Potty Training – It takes a family

I recently started potty training my almost 2-year-old. He was dry in the mornings, started telling me when he went “poop” and just seemed to understand the process.

Early on, I would say at about a year old, I had read an article about getting a potty and getting them adjusted to the idea. I thought it seemed early, but went ahead and bought one. I was going to need one eventually, right?

Anyway, I bought the potty and cannot tell you how much he despised it at first. It took some time, but now that it’s time for training he knows its Calvin’s potty. He relates to it in the bathroom and he understands what you are supposed to do in it.

Now, time to potty train, I had my own ideas and heard some from my mother who I deem the expert of all things to do with children. However, I also did some reading online. I found several articles relating to training your child to go potty in three days. My first reaction – “yeah right.”

However, while it might not be exactly three days, I would say after taking some of the online advice, listening to my mom and following my mom gut, Calvin is definitely nearing completion to being potty training.

How did we do it?

First, I can’t stress enough that it has to be a team effort. You as the mom can’t be there every minute of every day. That means what you’ve been doing, the consistency, has to continue. That means with dad, with a babysitter, and to some degree, siblings.

The thing I thought was weird, but went ahead with it was taking the potty into another room. During the day I work from home, which means the living room, the kitchen table or my office in the basement.

Over several days, I put the potty in the living room and on one day in the basement.

Why take it from the bathroom?

I understood once we really started being aggressive in pushing potty training. With a timer set for every 15 minutes, it didn’t matter where he was or what he was doing, it was time to sit on the potty. This can be tough, especially in an upstairs house, or if you are a work-at-home mom.

In about a day, Calvin understood peeing in the potty. In fact, on Saturday morning while I was out doing a cheerleading event with my daughter, Calvin woke dad up to tell he “pee, pee.” While the husband reaped some of the benefits of my hard work through the week, I couldn’t have been more excited.

Having the potty in the room with us, having a timer set for every 15 minutes helped to create a habit, it helped pushed the idea and having a treat such as suckers helped as well.

The obstacle

While going pee in the potty took us no time to get down. In fact, he’s telling us when he’s ready and he has not worn a diaper in nearly a week. However, with that said, it’s not all been perfect.

I love some blogs you read where mom says the three-day potty training idea went without any issues. In real life, we have too much going on, and it’s not always going to be perfect.

If I’ve said it once, I will say it a thousand times – your kid is not like other kids. You have the kid you have and you develop strategy around who they are.

With Calvin, going poop seems to be a bit of a struggle. To some degree, he’s feeling a bit hesitant to do that on the potty, but understands he should be. He’s now hiding to go poop.

Change of strategy

Since the suckers aren’t working with pooping, I decided to take a different approach to fit him. To be honest, I started with M&Ms as treats for peeing. He wasn’t interested. Now, we do suckers.

For pooping, I moved on to something a little bigger. The incentive is a box full of treasures, or mostly dollar store items such as balloons, cars, glow sticks and others.

After several days, he seems to understand that’s a bigger treat. Today, he ran as quick as he could to the potty and pooped. That shows another step in the continual training process.

While ideas online work, I always look at what will help my child. Never ignore the mom gut and be afraid to change strategy. Also, never forget that working as a team is better. When Calvin’s big sister gave him a high five for going potty – the smile on his face couldn’t have gotten any bigger.

I find it interesting how much is out there to buy for potty training. From books (for parents and kids), to a variety of potties, to videos. There is a market out there for these parents.

Here’s my findings – You need the underwear and you need a potty. From there, it’s all a waste of money.

Don’t buy pull-ups – they are just like diapers. Make the commitment, stick with it and just make it about you, your child and learning. You don’t need books and videos and special products. Just like for us, it’s a simple process with simple needs.