Potty Training with Tarot

One topic that is ubiquitous among parents of any two year old is potty training.  Have you  started?  How is it going?  What method/s have you tried?  These conversations take place frequently at every park and playdate.  And just guess how old my little girl is…

So as she was getting closer and closer to that two and a half year mark, I decided it was finally time to at least try to do something in the potty arena.  I had no clue how the whole process would work out.  I didn’t even know how possible it would be for my daughter.  She has low muscle tone and poor balance, so there were fears of actually getting her comfortable on the potty and if she would be able to actually feel herself doing anything.

In preparation, after carefully discussing the situation with neighborhood moms, my mom, my sister, my daughter’s therapist, my childhood friend and the lady at the grocery store, I decided I would try one of those potty-training bootcamps.  A three day weekend that was meant to either train the kid or at least get them started on the process to diaper freedom.

I picked the weekend.  One where my husband would be out of town and wouldn’t distract from our mission at hand.  I enlisted my mother, I would need her assistance so I could have at least an hour and a half of freedom to go to my beloved yoga class.  I bought multiple potty options.  And then you can probably guess what I did next.  I asked the cards.

Situation:  King of Cups – it was all about controlling that liquid.  See that King.  He is holding his glass steady and not spilling a thing, even though he is bumping up and down on some rough waters.

Advice: The Sun – just look at that naked curly haired little girl taking control and riding that horse all by herself.  I needed to trust my daughter.  Trust that she and her body could figure this whole thing out.

Outcome: The Tower Reversed – I liked to think those yellow Hebrew yods kind of look like pee falling down and hopefully landing in the right place.  But this card also can mean a time of rebuilding.  Rebuilding and learning a new system.

So do you really want to know how that weekend went?  It was great!  After the first day, there weren’t any more accidents and it was like something just clicked.  She seemed to get the purpose of what sitting on the potty meant.  And knowing that I wasn’t really expecting much, I was pretty shocked.

We are now about a month out from that potty weekend and things still are going pretty well.  It is still a journey of rebuilding our system and setting up a new structure, but we are getting there.  We are learning together what this new normal looks like and it is looking pretty good.

If you are deciding to potty train your toddler anytime soon, why not throw down a few cards and see what they have to say.  What advice can you glean from them?