I just thought that I would share our experience with potty training. We started trying to potty train Emma(4 now) when she was 2 years old. It took until she was almost 3 years old to learn to go potty. How it actually happened was I was trying to train her here at home every day with a timer. Well one week I went to VA to visit my sister and I left Emma with my In-laws and my mother-in-law worked with her on it every day every second and when I came home she was all potty trained - thank goodness. Well then my other daughter Livi(3) turned 2 soon after and so I started on trying to potty train her too, which is very hard when you are trying to keep the house clean and take care of your other two children. Livi was sooooooooo hard to work with. I would try to give her candy, gum, coke, stickers and nothing worked for me. Do you know that little stinker 2 days after her third Birthday party came inside the house all by herself and went potty and when I came in after her she looked up at me and said "Mommy, I am not going to Stanky (you should here her say "Stanky" too funny) in my pants anymore." I said "yeah will see about that" Do you know, she was potty trained from that day on. I guess she just made up her own mind about the potty training thing and I wish I had not been so pushy about it. I think for some children you can push all you want but it all boils down to some children just are not ready for it. My friend's son did the exact same thing when he turned 3. It is like they make up their little minds on their own time. I hope that with Morgan (15 months) 3rd time will be a charm. If not, at least I know that I shouldn't be so pushy with her.

By Monicamomof3 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 07:18 am:

I always say that I love being a mommy, but the two things I dread as mommy are teething and toilet training. I tried to "train" my now 5 year old when she was two...to no avail! Then I gave up and decided that I would wait about 7 more months. Well, only 4 months later we were in Target, she wanted some panties and we were on our way. It is like it just "clicked" all of the sudden. My son (now 2.5) is potty trained and has been since 20 months old. I NEVER did any "training"! He started taking his diaper off and going to our hall to pee in the same place. So, I told him that if he is a big enough boy to take his own diaper off and pee on the floor, then he is big enough to pee in the potty. Three times of catching him taking his d. off and directing him to the potty was all it took. (THANK GOD!) Most kids aren't physicaly ready to respond to a full bladder until almost 3 anyway. So, I decided to quit sweating the small stuff. It's too bad it takes 2 kids to realize that, huh! LOL! That is a great little story. Thanks for sharing!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 07:40 am:

I didn't push it with my kids. When they were ready it didn't take very long. It drove my mom nuts because she thought they should have been trained before they were. They were both about 3-1/2.

By Children03 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 07:48 am:

My mother-n-law constantly made comments to me about how I should get started earlier than two and how mothers now a days are "too lazy" to potty train their children. I told her that no, mothers who train their children that early are not really training their children they are only training themselves. Children at that age are not ready! I also told her that she can think she potty trained her kids so easily, but she just forgot how hard it really was to stop making comments to me.

By Emily7 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 09:46 am:

I have a toilet that he picked out. Sometimes he wants to sit on it sometimes he doesn't. He has never actually used it. I am not forcing the issue, but advice would be nice. He is 27 months old.

By Kaye on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 10:22 am:

I have to agree with the mom in law to an extent though. Yes a lot of times moms were trained. But we do wait a LOT longer these days to even introduce potty training. With my dd we introduced her potty on her first birthday, when we got the bath ready, she sat on it, sometimes she would go, sometimes not. By 18 months, she was mostly potty trained, but we weren't ready. At home she wore panties, then we put a diaper on her to leave the house. At some pont we realized that she wasn't ever using the diapers and just quit putting them on her. So I was far from trained, but she was by age 2. My second son, pretty similar story, he was a little over two. My third son, what a pill! We didn't start as early and by time we did he was very willfull. I think that is part of the trick, you introduce it when they still are mommy pleasers!

By Children03 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 03:12 pm:

I waited because my children at one didn't even know what "pee or poop" was so it would have been me training myself not really training her. I feel like if I tried to train my 15 month to go potty she wouldn't have a clue and it would just be stressful to me. I do agree that moms are a little bit more laid back because we now have disposable diapers and back then moms hated changing and washing cloth diapers so they were eager to get their kids trained.

By Nicosmom on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 04:05 pm:

I've been hesitant about posting on this issue, out of embarrassment. My 3 year-old son is still working on this. We bought him his potty at 18 months old, he too would sit on it before his bath. A year and a half later we are still potty training. I allowed myself two weeks to get him potty trained, we are on week two and he's doing pretty good at staying dry at home. One question though, how do you get kids to go to the potty when you're out? Nico is deathly afraid of public restrooms.

By Tink on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 04:12 pm:

No idea, D. My youngest loves to go to other bathrooms. I have been in so many public restrooms that I can't believe I don't carry a full size bottle of Lysol in my purse! LOL My daughter is almost 3 and she is dry all day but she still needs a diaper at night. It makes me nuts!

By Children03 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 04:14 pm:

I bought a small potty lid that folds up into 4 sections easy for folding and you can keep it in a ziploc bag and carry it in your diaper bag. I would ask my girls "do you need to take a potty break? We can use your special potty seat lid to go here." They loved it. I bought mine at target.

By Nicosmom on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 04:42 pm:

I was wondering if there was a special seat to use in pub. restrooms. It folds up? I might have to invest in that!

By Karen~moderator on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 05:04 pm:

I had no idea they made something like that! I need to get one, because I take Madison shopping, etc. and I SURE don't want her sitting on the seat in pubic restrooms.

When Jen was little, I would actually hold her up over the seat. Nearly ruined my back and neck doing it. LOL Kids tend to grab on to the actual seat and hold on and you don't want them touching that in public! EWWWWWWWWWW

Thanks for mentioning that!

By Nancy on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 06:29 pm:

You are so right about pushing kids and we can do it all we want, but until they are ready they won't budge. My dd did the same thing you discribed. One day she was ready and that was that.

By Laurazee on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 07:42 pm:

Oh BOY am I ever relieved to read this post. DS is almost 3 & a half and dh and I have been feeling like failures because ds has been completely, adamantly against our non-pushy potty training efforts and appears to be (literally) anal-retentive.

And, of course, it feels like all of our friend's kids around the same age are already potty trained. Both my own mother & MIL have been dropping comments. We were thinking we needed potty training boot camp!

He's just started to show some interest in the past few weeks. Some success, but not really.

So, Nicosmom, don't be embarrassed. I'm sensing it's wayyy more common than it seems.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 11:45 pm:

My oldest daughter LOVED going potty in public bathrooms! It almost made her go potty more!

By 2princesses on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 12:59 am:

Both of my girls became potty trained at exactly 2-1/2. I did not push them but did take them shopping at age 2 to pick out some panties and were so excited about choosing the character ones. I believe that pull-ups delay potty training because they feel like a diaper and sometimes don't even feel like they are wet.

My girls were also terrified of public restrooms for a while, so I always put their potty chair in the backseat of my car and took them to the car every time they needed to go and finally one day they just decided to try the public restrooms.

Regarding the age, I always felt bad because our pediatrician used to ask me why my daughter was not potty trained when she was 2 and that kids should already be potty trained by age 2 because of their capability. So I guess that means my kids were 6 months late then. I think a parent shouldn't push but should encourage it especially if planning on taking them to daycare or preschool. My neighbor's daughter is 3-1/2 and is showing no interest in potty training but have noticed that the parents keep her in pull-ups all day, so I seem to think that that is what is delaying it because it is just so easy for her to go in the pull-ups while she is playing and doesn't have to think about using the toilet. The parents have said that they need to take her to preschool and won't get accepted because she is not potty trained yet. I have explained to them that they should try the panties but the parents say they don't want her to have any accidents and get her clothes wet or go on the floor. I think it is going to be hard for a kid to learn if the parents won't accept any accidents.

By Palmbchprincess on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 02:34 am:

I have been working with the kids since they were 18 months, getting more proactive as time goes on. They started showing an interest in the potty around 18 months, when we first bought the potty chairs. Then, around 20 months, they started pulling off diapers and sitting on the potty. Strangely enough, because I hear boys tend to be later, Shane was more interested than Maddie. Now, at 24 months, it's hit or miss. We put them on the potties when they wake up, and after meals, but mainly the potties just sit in the living room and when the kids go they go. A LOT of the time they are running around "nekkid", or in diapers, so all they have to do is pull the tabs and sit. They LOVE the praise they get, and flushing the big potty after we dump out the little ones. And I agree with 2princesses, I'm against pull-ups. Cloth pants are our next step, the ones used back when we were kids, then regular underpants. And my biggest potty training problem currently? The visitation with my ex. When they come back from his house, currently every other week with him, they have lost all their manners, discipline, and potty skills. We'll hopefully change the visitation to a more "normal" every other weekend thing soon. Oh, and every once in a while I'll be in the other room, and find out one of them used there potties without telling me. Nothing like having to check privates to see which child gets praise for using the potty!!! ROFL, being a mom is insane sometimes!!

By Children03 on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 07:01 am:

I used pull-ups for a while, but my daughter also work training panties around the house and it didn't matter to her, she would just pee right through them without a care in the world. I just got tired of cleaning up pee and poop. I don't have hardwoods in my house like some of my friends so I chose not to let her go around peeing everywhere, it is disgusting. I will say that my daughter at 18 months did act kind of interested in the potty seat, so I thought she would be ready and she wasn't. It still took her until her 3rd Birthday to realize that the potty is a much better place to go.

By Kittycat_26 on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 08:25 am:

I just had Timmy to the ped. for his two year check up. She said that we could start potty training any time we wanted but that she wouldn't be concerned if we came back next year and Timmy still wasn't potty trained.

I've found that whenever I sit back and let Timmy take the lead on things that it goes ever so smoothly. So for now, we'll just use the potty chair as art in the living room.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 08:36 pm:

Pullups did not help my older daughter at all! LOL! My younger daughter wanted to wear panties and I let her! I cleaned a up a few accidents, but then she got it and never had another one. I don't think you can potty train without a few mistakes! Good grief.