This post was originally written in 2012, but since Harlow is now at the age where people are starting to enquire about her potty training habits (of which she has none), I thought it was appropriate to revisit. It’s about a time when Mazzy was resistant to training and I decided not to press the issue. SPOILER ALERT: that all turned out just fine.
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The older my daughter gets (she is now two and a half), the more I get asked the same question.
“Is she potty trained yet?”
No, no she is not.
The next question is usually directed to her.
“Mazzy, don’t you want to use the potty like a BIG GIRL??”
No, no she does not.
If Mazzy wanted to use the potty like a big girl, don’t you think she would be potty trained? And don’t you think that I, Mazzy’s mother, the person who is with her every day, knows whether or not she is ready?
For instance, today she used the potty… AS A HAT.
When Mazzy was just fifteen months old, she started to tell us when she had to go to the bathroom. I took this as a sign. Of course my daughter would train early— she’s brilliant! And I can’t pretend that having a kid trained before two didn’t seem like the ultimate in parental bragging rights.
I bought a potty and some potty-related children’s books. I taught her all about the potty-making process— the sitting, the toilet paper, the flushing. She found it all fascinating.
But never once did she actually pee or poop in the potty.
Basically, she liked to use the bathroom as a lounge where she could hang out pantless and I could read her books. And as she got older, she started using the potty as an excuse to put off bedtime.
“Time for bed!”
“I have to potty!”
An hour later, when it was clear nothing was happening in that potty, she’d still expect an unabbreviated bedtime routine.
Back then, I don’t think she ever really understood what we were asking her to do. Flash forward to present day and now I’m pretty sure she gets it, but she still doesn’t want to use the potty. In fact, she has stopped telling us when she has to poop. If I see her “poop face” and ask if she has to go to the potty, she runs and hides.
Now some people would say the way to potty train is to switch to underwear, go cold turkey, deal with the mess and then come out the other side.
I disagree. My daughter clearly does not want to be potty trained, therefore she is not ready to be potty trained. And I’m not going to force her.
I witnessed two of my good friends try to put their two-year-olds on some sort of system (one did a reward system and the other did a 3-day crash course) and both failed. The kid with the reward system got angry and rebelled and the kid on the crash course spent a few weeks trained and then started having accidents all over the place.
Maybe it’s laziness, but I prefer to wait for my daughter to participate willingly so there will be much less of a struggle. And let’s be honest, a lot less to clean up off the floor.
In fact, a story recently ran on ABC News in which a pediatric urologist named Steve Hodges said that training a child before the age of three can be harmful. Apparently, before three, a child’s bladder has not grown to its full size and will develop faster and stronger if it can fill and empty uninhibited.
He is quoted as saying, “Children under age 3 should not manage their own toileting habits any more than they should manage their college funds.” He also says that daycare and preschools requiring two-year-olds to be potty trained in order to attend, are being irresponsible.
Well. Obviously this is just the opinion of one doctor. But you can bet, I threw his findings out there this past weekend when my stepmother enquired about my daughter’s potty training progress.
“Oh didn’t you hear? Potty training before three is detrimental to a child’s health. Yes, it was on ABC News. NOW BACK OFF!”
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Oh my goodness, thank you for posting this.
My daughter will be three next Wednesday and I’ve kind of been driving myself nuts over here about potty training.
Her father and I bother used to work full time and she was in daycare during the day. Evenings and weekends were packed full. Potty training seemed difficult.
Then my husband was offered a job in Switzerland. The holidays happened. We had to get the house on the market to sell. Potty training seemed impossible.
We’ve been in Switzerland just over a month now and I felt like, I’m home all the time, I should be working on this with her.
What we’ve come to is, she will hold her pee and poop until I put a pull-up on her for nap time, and then she will hold her pee again until we put a diaper on her for bedtime.
I know that’s not good for her.
But I also don’t know how to get her to go in the potty. Telling her to just “let it go” had surprisingly NOT helped and just makes me roll my eyes at myself.
I even got into a huge debate on my fb page last night when someone said waiting until she was 3 meant I waited too long. Like now she just won’t ever go on the toilet? OK, helpful.
I need to just take my own advice.
You literally could not have (re)posted this at a better time.
Thank you!
both*, not bother.
I have done potty training twice and got to do it again in a couple years. The best advice is the advice you gave yourself. You did not miss a once only magic window, you made a decision to reduce stress at a time when your family had plenty and to provide stability for your daughter. Good call by you! Only you know when it is best for you all as a family unit. If you do it early there are issues, if you do it later, different issues. Every child has different issues anyway – my two presented different challenges! Trust your instincts – she won’t be in diapers at sixteen, so you’re good.
Wonder would she sit on the potty in her diaper at the times she likes to go? Some kids are freaked out by the falling sensation moving out of diapers, my friend transitioned her daughter but putting on the diaper and then going on the potty then slowly working from there. Only if that helps!
Thank you for the kind words and the suggestion!
My son was probably closer to three when he potty trained. I had seen sores many others fighting and punishing their children for not going to the potty. We waited until he was ready and it was a breeze. No horrible memories or nightmares from the potty training stage. Don’t let others make you feel guilty. You will know when the time is right.
Liz, don’t worry. You did NOT wait too long. We tried the 3 day method with my daughter when she was 2.5. One day in she was clearly not ready. So I stopped and decided to wait two months and try again. When the 2 month mark rolled around we found out we would be relocating for my husband’s work. I knew potty training would have to wait. So I waited until after her 3rd birthday. Wanted to make sure we were settled in our new house and she was comfortable. She is now almost 4 and isn’t 100% potty trained. She will only pee in the potty. I don’t push the issue, as I know when she is ready to poop on the potty she will tell me. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t bang my head against the wall trying. I only recently read something similar to this post about not pushing. So that is what we are doing. And I plan to do the same with my son, who is 2. I am not even going to ask him if he wants to sit on the potty until he is really ready.
Yes! I love this. We tried so many different approaches with my first. Finally I gave up and listened to the advice of my older sister (who had potty trained five kids) and waited until she was ready. I quit pressuring and just sat back and one day she came down the stairs in the morning and announced she was ready to wear panties. I’m sure all the practicing we did helped her get to that point, but it really is just something that happens when they are ready. With my second we started out relaxed from the beginning and everyone had such a better experience that time around.
My daughter is 16 months and just recently began to tell me when she is going to go in her diaper. It’s great and I also took this as a sign that she will be ready to potty train soon until I brought out the potty chairs and she hates them. It terrifies her to sit where there is a hole in a seat and I am not going to push the issue. I use cloth diapers so I would love her to be done with diapers early but definitely not worth making her upset. I am glad that you mentioned the article and I look forward to reading it.
I totally agree! Both my girls were well into three before their potty success stories. AND, I feel so validated by the research you have revealed. Amen! It is better for them.
Thank you!!! I went through so much pressure to potty train my daughter and felt so much guilt when other kids were trained and mine wasn’t. She just didn’t want to. Then I said to myself “forget it she’ll do it when she’s ready” and at about 3 1/2 she looked at me and said “I want to go potty now” and that was it. Barely an accident and no pressure she did it all on her own when she was ready. I wish I’d relaxed sooner but now I know for my second!
WOW! This IS my son! We have had 2 potties AND a potty seat for the toilet for about a YEAR now! He was all gung-ho before he could really even walk and I thought, child prodigy…and then nothing, then pooping-hiding. The potty as a toy, yup, all similar! He is 2.5 now and will NOW consistently go on the potty in the morning….only! And I am fine with it, always have been! HONESTLY, and this may sound wacko, I don’t mind changing diapers! I sorta kinda like the “control”! We set out on a bit of a car trip, fresh diaper on, no panic to find a rest stop, no pulling over on the side of the road…
You don’t sound like a wacko! It is definitely easier to just put a diaper on your kid and head out the door without any consideration of accidents that might happen or constant need to know where the closest potty is! Potty training is a stressful time and I’m holding off a bit longer as well (2.5 y son).
We have been trying to potty train our now 3 year old for a year…no luck. After trying literally every method known to mothers (young and old) we decided just to stop. Now, we are waiting patiently for his queue. I dream of the day when I I can be forever rid of the diaper genie. But then comes the next phase of being a slave to knowing where every public and private bathroom resides in a five mile radius. Good times raising kids.
My daughter now 3 decided on her own to potty train at 23 months. Right before she turned 2 she threw away all her diapers. I kept pull-ups on hand just in case but when she saw them they too went in the garbage. I bought her a potty seat, the books, etc. she refused to use her potty seat and would only use the big people potty (that and holes in the back yard) I believe that when kids are ready to hit certain milestones they will do so on their own. I never forced the potty training issue and now at 3 she has not once had an accident, even at night (although I continue to use plastic mattress covers and bedmats…just in case!)
I totally agree!!! My oldest decided to start going at age 3 when she was ready. I am not even trying to potty train my 2 year old because if she can’t go in the bathroom by herself and pull her pants up and down, what is the point? I would rather change diapers then clean dirty undies!
Good post! We did the same thing with our older daughter, waiting it out until she was ready despite the constant nagging and peer pressure. But fair warning, our second daughter is now 3+ and not potty trained yet. Her sister was trained at about 2 years, 10 months. Of course we’re still getting nagged about it, but that’s easy enough to ignore.
What’s really hard is the disparity between the two and feeling like we’ve screwed up our second child. When you have another you expect them to follow the same progression, but in reality each child is like having your first one all over again, except that you have the older one(s) making life harder for you at the same time. I’m going to calmly repeat it to myself again – they’re different kids, it’s OK (right?)
I love this! I went through so many phases of potty training with both of my kids. My daughter trained in a little over a week at 3 years and almost 2 months. My son just potty trained after Christmas. He was 3 years and 3 months. He night trained at the same time (knocking on some wood now), not because I did anything special but because he was ready. I spent way too much time and energy worrying about how everyone else’s kids were trained so much younger than mine. Now I encourage friends with younger kids that it is all in time and when the kid is ready, it will happen. I love how you pointed out that not only is it okay if they are over 3, but actually better for them. And really, they aren’t going to go to college in diapers 😉
I refuse to believe a child is toilet trained until they can feel the urge to go, but wait until they are at a toilet to go. I have said many a time, a kid who pees their pants if they can’t get to a toilet in time is not (fully) toilet trained. I am (fully) toilet trained. Hence me not peeing my pants, ever. Nope not even that one time in college after a wee bit (no pun intended) of drinking … Never.
In fact once on the way to visit a friend I gulped down copious amounts of water then realized was lost, and by the time I was getting in the vicinity of her home my bladder was causing so much pain I WANTED to pee my pants – but my body wouldn’t let me. Because I am (fully) trained. (*pregnancy or any other physical condition causing bladder issues = exemption; but yeah for me still never).
So until a child is at that point, of you never needing to pull your car to a screetching halt at the side of the road or drop and dash in the middle of a supermarket, sorry but the kid isn’t trained. They are in the process of being trained, on the spectrum of being trained. The same spectrum that barring unusual circumstances, all toddlers/preschoolers are on. Some leaning more to one end, others to the other end but still. All normal. Same spectrum. No comparisons, explanations or apologies needed.
One more thing before exiting my soapbox – what a lot of kids also need is a sense of embarrassment if they pee their pants. That is why the vast amount of kids reach the end of the spectrum and are (fully) trained by age 6 / first grade. As while a 2 year old may shrug off peeing their pants (other than hating the physical feeling of being wet) a 6 year old is much more likely to have a deep emotional impact. So the quicker turnaround at an older age isn’t just physically driven, but emotionally as well. And end rant. (Not directed at you, hopefully is clear I am criticizing your critics! 😉
I always love your comments because I know you will be the voice of reason. I just made a similar comment on facebook- mainly that when we potty trained Mazzy (a little after three) we almost never had any emergencies or accidents. She’d tell us she needed to go, we’d fine a bathroom and she’d go. No running or panic or stress. I always see parents being portable potties to the playground so that they’re “potty trained” kids can use the potty if they need to. I don’t know why a three year old using a diaper is grosser than popping a squat in the playground and peeing into a rim with a plastic bag attached. I never had to do anything like that because by the time we potty trained, Mazzy could wait until we found an actual bathroom.
Every parent has a different method and every child has a different willingness. (This reminds me of the recent commercials where all the parents came together right after scrutinizing one another for parenting differently). My son was done by about 2 and 1/2, he’ll be 3 next month. He’s still in a diaper during naps and bedtime and has occasional accidents, but he knows that he better walk his butt to the toilet, lift it up and aim in there. I only assist if he has to poop. But I’m more of a tough love kind of mama.
Great article!!! Both of my kids were 3 1/2! YES! THREE AND A HALF! There is a part of me who wants to explain….it’s sad I feel that way. If you potty train at 7 weeks, GOOD FOR YOU! Or if you wait until 4 years – WAY TO GO! seriously people ….. we all have the same struggles, no one is better than anyone else. And NO ONE likes potty training….. it’s messy, it’s gross, it’s wet, it smells terrible and diapers don’t seem so expensive after you’ve had a toddler pee on you for the 18th time this week! 🙂 Good luck to all you potty trainers out there! Don’t let anyone make you feel like your way is wrong….it isn’t. It’s perfect for you and your child…and that’s really all that matters!
THANK YOU!! My entire family has been pressuring me to potty train my almost 3 year old and I know she will wake up one day and be ready…until then, I’m ok. And so is she.
I have easily spent the last 6 months trying to potty train my son. We did the 3 day crash course and he was in for a couple weeks then refused to go in the potty. After that is pretty much accident after accident no matter how hard I tried. I finally took a break a couple weeks ago for my own sanity. He is 2.5 yo and as stressed out as I am about being the mom with the 3 year old still in diapers it doesn’t seem Like he is ready to do it yet. This post made me feel SOOOO much better. I can never thank you enough!
Hi Ilana, great post and couldn’t agree more. We just did a video post on Heymummy.tv for Potty training and one of our tops tips was indeed to just wait until they are really interested. My daughter was 3 when she was ready and then she sailed through it because it was the right time for HER. I am so sick of braggy mums boasting about their 18 month old that’s potty trained and making a point to other mums that they are behind. Well done, you get a big winners badge, oh thats right no you don’t because there are no prizes for being first or for being a parent for that matter. Love you site by the way!!x
I guess everyone has their opinions! But I don’t want to change a 3 year Olds nasty diaper. All our kid used the restroom independently long before their 3rd birthday. I guess I never look at it as tanning though! More like a way of life. Not a stressful power struggle but of course my kids will train early they are brilliant!;)
I have a 2 year old that started weeing on the potty at 9 months. At 13 months she had a poo every morning and had a wee before abd after naps and bedtime. We used one diaper for daytime and one for nighttime. I thought that she would be trained by 18 months, but alas she regressed. I did not force her, but did always encourage her. Now she has just turned 2 and tells me after she has made a poo. She is making about 4 or 5 in a day and so at least half are in the toilet or potty. I just don’t understand how it is that I was supposedly potty trained before 18 months and most other kids born before the mid eighties? How come it’s so hard? Are we just perhaps lazy parents?
It’s funny that I now find this because we tried so hard to potty train my now just about 4 year old since he was 18 months with no luck. When we found out he was delayed at 2 we chalked it up to that and didn’t push. A couple months after he turned 3 something just clicked and he started using the potty and not at nearly 4 he’s been using the potty like a champ since and now even uses the regular toliet.
My daughter will be 4in October. I am getting no where with potty training and I feel very guilty because most kids her age are already trained
And every daycare I’ve called says she has to be potty trained. I know when she is pooping and she still doesn’t want to use the potty. She sits on it sometimes and shell say she went potty but nothing came out.
My son Dallas is just 4 short months away from being 4 years old and he will sit on the potty and sing songs with me or listen to a story but not once in the year and a half that we’ve been trying off and on, has he actually let anything come out! I’ve given up for a month or 2 at a time but I’m really feeling the pressure since he’s almost 4 and not able to get into a daycare not being trained. Please tell me it’ll happen for me too. I’m losing all hope and never bring him out for playdates bc I want to avoid the whole “he’s not potty trained yet” question. I’m pretty sure I’ve almost forgotten how to communicate with others outside of my table waiting job bc I avoid people. I just want to hear it’s ok! Someone please just say it. I’m losing my mind here.
My daughter will be three in one week and we have just said when it’s time it’s time, no more stress! Little brother will be following behind her in a year and we’ll be doing it all over again, so no pressure it’ll happen!
Omg!! Thank you thank you! My son will be four this september and ive been killing myself trying to get him to go! Hes gone twice (pee) and weve praised him like crazy! But thats it…i havent gotten him to do it since! Were trying to cut expenses so it would be awesome if we didnt have to buy diapers anymore. But…like you just said i wont push. My oldest was a breeze!! My second…-_- not so much! He wont go to preschool until hes five so im hoping he will be trained by then but thank you. Im glad im not the only one struggling!
I’m a BIG fan of letting them decide when they are ready. I never potty trained my daughter. We did some potty association but never pushed her. One day she just decided she wanted to go and never looked back. I never had to fight her, or clean messes off the floor or furniture. When she was ready she just did it. For the first few months she always wore panties at home and when we went out I put her in a pull up because I never wanted her to feel like an accident was a failure and I carried a potette until she got used to public toilets.
All the preschools in our area won’t take a kid unless they are fully potty trained and can pull their pants up and down on their own. We had to forgo preschool until we perfected that but we joined a co-op instead until she was ready.
I love this article. I was recently the nanny of a little girl whom we waiting to potty train. Neither her mother or I were ready for the accidents and the rushing to find a potty while we were out. As she got closer to turning 3 I started having days where I encouraged her to try the potty with no pressure. One day a month before her 3rd birthday she drank a huge glass of water after breakfast, which she never did. So I decided to have her sit on the potty every 20 mins for 5 mins just to see what would happen, not really trying to potty train.. At about 10:30 she was sitting on the potty and she started to pee. Her face light up in this “Oh I get it!” face and she yelled “I am peeing!” She never had a single accident after that day. I truly believe it is because we waiting ubtil she was older.
We found that a portable potty for the car helped A LOT. It relieved stress when leaving the house. And, it gave the kids more confidence, knowing they could ‘go’ whenever they wanted. Plus, we’ve had constipation issues, UTI’s etc. The potty comes in handy even now that my girls are 6 and 5! On a sidenote, the only portable potty we found on the market had downsides. So while I was home for 2 years with our 3rd, I actually designed / patented / trademarked / manufactured a new portable potty… and right here in the US, which was one of the most important factors for me (hard to find anything for the kids not made in China). Check it out on BuybuyBaby.com or Amazon. Or learn more on our site: http://www.princessesandpiratesgopotty.com. #MomMadeInTheUSA.
My daughter is FOUR and still refuses. Because of this issue, she has not been able to attend the school she wants to attend (they do not do diapers). We have tried to “be cool” about this…but just as your daughter refuses…so does ours. She has worn pullups recently, but because she refuses to tell anyone when she’s pooed or peed, she gets rashes from those. I keep telling myself that there are no grownups who do not use the potty–but this is very difficult to see through. I have had conversations with her that sound like this: “I know that you do not want to potty, and I have let it go so that you can go at your own speed…but I’m worried that they will no longer have diapers in your size…and I think you might want to start using the potty.” Her response is usually some shade of “I don’t want to use the potty…not ever.”
urgh.
Good for you for listening to your child. I find its better to have the child lead the way. If shes happy in diapers for now its no big deal. Has been trained now? Or still refusing?
Made the mistake of attempting to potty train my oldest (now 13) when she was too young and not ready. HUGE mistake. She had UTI’s and other issues for years. I strongly recommend waiting.
My son is 4, 5 in June. He refuses to touch the toilet. I really don’t mind at all, when he’s ready he will do it but my husband (for some strange reason) is all embarrassed about it…its weird. I’m also not quite sure how to show him how to go. I had a girl before him and it was very simple. This little boy is soooo stubborn
Umm… I’m all for letting the child decide, but how do you plan to enroll him in Kindergarten this fall if he’s not toilet trained? I don’t know a public school anywhere that will enroll a non-toilet trained child unless they are special needs. Just my two-cents.
I recently read an article that said the average age for girls is 36 months and boys is 39 months. We’re right in the midst of this with a 4.5 yo and a 3 yo. We started out trying all kinds of things with the first, but eventually just let him take the lead. We’ve waited with the youngest and he’s just now starting to show some interest. They’ll do it when they’re ready. Life is so complicated…why make it harder than you have to?
I have 2 kids, a boy and a girl, and both of them told me that they didn’t want to wear diapers anymore and they wanted to use the potty.
So from that day they did. We had maybe 6 accidents between them. They were ready to potty train.
Asking your child every 15 minutes if they have to go potty is not potty trained, it is parent trained. A gentle reminder to go before you leave the house, or go to bed should be all that is required.
Potty training is the newest extreme sport amongst mothers.
i am the oldest of ten children, born to the same parents within a fifteen year span. My mother’s advice was not to try potty training until a child is three years old. But I thought I knew better and started at eighteen months with my first child. It was a disaster and pooping became a control issue. I listened to her advice with my second child and waited until she showed interest. Potty training was much, much easier. The older I get, the wiser my mother is.
My oldest child never completely potty trained. She’s 8 now and still have pee and poop accidents. She has conditions called encopresis and enuresis. Basically she gets really constipated and it stretched out her bowel and things snaked through plus pushed on her bladder. She literally does not feel herself having accidents sometimes. Also some of it now is motivation to keep herself on a timetable of going to the bathroom and staying on her medications.
She’s embarrassed when she has the accidents but also can have this weird blase thing about them. She hates when we have to check her and help her get cleaned up. It’s immensely frustrating for all of us especially since we’re military and are moving this summer away from what she’s known since she was 4. When we moved up here we were just told by her pediatrician in New Orleans before moving that she wasn’t ready yet.
She had constipation problems when she was little and I wonder if we had caught them before we moved and I got pregnant and miscarried then pregnant again we might have been able to help earlier. Now I have a two and a half year old who right when she turned two refused to wear clothes or diapers and wanted to sit on her potty all the time.
After a while she wanted her pull up again and has no real interest but loathes when we change her. Like kicking and screaming freaking out. She had some recent problems with constipation so we’re going to go talk to our pediatrician who is well versed in my older daughters problems. I’m absolutely terrified that my toddler won’t potty train. I don’t know if I can go through another medical problem like this. I’m terrified that my oldest won’t get hers fixed.
Right after we found out what was really going on I went online and saw so many horror stories! If she doesn’t really work on this and we fix it, she is doing a lot better now though, she won’t be able to continue being in ballet. She wants to be a ballerina when she grows up and she’s been working really hard for that.
Sometimes I don’t know what to do.
I got pregnant with my 2nd daughter fairly quickly after the 1st ( planned accident) I did not want to deal with two babies in nappies so I started Potty Training my 1st at about 14 months, I made the mistake of reading to her to encourage her to sit long enough for something to fall out, she would grab the potty & pretend to need to go just to get me to read to her, we had a pretty hard year, she wanted to use the potty but was not very reliable about staying on it long enough to wee or poop, we had a lot of accidents & near misses , it was stressful with a new baby, miss almost 18 months insisted on using the potty every time I changed the baby or went to the loo myself & she refused to use the toilet even with a child seat. We got the job accomplished just after she turned 2. With my second daughter I started asking her if she wanted to use the potty when she was 18 months old, she always said no, I never pressured her , she was still saying no at 2 yrs, then 2 1/2 and I was worried, then one day a few months shy of her third birthday she said Yes, so she started using the potty, it took one week, in one week she was out of day time nappies and out of night ones, she wet her bed Once, she did it all herself, she used the potty with out any promoting from me. I had my 3rd & 4th babies 14 months apart, I started asking my son when he was 18 months old if he wanted the potty, he said no, and he kept saying no, until his little sister decided at 13 months that she was ready, I discovered her one day sitting on the big toilet, she had been climbing on the end of the bath, straddling the toilet seat then sitting down, all without me knowing, when he discovered that his little sister was using the big toilet the competition was on , they were both day & night nappy free with in 2 months , he had a couple of wet beds she never wet the bed. Don’t worry , they will do it in their own time, If they are still not toilet trained by the time they start school, then I would worry.
Thanks for sharing this again. My kiddo is 3.5, and he will pee in a potty all day long, but he will NOT do #2. He asks for a diaper for that. I’m fine with it. He’ll get there. And, yes, I get questions from family and friends all the time about why he is not completely potty trained yet. :/
Thank you for posting this. My oldest son turned 3 in May. He has no desire to use the potty. I try not to push him, in spite of the fact that my mother keeps insisting that I just need to buckle down and force him to go. It would be easier for me, especially since I have a 2.5 month old son who is also in cloth diapers… But, I have a 2.5 month old EBF son who is also in cloth diapers. And we just moved. And we’re trying to finish remodeling our house so we can sell it. I’d much rather wash a few extra diapers than many loads of clothes, sheets, and towels.
[…] 9. I'm Not Giving Into Potty Training Pressure (Because It Worked Last Time) […]
I believe each child sets the time for potty training. Sometime between 15mos. and 3.5 years is the right time to begin. The parents just need to observe their child. They know best.
My daughters were all well below two when they were potty trained. (I don’t count the usage of nighttime diapers to consider them potty trained) I did wait until they were pushing to use the potty. I never got a potty chair though or used rewards and bribes. I let them get on the toilet like a horse – backwards. They thought this was all fun and games.
All I have to say is “Amen”!!!!
This sounds awful, and only works if you have outdoor privacy but take the kid outside without pants or underwear of any kind. Yes, naked from waist down. An oversized shirt or dress will cover them enough. After a bit of just going wherever, take them to just one spot when nature calls. You can even have a potty in that spot but not insist they go on it. Just get them used to knowing pees & poops are for one area only & get them used to holding it til they get to that area. Eventually you add underwear & after a few accidents, they usually work it out themselves because they don’t want to feel cold & wet or dirty either. This has worked with even my most STUBBORN potty resistors every time!
[…] important to note that up until last week, she expressed no interest in the potty whatsoever. In fact, I was beginning to think Harlow was diametrically opposed, and would […]