Parenting Questions

Potty training--I hated that stage. Hate, hate, hate! Lol. My oldest was so stubborn. She once told us, "I am never using the potty ever again," because we wouldn't get her a snack during a road trip. And you know what, she didn't use the potty for 3 months. Before that she had been doing pretty good peeing on the potty most of the day. When she was 3 years and 2 months old she ran out of pull ups. I put her in her brother's diapers (which were too big for her) and after a couple days she got a bad diaper rash. She cried about it and I told her she wouldn't have a rash if she would just use the potty. The next day I told her no more diapers, she was a big girl and that was it. She never wore a diaper again. She had already been dry overnight since she turned 2 so she no longer needed pull-ups. It was nice. My son was pretty easy. At first it was difficult because he just didn't get how to sit on the potty and hold himself down so he didn't pee over the seat, lol. My husband decided he should pee standing up and with in a few days he was using the potty to pee all the time. A month later he was fully potty trained. He was 2 1/2. He still wears a pull-up at night because he wets the bed. He is 5 now. My middle daughter was the hardest of all. I tried everything we did with the other kids and nothing worked. She kept having accidents (several a day). Then over the summer she stayed with my sister in law for 2 weeks and she said she would have her trained in no time (thinking my daughter just didn't understand). Well my daughter understood the concept she just refused to use the potty. My sister in law was at a loss. She finally told my daughter she couldn't go home to see me until she used the potty. I felt so bad that she told her that but the next day she was fully using the potty with no accidents. She was 3 years and 8 months old. She still tells me all the time she used the potty and she won't have to go back to her aunt's house. She is 4 now and knows her aunt won't keep her forever. For pacifiers--my girls just gave them up on their own for the most part. My oldest when she was 2 and the younger one when she was 1 1/2. The oldest lost her last one just after turning 2. She cried a little at first but then got over it. The younger one I told her she was getting too big for a binky and maybe we should give them to a little baby that needed them. She was off of it in a few weeks. (I hid them all so she wouldn't be tempted). My son never took one and my youngest daugher is 8 months and very attatched still. We don't really have a bedtime routine so my kids always fuss at bedtime. I'm usually too tired to do a routine. When they were toddlers I would just change their diapers, get them in their jammies and into bed and that was it. They didn't fight much back then about it. That started when they were 3 and 4. (which I consider to not be a toddler anymore).