I have had a hand in potty training 8 kids, so you’d think that would make me some kind of potty training expert, wouldn’t you?.

If you thought that, you’d be WRONG!!! I ran a Home Based Child Care before I had my kids and at one time I was potty training 5 kids. This was actually quite easy, because the kids would all go and sit on the toilet one after the other. We made it fun and because all the other kids were doing it, it was easy to get the reluctant ones to have a go.

Since then I have potty trained my eldest 3 girls, again you would be thinking that by now I should know what I’m doing….. but it’s not the case. Each of my kids have been very, very different to train.

Chloe was a few months off 3 years when she graduated to the toilet. Clare was 3 years and a few months and Caitlin was 3 and a half years. Chloe and Clare were both relatively easy to train because they were ready. I learnt early on that if the kids arn’t ready to be trained then you are in for lots of tears, tantrums and tension.

Caitlin was a different story, I really don’t know what I was thinking with her. I guess I got caught up in the hype of ‘normal’ kids are trained between 2 and 3 years. So when she turned 3 I started to panic. I was worried what other mums would think of my 3 year old still in a nappy, so I forced the issue, coaxing her to sit on the potty and not wear a nappy. Of course this just ended in disaster, lots of accidents, lots of tears, lots of tantrums and lots of tension. Finally I just gave in and we stopped potty training.

One day about 3 weeks after I had given in, Caitlin came to me with the potty and said she wanted to do a wee and that was it, there were no more nappies from that point on and she was totally trained (including nights) after just a couple of days.

So with Riley (who will be 3 in June) I have reverted back to the ‘casual’ approach. We have been gradually talking about the potty, Just little comments like “You’re getting to be a big boy now and soon you’ll be able to use the toilet like your big sisters!” while changing his nappy.

We have looked at different kinds of potties at the shops and talked about what kind of potty he’d like to have, but that has been it.

Then the other morning while sitting eating our breakfast he announced that he’d like to do a wee in the potty……… arghhhhh we hadn’t bought a potty yet. So we decided to go into the shops and find him his very own potty. Riley thought it was great that he got to pick out the potty he wanted and I was very proud that he picked a middle of the range potty that converts into a step and a seat for the big toilet, so we paid for it and bought it home.

He’s been having lots of fun sitting on it but so far we haven’t had any wees or poos, but thats ok, it’ll happen when he’s ready.

Filed under: Family

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