The “Joys” of Potty Training
I hope you got the sarcasm!
Potty training. These two words give me so much anxiety! I was so nervous to start. My son is very willful. That made the whole concept of potty training even more intimidating. I relaxed by telling myself that eventually, he would become potty trained. Nobody goes to college in diapers after all!
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When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I became more motivated to get my son out of diapers. If possible, I wanted to avoid having two children in diapers at the same time. I decided it was time to focus on this more than we had been. Here, I will outline the process we have done, where we are now, and then I will share some potty training stories! If you are in the middle of the process, hearing some humorous stories from others might ease your frustration like it did for me!
The Beginning
Our adventure started at about 15-months-old. It simply started with buying a simple potty. We didn’t go for one with any bells and whistles. It’s a simple, convertible seat. By convertible, I mean that it will turn into a seat for the toilet and a step stool. I felt that the ones with a lot of noise might be intimating for a young child.
We put that seat in our bathroom and I started bringing my son into the bathroom with me when I went. There was no pressure to start using it, but I wanted him to get used to it. I didn’t undress him or ask him to sit on it. He was allowed to explore it and play with it while I explained what I was doing on the potty.
Eventually, he started showing more interest. He wanted to sit on the potty (still fully clothed) and liked to wave and say “bye-bye pee pee” when I flushed the toilet. I watched for all of the signs that he was truly ready.
The Signs
1. Interest in the toilet or underwear.
2. Longer dry periods.
3. Pulling at or complaining about wet/dirty diapers, aware of when he went or announces that he is going.
4. Understanding on the “lingo” pee-pee and poo-poo.
5. Ability to follow basic directions.
6. Ability to sit down and stand up from the potty.
7. More predictable bowel movements.
8. Able to pull his pants up and down.
9. Likes to watch and imitate me.
10. Takes pride in accomplishments and desires independence.
The Next Step
Once I noticed these signs, I went out and bought a couple books. My son loves Sesame Street, so I got one Elmo themed book and one that I remember from my own childhood, Once Upon a Potty (there is a boy and a girl version). He was about 20-months-old at this point.
I was working full time so we only had time at night to sit on the potty, but we started having a schedule to sit on it once a day. He would drink his milk, and then we would sit on the potty with no pants on while I read the books. He loved the process and enjoyed the books, but wasn’t actually using it.
This lasted several months. It was a little frustrating, but I still wasn’t in a hurry. I knew my son, and he did not want to be pressured or pushed. He would occasionally give me some push back and refuse to sit on the potty at night. It was a battle of the wills and neither one of us was going to back down. He was stalling!
Kicking it up a Notch
Shortly after my son’s second birthday, I found out I was pregnant again. That’s when I wanted to try and take things a little more seriously. My son had started actually peeing on the potty most nights, although he didn’t always finish. It was as if he did half on the potty and then saved the other half for his diaper.
My husband and I decided that I would be able to stay home and quit my job, so I had the time to start potty training during the day as well. This is when we started naked time.
My son ran around all day with no pants on and the potty out in the living room. We’d sit on it every 15 minutes or so. He refused. He peed on the carpet several times. When we had to go out of the house, I’d put a diaper on him, and he would immediately pee in the diaper as if he had been holding it, waiting for the diaper.
He continued to do better and better at night, building to the point where he stopped needing to pee more in his diaper after going in the potty. Every time he peed in the potty, he got an M&M. He loved getting these treats and finally, it started to click that he only got them when he used his potty. Giving him these rewards motivated him to start using his potty during the day.
Where We Are Now
At this point, we’ve been doing naked time at home for a couple weeks. My son is great at recognizing that he needs to pee and sitting on his potty in time to go. He also is able to completely evacuate his bladder at once and has very few accidents.
However, if he has underwear or a diaper on, he still will often pee in his pants. He tells me he needs to, but then will go before we actually sit down. We have also yet to be successful with any poops. He tends to go as soon as he wakes up in the morning and from naps before I have a chance to go into his room and get him. Therefore, that one will probably take us a long time.
Update: 8/22/18
We had to take a break from potty training when we bought a house and moved. Once we settled into our new home, we went back to it. Now, my son is perfect during naked time (at least with pee). However, he still has some trouble when he’s wearing underwear. This results in accidents when we are out so I always have extra shorts and underwear with us. He is also a “sleeping pooper”. My son poops in his sleep. This fact makes it really hard to get him to learn to go on the potty instead. We’ll keep working at it!
Update: 3/12/19
So we have been at this a while now, and I really see a lot of progress now. We tried to night train soon after my second child was born, everyone got frustrated, lost a lot of sleep, and we are back in pull-ups for night. Doing that with a young baby was just too much. We needed to survive the fourth trimester first! During the day, however, he is almost perfect! I still prompt him a lot, but he goes almost every time, has almost no accidents, unless he’s really tired or absorbed in an activity, and is even pooping in the potty! He self-initiates more and more each day. I know the night will come eventually! I’ve learned a lot of new hacks that really made things a lot easier. You can read all my tips and tricks here!
Potty Training Stories
Now as I promised, here are some humorous stories from some other moms about their experience potty training! The following are all quotes from other mom bloggers, followed by a link to their blog.
My sister and I have girls around the same age, and we are potty training them at the same time. My sister gives her LO an M&M everytime her daughter uses the potty. She started giving my daughter one everytime her cousin would go potty in hopes of encouraging my daughter to go on the potty. Well, I went to the bathroom a couple weeks ago and my daughter comes up to me with her hand out and told me. “Good job Momma! You went potty. I get an M&M now.” 😂
www.prettyinbabyfood.com
My middle child is currently potty training. We started out putting her on the potty every 15 minutes, and when she peed we gave her a little treat (a chocolate chip). She caught on pretty quickly and started sitting on the potty every 5 minutes to push out a couple drops so she could have more chocolate! Now we only give treats sometimes (with claps and hurrays the rest of the time), and it’s working just as well.
www.abrazoandcoze.com
For my youngest, I created a potty pack to try to keep him on the potty for long enough (short attention span, that kid!). It had books, a teddy who sang a song and my own repertoire of songs (all nicely toilet-themed). It worked, but too well. For months we had to use the potty pack every time and everywhere he went to the toilet or he wouldn’t go. Try explaining singing a “twinkle twinkle little toilet” song to the person in the public restroom stall next to you….. 🤣😆
www.vintagecourage.com
My oldest son took to pooping in the potty almost immediately; HOWEVER, I soon realized that–from his perspective–a “potty” was anything that was shaped like a bowl or box. I found him squatting on top of our end table while pooping into the open drawer.
www.optimomblog.com
I left my toddler at the table playing with her ponies. Next thing I know, I head a ‘sorry, mommy. It’s yucky’ behind me. A little scared, I turn around to see what she’s talking about. She’s standing there, with no pants on, holding a turd. She had had an accident, and then took the turd out to give it to me! 🤢
www.momeh.ca
When I potty trained my oldest daughter, we got her this cute little Minnie Mouse toddler potty that she was so excited to use. And she got the hang of things pretty quick. I remember how proud she was the first time she went to the potty on her own…. she carried the whole toilet out to the living room to show us, and left a trail of poop and water along the way. 😩😷
www.majorleaguemommy.com
Currently potty training my son. He has this habit of going into a corner where no one can see him and then doing the job! So we were at the hospital and I am getting us registered when I turn around and find him gone! After a little panic saw that he had gone behind the counter, near the window and was hiding his face behind the curtain to poop!!
www.mommyrepublic.in
When I was potty training my 1.5 yo daughter last summer I was so happy to see her taking her own initiative to sit on a potty and even told me that she was pooping. I was encouraging her to do so. When she yelled done I was thinking…oh this potty training is going super well…only to realize when I lifted her up to wash her butt that she has been throwing in small toys into the potty! And yes she did poop as she said she was….a lot! #motherhood
www.familyearthtrek.com
My son who remove his diaper all the time. Well, one time he took off his diaper went #2 on the floor and drove his toy cars over the pile several times like a hill. Yeah not fun but it was funny.
www.asideofcrunchy.com
My daughter was playing upstairs and pooped her pants. She tried to come downstairs to tell us but decided to sit and scoot down our CARPETED stairs. So yeah there a trail of poo all the way down every single stair when she was done.
www.unfrazzledmama.com
Oh man. This just happened to me TODAY. My 3-year-old was peeing on his little potty chair and my 4-month-old started to cry. I went to pick up the baby, taking my eyes off 3 yo for no more than 30 seconds… turn back around to find him dipping his hands in his pee and rubbing it all over his body.😭🤢
www.caffeinecuddles.com
One time we were on a family road trip, we had to pull over in a parking lot so my 2-year-old could go potty. All the while people are driving past and we are trying to block her on her potty
www.brigettedanielle.com
One day, early in potty training, my son peed in his pants and in the middle of cleaning him up, I had to walk through the kitchen to get something. As I did, I slipped. I quickly realized that what I slipped in was dog pee! I went to clean that up and when I came back, I saw my dog eating something off of the carpet… yep… you guessed… it was poop… human poop. I wish I was making this up, I really do! Needless to say, we paused the potty training for a while. He wasn’t really ready, and none of us were ready for that!
www.raisingboyswithbooks.com
Share your favorite potty training story below! Haven’t gone through this yet? Tell me your biggest fear, hopefully I can help!/
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40 Comments
Meagan Mitchell
Oh how I love a good potty training story! once of my kids peeded into an empty cup he found on the floor! I’m just glad he didn’t pee on the floor!
Kat
That’s some talent to make it into the cup!!!!
Michelle
My eldest started potty awareness at one and was fully potty trained by 18 months. Her younger sister was 4 months old by that time. Therefore, most of my youngest life, she’s been seeing her sister spend lots of time in the bathroom, getting stories read and songs sung. This has caused a fascination with the bathroom, to the point where she LOVES playing with the toilet–she can lift the toilet seat and splash around!! Yuck! She just turned one yesterday and we are beginning potty awareness. She peed in the potty yesterday, and pooped and peed today! What weird things us mothers get excited about.
It’s a long road ahead, but maybe with her fascination with the potty, it will go just as smoothly as her sister.
Kat
Wow! You are so lucky! I’m on 2 weeks and he isn’t fully there yet…
Angela Lee
This had me laughing! I love all the funny stories you shared. I will be coming back to this when it is time to potty train my little one!
Kat
Thanks!!!
Kayla
The stories cracked me up! 😂 We swear by naked time to potty train fast, both of my older two were potty trained over a weekend by using thia method right after their second birthday.
Kat
I wish it was taking us only a weekend! We’re at 2 weeks…my son is very stubborn
Angela Milnes
Potty training can be so much fun and turmoil all at the same time. So glad that we are done with it!
Kat
I can’t wait to be done! My son can be so stubborn!
Anna
Oh i remembered this day when my husband and I potty trained our daughter.
It was definitely a lot of fun, we had few accidents but we were so happy
that it didn’t take us long to trained here at all. Definitely a life saver
that she stopped wearing diapers, and had fun going to the bathroom.
Kat
Ooh you’re so lucky!
Rikki
I just finished potty training my 3 year old daughter. I found these stories from other moms quite helpful though. They help me relax about my own potty training experience.
Kat
Good! That’s why we share with each other!
Angie
I am so intimidated by potty training too! I have tried doing small things with my daughter but she refuses to go on the potty. She’ll sit on it fine and as soon as she has to go she runs away. We’ve had a couple of carpet accidents!
Kat
That happened with my son for a while, she’ll do it when she’s ready!
Shantell
Man potty training days. I was so happy my son was potty trained before he turned 2. My daughter is 18 months and we haven’t started yet but I feel she will catch on quick we’ll be starting very soon.
Kat
I hear second kids have an easier time! Good luck.
Jenny
Your tips for knowing when to try potty training are great! And the stories are hysterical!! We recently went through the whole pee but no poop issue, and I found a video on youtube that helped a lot! I think it is a book, but it is animated and read aloud in the video. The thing that helped so much is that it actually includes an image of the poop IN the potty. Pirate Pete is the character’s name, and he pees on the potty pretty well in the middle of the story, but finds pooping a lot harder. When he eventually does it, he shows the full potty to his parents. Something about seeing the image made it click for my son. We watch the video on my phone while he is sitting on the potty, and he still requests it when he is having a little trouble getting any poop to come out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoNoB9Lj5UE
Kat
Thanks for the suggestion! I think I saw this one but didn’t watch it with him. I’ll have to give it a go!
Margaret Sky
Haha, love the stories! We are sort of mid potty-training right now. It was quite stressful for a little while when I was putting a lot of pressure on my daughter, but as soon as I relaxed about it, so did she, and now she can pee in the potty like a champ. She always asks for a diaper to poop in though! 😛
Kat
My son is still pooping in his diaper too! He prefers his diaper still, but at home when naked we do well. Haha
Sarah
Potty training is. . . Eventful. Lol! I literally laughed out loud at the “my kid pooped in empty boxes” anecdote. Been there, thrown out those boxes. 😂
Kat
Hahaha. That was one of my favorite stories!
Brooke
Hi Kat!
This post has me cracking up! Great read!
I’ll throw my recent potty training story into the mix… my daughter is 2 and we’re just now getting started. Yesterday we were having some naked time and I was so proud that she used the potty three times! Then, we were playing hide and seek. I was hiding and suddenly hear her start to scream. I run out only to find poop all over the floor. She was screaming because she had stepped in it and it was all over her foot.
Yea, I haven’t been able to get her to use the potty since then…
Thanks for the laughs!
Brooke
Kat
Haha that’s hilarious! My son keeps pooping before I can get to him in his crib so luckily we haven’t had poop accidents. I’m dreading that!
Cassie
HAhahha the stories are hilarious!! We are currently potty training here as well. It’s an everyday struggle.
Kat
agreed!!!
Marysa
Potty training is definitely a challenge! I remember those days.. I dreaded warmer weather because car trips and parks and the outdoors became a scavenger hunt for the closest bathroom. In the winter, we would go to what felt like every gross store bathroom. I’ve been to quite a few rather unsavory bathrooms!
Kat
Haha. Ya. I’m already learning all the bathrooms. Of course, I’ll have to learn it again once we move.
Heather
My son isn’t quite ready for potty training yet, but when he is, I now have a better understanding of what to look forward to… And you’re right, I bet it will be much easier to only have your baby in diapers when he/she is born instead of both children. Good luck!
Kat
Thanks! Definitely wait til your little one is ready. Makes it easier on everyone
Jenn Pohlman
HA! I love these stories! Kudos to you for not pushing your son and having such patience. I hope I am able to do the same when it comes time to potty train my little one. Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your one on the way! xoxo
Kat
Thank you!
Susie Whittenberger
Great post! Funny stories! Don’t worry, you’re right, nobody goes to college in diapers…
Kat
Thanks!
Liz
Haha some of these stories are too funny! Potty training was so intimidating for us and treats didn’t work at all. Finally we were able to try again by getting 5 or so “new” toys from Goodwill and placing them in the bathroom. My son had to stare at it until he went, and for some reason that motivated him! Great tips here, thanks!
Kat
That’s too funny! Every kid has their own motivation I guess!
Joanne
Ohhhhh I remember this days! My son is 10 now so it is a distant memory.
Kat
Lucky! I hope to be done soon!