Going Potty
Potty training.
Those two little words filled me with dread for several months, if I am honest. The images I conjured up inside my head of me having to clean up poo and wet patches from the floor, sofa and my toddler’s pants really made me cringe with horror!
I have to admit that I am a bit squeamish when it comes to poo. I mean, I haven’t found it too bad changing nappies (apart from when I was in the early stages of pregnancy with my second baby) but cleaning the potties of my friends’ children or my son’s cousin really makes me gag. So the thought of having to clean up Burton’s ‘accidents’ was not something I was looking forward to.
However, we have now been potty training Burton for over a week, and so far it has been great. Fantastic even. Not scary in the slightest! *breathes sigh of relief* This is largely due to the fact that Burton has taken to it brilliantly; he really has been a little star. It’s almost like I flicked a switch and, suddenly, he can use a potty! I kind of thought (hoped) he might be ready as he would tell me when he had done a poo in his pull up nappies, but because he would freely wee in the bath or shower (and laugh about doing so!) I worried that he didn’t have any sense of bladder control.
Thankfully, I was wrong.
He took to it straight away and doesn’t wait to be asked to go – he suddenly grabs his crotch, crosses his legs and then takes himself off to his potty and makes sure ‘willy is pointing down’ and goes. Of course, he then jumps up and expects a round of applause for his efforts and loves to pick up the potty and show it to whoever is in the room! I have also discovered how much he enjoys the freedom of not only not wearing a nappy, but not wearing anything on his bottom half. He has become quite the exhibitionist! He also enjoys sitting on the potty for long periods of time – he likes nothing more than to sit and watch CBeebies whilst he ‘goes’ and gives me orders to fetch him a snack! He is like a king on his throne!
Since we started he has only had six poo accidents and about the same wet ones – which me and Daddy think is brilliant! We are very pleased and proud of him. It’s another step towards him growing up, which although is a little sad for us it is of course another rite of passage he is undertaking. He was obviously ready to begin potty training, which I feel is the key to its success. As a result, the mess I had envisaged has been minimal – result 
Potty training – Two words that aren’t actually that bad.
I have three children, with a fourth one due in three weeks time, and my experiences have been so completely different between my three girls. It just shows how much depends on the child, rather than the parent or method. My first daughter was a star; When not even 2 years old, I took off her nappy in the summer, let her run around in just briefs (mainly outside!) so she would notice when she wet herself. Within no time she got the idea and was fully potty trained. I thought I had done brilliantly, until my second daughter needed to be potty trained. Same tricks did not work. She just did not care that much about wetting or soiling herself so lacked the motivation. It took me months (while getting frustrated) until one day I told her her friend, who was younger (just by a few weeks) was potty trained. I guess she was feeling competitive and started putting in an effort and was potty trained quickly afterwards (she was 2 1/2). Because my youngest daughter is only 13 months younger than my middle one, I was dreading going from training one toddler straight to the next, but luckily she was fairly quick to catch on and was trained before 2 1/2.
Having laughed at parents for struggling while I managed to train eldest in 2 weeks even before her 2nd birthday, I have been brought back down to earth by my second one. I think it all comes down to motivating the child. Some children motivate themselves because they want to be ‘grown up’ and others will need a different approach. But finding what motivates your child is definately the key!
thanks for your comment. i think it helped that my son was ready as I didn’t want to start too early and it all go wrong and it would take longer. its funny how each child takes to it so differently isn tit? they say that girls tend to pick it up faster than boys. i wonder how your 4th child will fair? you must have your hands very full btw xx