I am beyond relieved that DS1 basically decided on the potty training for himself. I am also relieved that it was easy, but I figure he had to give me a break with something given that he's a shit sleeper that eats nothing but milli-bites of beige things. I am under no misapprehension whatsoever that it had anything to do with my parenting skills. Had it been all down to me and my lack of motivation, he'd probably have started reception in his favourite monkey print nappy.
Well - ToddlerCalm. I had no problems getting DH to go, thankfully, and I feel very lucky in that respect. In the 12 years we've been together we've never had a row...until DS1 started kicking off and generally being a two year old and we realised we were trying completely conflicting parenting strategies. It bothered both of us greatly and agreed that going somewhere where we were told what we should be doing would be good because DH freely admits he would never bother reading a book about it. This, coupled with how incredibly effective Ann's strategies have been, has made DH accept that black and white old-school discipline is really not the only way. I never said the words 'gentle parenting' to him about ToddlerCalm, but I said it was 'like how Ann works' and he was totally up for it.
Now, the workshop itself was actually not great but only, I think, because the instructor was a tiny bit shit and has only been doing it since November (it does help if you can pronounce 'Piaget' correctly, I find...
) but she got just enough information over that made DH realise I haven't just been making hippy shit up and that it is founded on respected child development theories. He said in the car on the way back that it was good to hear about other 'acceptable' methods of behaviour management (for want of a better term) since all anyone ever talks about is the Supernanny crap. So, for us, it was very useful in that I feel we've now gone a significant way towards singing off the same hymnsheet.
As an aside, there was a mum of a 14 month old shit sleeper there who looked like total, haunted crap. She was nearly in tears talking about him so I went up to her afterwards and had a long chat. She was so relieved, saying she'd never met anyone else with an awful sleeper, who'd also been told crap by HVs, including that breastfeeding was the cause of it all , that her shit parenting and refusal to leave him to scream were to blame blah blah blah. Suffice it to say I passed on Ann's website and my email so she has an empathetic ear if she wants it. Her DS also has a history of reflux so I told her about CMPI and soy intolerance too, which she'd never heard of. All anyone had ever suggested was lactose intolerance, natch
Dreaming Ice cream is Booja-Booja. I got it from Holland and Barrett. It's only available by post in the Home Counties for obvious transport reasons. I think Waitrose carry it as well. If you google it, they have a website that tells you about stockists.