Sheila found that communicating with her daycare and tracking her sons' potty training success was helpful, but she also discovered that a good sense of humor was essential.
Sheila's Story
"Potty training was frustrating, but for us, it was also funny."
Making it really light-hearted made it a lot easier. If we just laughed about it, then the frustration went out the window. If we're laughing, they kind of echo it, and then everyone is a lot happier. It made it cute instead of frustrating, especially when they had an accident. It also helped them to not be afraid to tell us if they had an accident.
I remember my little brother when he was potty-training. If he peed, he immediately started crying because he swore my parents were going to kill him. My parents were never like that, but there's still the fear and the embarrassment. My kids, I guess they just don't have that because we made it so much fun.
- Introduce them to the toilet.
We started introducing them to the toilet when they were about two years old. We thought, "Well, if we introduce them to the toilet it might be a little easier to get them to go." They had already seen us going to the bathroom so they kind of knew what was going on. We would get them to sit on the toilet, and if they did anything in their diaper, we would go dump it in the toilet. The fun part was always flushing because they liked the sound and they liked watching it go down. If we went to the bathroom they would actually come in and flush the toilet for us. They had fun with that.
- Give them a target.
One of the techniques that people say works really well, for boys anyway, is to put cereal in the toilet and then have your son aim for them and shoot them in the toilet. It's a little game so it's fun for them, but at the same time it's teaching them to pee in the water and not all along the side of the toilet.
- Track their progress.
Praise was really important to my boys. I made a little chart and I bought stickers, and every time they did it correctly or they at least told me they had to go to the bathroom, even if they had an accident, they got a sticker. They got to put the sticker by their name on the chart, and they loved it. When they finish going, they say, "I want stickers."
- Communicate your strategies with others.
We were surprised to find that the daycare kind of potty trained them by taking them to the bathroom as often as possible. They suggested maybe every hour or every half-hour. They also said a lot of times they use washing their hands as an excuse for them to go potty. The teachers reiterate what we're doing at home, and we reiterate what the teachers do at daycare.
It's very important to communicate with whoever is taking care of the children, whether it's the parents or the grandparents or a babysitter or the child-care center. If it's the same routine, then the kids will be more comfortable that way.
"Potty training is definitely frustrating, but it can also be hilarious."
It's definitely frustrating because we as adults can do it, but they're children and they can't. There are times when we got frustrated, but that didn't really accomplish anything. It just made everyone upset. I remember when we first put Seth in underwear and he had an accident. He was trying to hide that he had gone to the bathroom, and he was walking around on his tippy-toes. It was funny to see him walking around like that, and if we had focused on how frustrating the accident was, we wouldn't have seen how hilarious his walking was. It's so hard to teach them how to do it, but making it all light-hearted makes it fun.
"Seeing them successful at going to the bathroom makes me really proud."
It makes me feel like I'm doing it right, or at least I'm doing something right. I'm really happy and really relieved that they're potty trained, but at the same time they're getting closer to growing up. That's when you realize, "Aw, they're not babies anymore."
