The Curse of Elmo

When Ryan was being potty trained, my sister bought him the DVD, Elmo’s Potty Time.  It worked wonders- it was a dream come true.  After watching the DVD, in a few days he was fully potty trained.

The second time around with Cole, I figured it would be a breeze.  I already had trained one boy, how hard could potty training a second one be, especially when I had my secret weapon- Elmo, on my side?

Evidently, Elmo has a curse.  He will only work his magic on one child.  What is even worse, is he comes back to mock you.  Elmo’s curse started like this:

Right after my cancer surgery I decided to potty train Cole.  He had just turned 3, and we had been working with him off and on, but not on a regular basis.  Since I was recovering at home, I thought it was the perfect time, and we’d have it down in a week or two.

I did all the other steps too, and Cole was doing pretty well, but he still had accidents.  It was time to bring out the big gun- Elmo.  Cole, like Ryan, loved the DVD.  He was singing the songs, and one of his favorite songs is a song called Accidents Happen. The song’s theme is it’s okay to have accidents, and they happen while you are learning.  One of the lyrics say, “accidents happen, and that’s okay.”

One day right after watching Elmo, Ryan called to me, “Mom, Cole went pee on playroom table.”   I was in disbelief.  He had NEVER done that before.  He at least tried to make it to the potty before.  When I got to the playroom, Ryan was right, and I had a three-year old grinning at me ear-to-ear.  Our conversation:

ME: Cole, why did you pee on the table?

COLE: It was an accident.

ME: No, it wasn’t.  You didn’t even try to make it to the potty.  Remember Elmo- he tries to make it to the potty? 

COLE: Accidents happen and that’s okay!

The curse of Elmo.  Cole quotes that line now every time he has an “accident” that really isn’t one, and yes I know the difference.  No matter what angle I approach it with Cole, I get the answer which is the curse: accidents happen and that’s okay!

Two months later, Cole is still having “accidents.”  They are getting fewer and farther in between, and he stays dry for the entire night.  During the day, he doesn’t want to stop what he is doing to go potty, and he has an “accident.”  I am now making him stop every half hour, and that seems to be working better.  We don’t watch the DVD anymore.  Elmo’s curse is still alive and working here.  Hopefully it won’t haunt us for the rest of our days.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to break Elmo’s curse, I’d love to hear it.  🙂