Help! It's Potty Training Time

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potty training

It’s nearly potty training time (again) at our house. Thus far, there is nothing I loathe more in life (maybe a bit of an exaggeration . . . maybe) than teaching my wee one to wet the potty and not the diaper. While I wish this post featured stories of my stunning success in the pee-and-poo-in-the-potty area, this post is just little ol’ me crying, begging, yearning, grabbing you by the shoulders and sincerely saying, “HELP.”

After my sweetest turned two, we tried potty training, which turned into a failure of epic parenting proportions. The matter was tabled. Soooo, my sweetest is nearing 2.5 and is for sure more mature and more cognitive of the issue. I’m thinking it’s time to pick up the potty training banner again.

Just typing those words made me sweat and my stomach knot. I can do this, right?

I’ll confess: My major downfall last time was uncertainty and a lack of confidence in the best approach. Let her run around naked? Potty seat versus no potty seat? Reward with food or stickers? The three-day-everyone-drink-apple-juice-until-we-drown method? Straight up panties or the potty training panties? Wait until kindergarten and let her teacher deal with it?

You can bet when we start up the process again I will have a heart-to-heart with myself every morning to keep calm and carry on no matter how many messes I clean up. Heavens, if EVER the seesaw effect came into play, it is during potty training at my house!

So, let me have it. Tell it to me straight. Give me your stories of triumph and tears. What’s your best potty training advice?

3 COMMENTS

  1. It isn’t easy and I think you just have to find what motivates your child. Wyatt was all about the marshmallows and then we switched to a sticker chart that earned him match cars. For the first few times, we would whoop and holler when he peed in the potty, then we changed and did differently than a lot of people when he earned rewards-he got them for being dry, not peeing in the potty. Obviously, he got one every time he peed but we always said it was for staying dry. I think this helps because it easily transitions then when you are training them for nap/night because they still get praised for the same thing – staying dry.

  2. This is my philosophy. Meh. Whatevs. She’ll go when she wants to and I know she’s too strong willed for me to force it. So far this is working. We switched to underwear during the day from the pull ups when she was going efficiently on her own and we’ve not had one accident. I’m still working on the poop thing….but since she’s pretty regular, we do a pull up until she poops and then underwear. I’d write my own post but it would be too short. (bribery tactics don’t work on my kid….ever).

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