes forget that the goal I am reaching for is actually self-discipline.  All these values and virtues I am teaching Piper are ultimately for her to self incorporate.  So when she moves on in life, she’ll know how to be a good person, work hard, respect others and follow the rules.  With the formula, she will hopefully know how to be make good decisions, work hard for the things she wants, live within her means and respect her own financial assets.

P.S. If you have a great discipline tactic, head over to Slackerymommy’s to join the contest!

I have been getting my butt whipped at this new/old job, which partly accounts for my lack of posts and comments these past weeks.  The other part is sheer laziness and the general autumn blues that hit me (but that is a whole other post).

Anyway, one of my new responsibilities at the job is to cover my counterpart in Europe while he is on vacation.  It’s all part of the new “Globalization” policies of my company.  Keeping in step with the rest of Corporate America, our company is now working on a 24/7 time clock.  For this reason, we are suppose to open and available at all times. 

I’m perfectly OK with that.  In fact, I kinda like the whole Globalization-whoo-hoo-the-world-is-flat trend.  Having businesses operate across the world brings new opportunities to places previously left out of the loop.  No longer is the US and Europe the big bullies now that India and China and even smaller nations are giving us a run for our money. Corporations can no longer afford to ignore the talent and opportunity being offered.

Again, totally fine with that.

But, I just hope the doors are flowing both ways.  And I will give you one example, to give you an idea of what I am referring to when I say this. It goes back to me getting my ass whipped at work.

Remember when I said I am covering my counterpart in Europe while he is on vacation? Remember that? Did I mention his vacation is three weeks?  THREE WEEKS!  And trust me when I tell you this three week gig is not his entire vacation for the entire year being taken in one entire lump sum.  No, oh no. These three weeks are just one break that my counterpart gets.  Most folks in Europe get a minimum of five weeks vacation upon hire. Here in the States, two. Two freaking weeks. Just 10 days out of 365, and that is for the first five years!

Mind you, I am not saying they don’t deserve it.  Hell no! I am saying we too deserve it! This is where I hope all this globalization that’s going on actually has some effect on Corporate America.  Time spent away from the office with your family is highly regarded in Europe and other countries.  No one gets “punished” for taking three weeks off in a row.  They are hailed as happy, healthy and well rounded employees. It’s expected.

While America is spreading their industrialism across the globe, I hope they pick up some of these alternative mind sets along the way.

I still have two more weeks left covering my co-worker.  Every day when I shut down my laptop, I can’t help but think maybe I should pack up the family and move to Europe. Paris maybe. Or Sheffield, where my best friend lives. Then we can spend all of our eight weeks of vacation together, instead of squeezing our visits into the one measly week I have available.