How to Potty Train a Toddler

Cute new potty chair?  Check.  Cute new princess panties?  Check.  Sugary incentives?  Check.  Books on peeing in the potty?  Check.  Movies on peeing in the potty?  Check.  Toddler actually using the potty?  Nada.

It was one month until the beginning of preschool, and Sarah had yet to show even the slightest interest in saying “sayonara” to diapers.  This was problematic because per state regulations, a three year old must be toilet trained to be able to attend preschool.  We had waited and waited for her to show interest, as the parenting books promise all children will eventually, but my child had not and she was out of time.  

But what about incentives, you say?  Surely a three year old child would do anything for a piece of candy?  Surely not.  M&M’s and Reece’s Peanut Butter cups held no sway; we even had her on a sugar restricted diet at the time.  It was the only candy in the house, and the only time she could get some of it was when she used the potty.  If memory serves it worked all of once or twice until she realized what this potty training exercise was leading up to. 

This is not where it ended.  We tried everything we could find online or in magazines, we pestered every parent we knew for advice, but not a bit of it worked.  Sarah was on to our tricks and come Hell or high water she was keeping those diapers.

So what did we do?  We took them away anyways.  Just like that.  We had a near naked toddler running around our house for a month at least.  You can imagine the mess this induced –everywhere.  This method is not for the faint of heart. 

To my immense relief she learned how to poo in the potty rather quickly.  The princess panties had caught on and she didn’t like getting them dirty, especially since when that kind of an accident occurred I would cut them off her and throw them in the trash.  Panties aren’t expensive enough to make me deal with that mess.  My devil-may-care attitude about her beloved panties saved us from big disasters most of the time, but it did nothing to stop the torrential currents of urination.  I didn’t even think she drank that much.

We borrowed my mother’s carpet cleaner and used it probably a good ten times a day in the beginning (Sarah would get to help in these cleaning projects).  After a week we were pulling out our hair in frustration, but somewhere in the second week Sarah got tired of having to mop up her own pee and used the potty on her own without any promptings from us.  Woo hoo!  We praised her and gave her candy and hugged her and kissed her and we sang and danced as we flushed the nasty down the toilet. 

No more than fifteen minutes later I was dragging the carpet cleaner back to her room to fix the newest mess.

So, would I recommend this method?  Absolutely not… unless you have to, or if you have a backyard you can keep them in until they figure it out.  Did it work for us?  In the end, yes.  It took about two full months to become completely accident free, but she never peed in the middle of a store or in the car, so I’m counting my blessings.