Potty training lessons
Like many of you, potty training threw me for a real loop. We’ve completed a crash course for the last 6 days and I figured I’d share what we’ve learned so far.
3 days is a myth. I thought that was the norm. Sure, maybe it worked for some kids, but that’s not reality for most.
This is insanely hard. Take this one with a grain of salt since I’m 34w pregnant and super emotional, but holy shit was this difficult. I cried many many times the first few days. I didn’t expect that either. My son is 2.5 and showing readiness signs, so I thought it would be three days of a couple accidents and by the end of 3 days he’d be taking himself to the potty. Lolol was that not the case. Doesn’t mean he’s not ready, I just had very unrealistic expectations.
What works for some won’t work for all. Every single thing I read said to make a big deal when they pee in the potty. The first day, I clapped, I said yay!!!, I made a big deal. I traumatized the poor kid. He started crying when he would pee because we aren’t loud and exuberant like that normally, and he was scared. Thankfully we realized that quickly and adjusted and now he still is scared when he pees, but it’s better. Stickers and other rewards also didn’t work. So try it, but don’t worry if it doesn’t work. Just pivot to something else.
Screen time is your friend the first couple of days. We typically try to avoid screen time. He still has it, but we try to limit it. Day 1, we didn’t do any screens and damn was that hard. He was naked and running all through the house, and I was chasing after him with the potty. Day 2 I had the idea to turn on the tv (no idea why it didn’t occur to me earlier) and that made it so much easier. He was happy sitting with me and we would just go to the potty regularly. So much easier.
Rip the bandaid off and leave the house. We didn’t leave until day 4 and by the end of day 3, I was crying to my husband that I was a prisoner in our house (again, very pregnant and very emotional lol). But he did great. We left on days 4, 5, and 6 to run random errands. We brought the potty with us and I’d put him on it at regular intervals. He only had one accident while we were out those days, and that accident was actually when we got home - I just didn’t get him on the potty quick enough.
Self initiation takes time. My son still doesn’t tell us when he needs to go or go by himself. We’ve learned some of his cues and his habits, so we’re able to catch the pee basically. Again, I wasn’t prepared for this. I thought after a couple days he’d be running to the potty by himself. So keep that in mind when people say that they potty trained in X number of days. Everyone has different standards and expectations, but it’s rare that a kid would get every piece of this so quickly.
That’s all I have for now. I hope this helps someone. Thanks for reading!