Home > 5 Things You Should Know About Potty Training
Posted by admin on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
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Teaching your child to use the toilet is a difficult and trying process. There are plenty of books out there on the subject, but some things must be learned in the trenches or, if you’re lucky, from someone who has been there. I potty trained my daughter over the course of a few days when she was two. Here’s what I learned.
Dedicate a Few Days to the Endeavor
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Clear your calendar for at least three days. You’re going to war with diapers. Stock up on food, milk and anything else you might need. It’s best to avoid leaving the house when you’re potty training. You need to be near a toilet (equipped with a kid’s toilet seat) at all times. That way, you can create a routine of having your child sit on the potty every couple of hours to get in the habit. A fish tank filled with colorful swimmers may even draw them to the bathroom more often. You will also be close to a restroom if emergency strikes. Even if your child starts to have an accident, it’s still a good idea to take him or her to the bathroom to sit on the toilet so the act is connected with the location.
Training Pants are Not Your Friend
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Maybe you’ve seen the commercial where the little girl sings about how she’s a “big kid now” because she can pull down her training pants and use the bathroom on her own. Yeah, right. In my experience, it doesn’t work like that. They may look cute, but training pants don’t work because they don’t give your child a reason to go to the bathroom. If you had the choice between (a) stopping what you were doing to go to the bathroom or (b) continuing to play while you pee yourself, knowing a magical device would suck up all the urine, which would you choose? Ditch the training pants and get ready for lots of clean up.
Accidents Will Happen
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If you want potty training to go smoothly and quickly, you have to prepare yourself for an all out pee party. Accept it. Embrace it. There will be pee on your floors, on your couch, in your car, and most likely on you. This is part of the process. Trying to avoid the accidents with training pants will only delay the inevitable parade of pee that is coming to your home.
Don’t Show Your Frustration
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You’re going to get frustrated. Just when you think your child has it down pat, he or she will sit there and happily pee on your floor. Right now, it probably seems silly to think you would be mad at a little kid for such a thing, but you probably will be. You will be tired of cleaning up pee and you may want to lash out and say something like, “If you knew you had to go, why didn’t you say something? You know better than that!” Thinking all that is ok. Saying it is not. You never want your child to feel ashamed. Embarrassment will lead to setbacks. I know it seems obvious (who could get mad at a cute kid for an accident?) but this is one of the hardest ones to follow through on. Just remain supportive and heap praise upon your child when he or she does it right.
Stick With It
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Keep trying. Relapses will happen, but if you make sure your child is ready before you start the process and persevere, you will succeed. Stay positive and know that it won’t last forever. It’s a temporary project, one that requires your complete attention for a short time but one that will free you from diapers forever once it’s over.
Content by Carter P.
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hey great site, i enjoyed reading it. keep up the good work
Major thankies for the blog.Really looking forward to read more.
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