Ten things I’ve learned about potty training
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Potty training is one of those things that people routinely lie about.
I don’t have absolute proof of that but I just know it to be true down to my bones. No one really talks about the nuts and bolts of potty training.
So I feel the need to present the seedy side of toilet training. Your results may vary, but I believe these to be somewhat universal truths.
1. Potty training sucks it like no one’s business.
It ain’t cool, it’s not fun and it sure as hell ain’t easy. I don’t believe for one minute the parent who says — chuckling in disbelief and his or her own good fortune — “Jimmy potty trained himself at 18 months.”
Go on people, throw it at me. You can leave 300 comments trying to convince me that potty training was a breeze and your kid figured it out the second time you two walked into the bathroom.
And I will never buy it. I don’t believe you, but you can say it if you must.
And just to clarify here, my definition of a successfully potty trained child is that the kid wears underwear during every waking moment and announces to the parent, “Hey dude, I need to go to the bathroom. Care to join me?”
It is not the parent who runs the kid to the bathroom every 15 minutes and sets him or her on the can catching the child’s urge to go. It is not setting a portable potty seat in the living room and asking the kid to try it out every 15 minutes. That is not potty trained, buddy.
2. Both the parent and the kid have to be ready to deal with potty training.
If Momma ain’t ready, ain’t nobody ready.
Whoever is manning the show has to be willing to deal with the process. Diapers and pull ups are convenient. But eventually changing diapers will get old. And that is when Mom or Dad is ready to give it a go.
Occasionally the kid will be ready before the parent and that’s the optimal scenario.
But it never went that way for me.
3. It’s really hard to explain the concept of a full bladder or bowels to a small child.
A small child’s vocabulary is limited and at times it’s sort of like trying to explain quantum physics to a lady bug. You need a highly evolved lady bug to have immediate success. Yes, you run into a few lady bugs who were born with a diploma in their hands but usually that’s not the case.
4. Potty training is a four-step process. You have to tackle urinating, bowel movements, staying dry during naps and staying dry overnight.
If you’ve never worked with a small child let me tell you it always, always goes in stages like that. Again there are a few exceptions to the rule, but for me the rule continued to hold true every time.
p.s. Trying to get a kid to stay dry during naps and all night long is a real bitch.
5. The standard toilet is pretty high off the ground for a small child.
Some kids will find a foot stool helpful. Other kids will insist on balancing precariously on the edge of the seat. It’s just a factor in the entire equation.
6. Having a new baby in the house will definitely mess up potty training mojo and will cause regression in the older kid.
That sucks it hard. Enough said.
7. Catching bowel movements is really difficult and unless you’re willing to deal with a packer, you might have to turn to the diaper/pull up for a while.
You might think that a look of serious concentration and a slightly red face would clue you into the happenings of the kid’s bowels. That is true unless your kid’s diet is high in fiber.
Then very little concentration is necessary and the package is like a gift from Santa. It just appears like magic.
If you can catch your kid in the act, running him or her to the toilet will inspire great fear in said child. Clenching of teeth and other body parts will ensue and the experience will become one of dread.
I have found time and small rewards to be helpful. We are currently using Starburst candy as an incentive. Yes, we’ll probably pay for that with the dentist later, but I find nothing wrong with robbing Peter to pay Paul right now.
8. Skid marks are inevitable. And where there are skid marks an intense laundry experience is sure to follow.
Scrubbing with Fels-Naptha bar soap, soaking underwear in Biz Stain Fighter and following up with Spray ‘n Wash Stain Remover is a pretty good defense when it comes to skid marks. But nothing is perfect folks.
9. Hearing your kid say, “I gotta go poop,” will inspire a near panic attack.
I speak from experience when I say those four words will make life feel like the earth has stop rotating on its axis. And that statement is usually uttered while the child is strapped in a five-point harness car seat in a minivan cruising at 80 mph on the freeway.
Good luck with all of that. And you may find it helpful to refer back to number eight.
10. If your kid doesn’t catch on until she’s three-and-a-half, that’s cool.
Really this dog and pony show is run by the child. When your kid is ready, your kid is ready.
If you want to attempt to roll Jello up hill, have at it. I guess that’s what Ativan is for.
Oh boy, I’m Number 1! Not Number 2, thank you.
Potty training is like childbirth–it sucks big time while you are in the middle of it, but the memory of the pain fades with time.
I remember it being a buggar, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember any of the above. Maybe I blocked it out. Maybe it’s just too darned painful to remember. I do remember that it sucked, but I don’t have vivid recollections why. I guess that’s the blessing after 17 years. Maybe its just that the problems just get more difficult and pooping on the potty isn’t such a big deal anymore.
Better Number One than Number Two, eh?
It is like childbirth, Lin, in that the negative does fade away. But being stuck in the midst of it, the skid marks are still fresh. My husband’s cousin always said, small kids, small problems. Big kids, big problems. I do try to remember that when I’m scrubbing with Fels-Naptha.
I have four kids. By the time I got to the third one I stopped potty training and just let them make the change when they wanted.
It worked just fine. They’re all over 18, now, and every one is out of diapers. :)
Yeah, I have gotten less uptight about potty training with each kid. Finally with this third one she is excited about being like her older sisters. I thought that would happen with the second one, but it did not. At least that one is now six and done with this mess. And I do remind myself that my kid will be fully potty trained by Kindergarten.
Well, I have no kids so I’ll take your word for it. I do know my dog that is over a year old just pooped in the hall because it’s raining outside so I especially don’t have any room to talk.
My mom was a big believer in potty candy/ an M&M in each hand with a successful poop one for a tinkle.
My niece is just now staying dry at 5, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I might slap the kid which apparently is what my mother threatened to do to me when I wouldn’t walk at 18 months. Does childbirth inspire patience like being able to clean up puke?
I know a stiff piece of cardboard under the sheet helps a kid from sleeping too deeply and they can wake up to go. That was a trick told to me by a mom with 10 kids. She bought the vibrating pee mat after total frustration with the 3rd boy, and apparently it never vibrated because once it was under the sheet, they somehow were aware enough to get up and then she lost the mat and a stiff piece of foam board apparently worked the same.
I figure if the kid isn’t peeing their pants in kindergarten, it’s the parents dealing with the poop, no need for judgement.
I have wondered about house training dogs. I really don’t think I could do it. I would want to beat the living shet out of the dog. And I have wondered if a dog will take a dump in the rain. I guess the answer is no.
That’s interesting about the stiff piece of cardboard. I’ll have to give that a go when we deal with overnight. And I’ll tell you that your thoughts on child rearing will do a 180 once you have your own. I think you know that.
I am eating loads of humble pie right now for all the things I said and the thoughts I didn’t share when I had no kids.
They will, but only if they really have to go and sometimes it’s on the concrete. Housetraining dogs did require a lot of frustration but you can shut them in a crate every time you step in pee, and when you want to sleep late or go on vacation. It took months and months and one day there wasn’t anymore pee on the floor, it was the strangest thing.
I hate humble pie, I think I just won’t have kids and get another dog.
This is wrong. I’ll admit it before I say it.
But sometimes I wish I could throw my kid in a crate. And then put her on mute.
I gotta tell you, if you fry up some onions and garlic that humble pie isn’t too bad.
I love you Cardiogirl!
Did you look into my mind for this, or did you just write this for me. I’m currently going through all of this right now. And…we have a newborn in the house!
Yes. Yes sturgglingwriter, this one is for you. I did think about your daughter when your son was born. I wondered if you were working on this and if she’s regressed yet. Because I’ll bet she will if she hasn’t already. And it does suck.
Grace was a breeze to potty-train BUT!!!!! she was 3 years old. We tried at 2, and she was having none of it. Also, I knew we were going to be driving across country when she was almost 3, and the last thing I wanted was to hear “Mommy, I gotta GO” on some deserted highway in the middle of Montana. Finally in January of last year (she was 3 years 3 months), we said, “If you want to go to school, you need to get potty-trained.” We tried Pull-Ups, but she would simply pee in them because they were nothing but glorified diapers to her. If we put her in big-girl undies, she would stay dry. Also she was fully potty-trained all at once, from naps to bedtime to pooping, the whole nine yards. But again I think it’s because she was so old.
My friend was just talking about this at dinner on Saturday. She insists that she potty-trained her daughter at 16 months and will potty-train #2 around 18 months. She says that there’s a window you just HAVE to catch, and if you miss it then potty-training is a pain. She said all you have to do is know that there will be puddles and you won’t be able to leave the house for a week and for the first three days you will only think about peeing and pooping. It’ll be fun to see how she succeeds now that she has two kids to deal with because I am sure the older kid won’t want to be ignored for a week while Mommy focuses on potty-training kid #2.
I’m curious as to what Google search results will come up, now that you’ve written this post!
Blue I absolutely, positively need a follow-up in six months regarding that friend’s kid. Again, I will eat humble pie if that chick was able to do it. But as you pointed out she now has another kid who’s going to want attention.
I wonder about the searches, as well :) No golden showers here, folks. Just move along.
My MIL claimed to have potty trained her oldest child when the kid was 8 months old. I wondered how, since at 8 months a kid can’t talk or walk. I remember telling my husband then that it was his mother who had been trained. Sorry, I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now.
When my daughter was trained, we had an excellent sitter during the day, and it went well, although Kid was well over 2 years old. I don’t remember having a lot of bed accidents, but memory does fade on some things. haha.
My son was older, and quite a trial. I finally told him if he wasn’t potty trained by the time he was 3, all he was getting for his birthday was diapers. Amazingly enough, it only took 2 or 3 days before he was trained for daytime, and maybe another week for night time. Heh. Sometimes threats are da bomb!!
No. Way.
I am calling bullshit on your mother-in-law, beanie, even though you already have in a diplomatic way.
I’ve heard so many people tell me that boys just train later. I only have girls and basically each one was 3.5 years old when they really got the hang of it and accidents were almost non-existent. I did try at two years old, but it was highly unsuccessful. And even though it’s the talk of the park over the summer, no other parent of a Kindergartner gives a rip about when the kid was potty trained.
girlfriend, it’s been a while since i’ve bowed before you and worshiped at the altar of cardiogirl, but i’m unrolling my mat and prostrating myself before your blog. you just have to freaking submit this to a parenting magazine. i loved it. do i need to pimp you out, huh?
i won’t say it either, but one day we just ran out of pull-ups. i said okay kid, you have to fly, this is it. don’t p*ss in the bed. she made it.
Man, flattery will get you EVERYWHERE, Natural. You want me to drive you to the airport and then help you move your entire house? Yes. I’ll be there. What time?
Grrr! Damn you and your ability to tell the kid to not piss in the bed and then have it happen that way (shakes fist).
p.s. Yes, please. I’d be honored if you would be my pimp.
I think this is the most fabulous post you’ve ever written – I’m still laughing!
And potty-training was one of the key factors in deciding that one child was enough for me. I never want to go through that again.
Oh Les. Now I’m going to have to take you to the airport and move your entire house after I take Natural to the airport and move her entire house. Thank you!
The memory does fade but I hard a hard time with my daughter – she just didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I put the training potty in front of the tv and told her if she sat on it she could watch tv, which she didn’t do that often. She would sit there forever but not do a single thing… I finally gave up and she was pretty much accident free after 3.5 years.
Sometimes those best plans just blow up in your face, don’t they? I, too, tried the potty seat in front of the TV. Like you, no luck. But for those who are successful in that method, rock on brutha!
I have an aunt who swears that her daughter was potty trained at 9 mos old.
…
Whatever. I remember trying to potty train Evan @ 2, but I think he wasn’t ready until 3.
Again, I call bullshit on that.
Truly the kid decides. That’s what I think. And when the kid is not into it, it’s not happening. When I finally gave into that everything became so much easier.
I remember helping my mom when my brother was getting potty-trained. It definitely is a thought that deters me from small animals and small children. I can deal with cadavers, but the crap (haha) that comes uncontrolled out of little things is too much for me.
Yeah, small animals have no place in this house even though my oldest daughter begs for a dog daily, almost hourly. I want to scream, “I have enough shit to clean up after. I am not cleaning a dog’s ass!”
But instead I say, “Hmm. We’ll see.”
Now you’re dealing with cadavers, you say? I think I might have to email you to hear more about that, if you don’t mind.
Yeah, mostly just in the anatomy lab, but I’ve applied for a position that dissects them. I find out in April if I’ve got it or not. I told my mom, who’s an accountant, and she thought I was out of my mind. Perhaps, but it will help get me into grad school.
So in anatomy do you kind of study the cadaver in a non invasive way, whereas in the other position you would actually wield a scalpel?
And lastly are you pre-med?
Yeah, you just kind of dig around in there with gloves, as opposed to the “team” where you actually dissect out the parts to be exhibited in lab and TA the lab.
I was considering pre-med for a long time, but it would just be too much money and headache with insurance companies.
Digging around in there counts.
For some reason I just assumed you looked at the cadaver without having the skin open, which sounds pretty stupid now that I’ve said it. But that’s what I was thinking.
Thanks for clarifying :)
“…my definition of a successfully potty trained child is that the kid wears underwear during every waking moment and announces to the parent, ‘Hey dude, I need to go to the bathroom. Care to join me?’”
“Trying to get a kid to stay dry during naps and all night long is a real bitch.”
That second quote was very true for us. Most of the peeing and all of the pooping would happen lying down. Eventually the pooping happened during the day, but I think she was 5 yo by the time she stayed dry at night. So she was potty trained by about 2.5 yo according to the first definition.
We used m&m’s as a potty reward.
The dog, OTOH, was infinitely easier. One week was all it took, if you ignore the submissive peeing he’d do whenever a visitor showed up. And not counting accidents due to human foods that stimulate bowel movements and ass-wiping-on-the-carpet incidents at night. We also don’t consider vomit to be a trainable event. But yes, the dog was a breeze.
As a non-dog owner I find that hysterically funny. If I was the owner of said dog, not so much.
That potty training while unconscious gig is not cool at all. I might as well tell my kid, once you’re in a deep sleep start levitating off the bed, but make sure the covers drape over all sides of your body.
The pediatrician told me, at the first signs of my nervousness about this very thing, “He’ll let you know when he’s ready.” Yeah right, thought I, and I began to gather the tools of the process – potty chair, cheerios (for practicing the all-important aim,) Superman Underoos, etc. We’d have casual conversations about it, we’d discover that the potty chair would be just the right height to stand on and raid the cookies on the kitchen counter, we’d have a few million dry runs, casual, oh so casual.
Until the day he did let me know that “From now on, I’na tee-tee in the potty, Mom.” He did, and the poop parade began shortly after that. We’ve pretty much had it sussed, with the exception of the idea that he doesn’t (STILL! he’s NINE) recognize his bladder fullness until the tilt sign goes on and we’re in the middle of bloomin’ no where (This is how I found out that the liner to the car seat, thank the gods of bleach was indeed, machine washable…), and SKID MARKS! This kid won’t use regular TP – nooooo, he needs a wipe or there’s a joyous surprise for me in the dirty clothes. I will take your process and burn it into my memory. I usually do a light bleach soak (these are tighty whities, so…) followed by spray and wash.
I like that boy’s ingenuity — using the potty chair as a stepping stool to the cookies. But if he did that at my house I would cease to be impressed with his ingenuity and would become annoyed instead.
When you do the bleach soak don’t you obsess over the fact that you have bleach on your hands and unless you run your own hands through the dishwasher you will trail bleach throughout the house thereby ruining everything your hands have touched?
No? Um. Oh.
Me either because that would just be crazily neurotic (clears throat).
…I’m sooo glad that part of my life is over! I’ve 2 boys and a girl, and they were ALL trained somewhere between 3 and 3 1/2 – but only in the daytime. When my eldest was in Kindergarton in Australia, their class went on an overnight camp, and he was still in dri-nites, but so were lots of his schoolmates, and the teachers were very cool about it, no problems there.
Don’t you hate the competition about whose child does what the ‘earliest’. And those ridiculous claims of training before the first birthday? As if bladder/bowel awareness and control is a sign of intelligence?!!! Nup.
Good luck, timing and patience be yours. (and your childs’ too!)
It is a massive competition at a particular age. And if the other mothers don’t actually come out with it, they give disapproving stares at the top of the diaper that might be peeking out above the waist band.
I have actually mellowed with age and each child and have felt more confident when it comes to that kind of mommy chatter.
But I still find it annoying.
Because I’m a lazy kind of mom who has ten million too many things to worry about anyway, potty training just has never been high on my list. I figured when the kid was ready, he was ready, and I wasn’t about to rush him. Yeah, the poopy pull-ups sucked, but it’s a lot easier to throw away disposable undergarments than soak loads of poop out of them in the laundry.
My husband, on the other hand, decided that his boys should be potty trained on HIS schedule, which meant whenever HE was ready, and had zero success. Our third son is still in diapers (at age 22 mos) and hopefully he (Dad, that is) has learned his lesson and will leave the poor kid alone.
My requirement is that they must be day-trained by the age of three and a half so they can start the montessori school that three generations of the family have attended, which requires all kids to be potty-trained. This usually means they know how to pee in the potty and stay dry from 9-3 during the day, and I deal with the rest at home on the kid’s schedule.
But the SKID MARKS!!! just two days ago I threw out every single pair of underwear my two older boys own and bought them each 9 new pairs (that’s three three-packs). I just could not handle seeing any more sewage-stained underwear; after so many skid marks and an full-blown accident here and there, it was beyond the point of no return.
They were happy to pick out new underwear with their (current) cartoon characters and superheroes, and I was happy to get rid of the disgusting old ones. But I have a bad feeling about those skid marks…I still find them on the underpants of the adult male in the house, so I’m not holding out much hope that they ever go away, at least where boys are concerned.
Still, I must admit, I would rather deal with the skid marks of older boys than the hormones of older girls. Skid marks don’t wear hooker outfits to school to look “cool” and scream and cry and pout if there doesn’t happen to be any milk in the fridge.
(laughs for a while) Yeah, I suppose we all have the particular gender issues when it comes to raising kids.
I absolutely HATE those Bratz dolls. Talk about teaching the girls early. I’m waiting for one of those dolls to have a stripper pole and a thong as an accessory.
Too funny. I just told the nanny there is a hundred dollar bonus waiting for her when Christopher is potty trained. that is about the extent of my part in the process. Potty training sucks!
Man, I love your part in the process, but I’m not willing to put in all of the work it took to get there (years of medical school, huge debt, lack of sleep, the stress of patients, etc.)
O.K., I’d be too embarrassed to write about ES if I didn’t have MS. ES was indeed amazing. He walked at 9 months. At 10 months he brought us diapers when he wanted to be changed. We always took him to the bathroom with us and talked about what was going on, but never really forced the issue with his potty chair. Then, one day, at 18 months – I promise I’m not lying and I’m not trying to make my child sound like a genius (remember this is the one who walked across a pond and fell through, ruining his brand new camera phone) – he was nude and in that stance. Husband called. I brought the bucket. ES got M & Ms and never peed in a diaper again. Of course, we never tried the sitting on either big or little potties with our boys. He just knew where two or three buckets were and when the need arose, he tinkled. He asked for a diaper for #2.
Anyway, I can tell you it was a fluke of nature and I wonder why God chose to give me the easy potty-training child when I was in my 30s and the hard ones in my 40s???? My MS was about a week away from his fourth birthday, and I’m tellin’ you, I was ready to strangle him. Then, even after he went to undies, he hit a stage where every. single. day. he pooped in the pants. URGH.
Imagine my glee last week, when YS brought me MS’s underpants and wanted to put them on. I thought, “Oh, bless the heavens, he wants to potty train at 2!” The first day went well (of course, I put him in a diaper for nap and bedtime), so the second day, I sent him to school in underwear with diapers in the backpack and acceptance if the teacher chose not to coast with it. She put him in a diaper. I put him back in the underpants after his nap (still diapers at night – and let me tell you, he soaks those every night). Wednesday, I was so determined. After four accidents in the underpants, I said to YS, “I think you thought the big boy pants were cool, but I want this way more than you, so forget this.” He is my only boy who wants to sit down to pee (both the others only wanted to stand and fill a potty bucket). Given the state of our bathroom, I can only say, “hallelujah.”
Soonerchick was crackin’ me up! You are entirely correct – potty training sucks!
Addendum: ES also only failed to vomit in a bucket on two or three occasions. However, MS determined he must be a carbon opposite and refused to throw up in a toilet or a bucket until only recently. I would be sitting there holding the bucket and he would fight me, not wanting to put his mouth near it, and would puke all over me, my hair, the furniture. What a lovely child!
Wendy, if you only had your first son and told me that story I would want to throttle you through the monitor.
It’s funny how different each kid is, isn’t it? There are so many things that my oldest kid did or understood at a certain age that the next two did not.
As you surmised, any way you slice it potty training is not a cool experience. But I do believe it to be a badge of honor on the invisible parenting sash we wear.
At least you’re nearly done, heh? After this one, no more potty training for you. Su-weet.
Yes, thankfully I am almost done. And verily, I say no more potty training for me. No more!
My son really was easy. Almost everything with him is easy. But we didn’t even let him TRY until after the age of 3. I made him wear pull-ups at night until he was nearly 4, just because I didn’t want to have to deal with it.
My daughter gave us mortal hell. I thought I was going to be sending her to kindergarten in pull-ups.
And this year, second grade? I’ve had to take her three changes of clothing, just since Christmas.
Isn’t that always the way, Wendy? If one is easy the next one is not. At. All.
I find sending the change of clothes in the back pack to be helpful. Or giving it to the teacher to have on hand. If my kid takes the clothes out of the back pack.
Truer words were never spoken! Love this post!
DH’s cousin and cousin’s wife were insufferable about “potty-training” their daughter. They almost choked when I said I was waiting until my daughter was 2.5 or so to start pt’ing her. Their daughter had been potty-trained since she was 18 months old, you see. Even though she peed in her pants at every single family get-together we ever attended with them until she she was three, lol.
Parents can be so strange when it comes to potty training, can’t they? It seems like the accidents she had wouldn’t be worth the supposed bragging rights, you know? Every person is different I guess.
I really did feel the indignity of other parents the first time out um, even my own parents who insisted I was completely potty trained by 2 years old. Oh yeah, and so were my five brothers and sisters. Right.
We were also doing quantum physics in our spare time by the age of three.
LOL funny post!
My wife and I have potty trained 3 dogs and three children. And yes, I helped when I was home. Obviously when I was at work I only had to worry about my own self.
The dogs were darn easy, we have a method using a dog crate that has worked like a charm. WE trained a black lab, a terrier and a pug, and they always make it outside. Unless throwing up is in the cards, and then we have cleanup on aisle 5. And yes, they will go in the rain, in the snow, and in the -30 Celcius, or they can live somewhere else.
Like you said, training the children was a real betch. I don’t even want to ever remember that.
Howdy Tim! (laughs heartily at “cleanup on aisle 5.”)
Puking is another animal (pardon the pun) entirely and does not fall into the same category as potty training. At all.
Wow, I am impressed with the training of three dogs. Sadly, more impressed by the canines than the children. Because you can’t really talk to a dog and reason with it. Although it’s hard to reason with a kid until she’s about 25 so maybe it’s all relative.
Maybe that’s why dogs were easier for us. We didn’t beat around the bush with diapers and stuff, no reasoning with them. We just got right to the business end of the deal (another pun) and let them know they were going to the bathroom outside or else.
Almost impossible to potty train kids before 2.5 – 3 years, even though my mom tells everyone that we were potty trained by the time we were 18 months. But then she is prone to exaggerating the truth anyway.
I had no issues with cleaning up my daughter when she pooped or peed in her diaper. When she was born, we used reusable cotton diapers which were more comfortable for her in the heat. We got her started on disposable daipers whenever we would be going out because she did not much care for them in the heat.
But I have some fond memories of keeping awake till midnight every night so that I could make her pee, so she would not wet her bed.
She eventually potty trained and life moved on with some nice memories of her cozing up in my shoulder every night when I would take her to the bathroom.
I agree totally regarding the age of the kid and the onset of successful potty training.
I have tried the old, trot the kid to the can at 12 or 1 am and the middle kid is really not into that. And is stubborn. If I can drag her to the can, she refuses to perform, if you will. It’s maddening.
Obviously you can take the kid to the pot, but can’t make it pee. As frustrating as taking the horse to the water and not being able to make it drink.
My sympathies and understanding. Been there done that.
Oho…when I started potty-training child #1 (a son), I would have agreed with point #1 whole-heartedly, especially the doubt concerning a child’s ability to “potty-train him/herself.” But God had mercy on me for surviving (only barely) son’s potty-training YEARS by rewarding me with the daughter WHO POTTY-TRAINED HERSELF. My two are 15 months apart. Son had LESS THAN NO interest in leaving diapers. After an entire year of failed potty-training with the boy (who at this point was a month past his 3rd birthday) Daddy said that we could not afford two sets of diapers forever and that I had to give up on the boy and get SOMEBODY potty-trained. Initially, the girl resisted (brother doesn’t use the potty, why should I?). She made the mistake of asking for a Fisher-Price dollhouse that her friend (who was a year older and who was potty-trained) had. I told her if she went potty like a big girl she could have it and ordered it promptly. When it arrived, I set it up in my bedroom. She came in, saw it and asked, “why dollhouse in here?” I said, “because Mommy potties like a big girl.” She made this hilarious “ggrrr” sound, stomped her little foot AND POTTY-TRAINED HERSELF. NIGHT AND DAY, PANTIES ONLY. She is almost 11 now, and SHE HAD EXACTLY 2 ACCIDENTS FROM THAT TIME UNTIL TODAY. So I offer that it CAN happen, but it is rare and is likely coupled with the sibling WHO DOES NOT POTTY-TRAIN CONSISTENTLY UNTIL HE WAS ALMOST 7. Bleh.
Alright cakeburnette. That, indeed, is a good bingo.
It does make it palatable, as you have pointed out, that the other child was not a piece of cake. At all. And it is wild to me how the right motivation (for adult or child) can really make things happen.
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