(Image of a potty I actually used for my daughter)
I am sure there are many funny, weird, unusual, even tearful stories mommies can share about their children overcoming potty training. For me it was smooth and painless as it can be, at least for the first time, with my daughter.
Now, the time has come to train my son, and I thought this is a chance to share my previous experience- perhaps it will help someone. So here we go:
Back to when I wasn't a mother, I had no idea how to deal with children. I never babysat for anyone, and wasn't involved in raising or even helping with kids of any age, wasn't familiar with any milestones in kids development, not to mention, how to help kids to meet them. So when I had a baby, the strangest thing I wondered about is how am I ever going to potty train my children?
Where I come from, it is very common to potty train kids at a very young age, by 1st birthday ( I even know a young mother who potty trained her 9-month old baby!!!!)
Anyways, I just could not imagine HOW could one explain to a baby not to "do their business" in a diaper anymore! It seemed like an impossible mission to accomplish. Period. But.... when my daughter started to walk around (12months), I started to notice that whenever she was "doing" something, she tried to hide behind a sofa or a chair, and she clearly expressed embarrassment if I were to look at her or ask her a question during that moment. I was amazed at how the need for privacy was sort of programmed into a human conscience from the very beginning!
From this moment, I had a lot more confidence that the potty training WILL happen for us, because it's a natural process and Mother Nature had already did the prep work.
So it was summertime and once in a while I would take my daughter's diaper off and let her run free. Of course, accidents started to happen. No worries, I was expecting them, in fact, I was counting on them. I realized that as long as the child is in diapers, he/she don't realize what is going on during...you know.. They feel something warm, ticklish, uncomfortable, but don't know what that really is! When the accident ( #1) happened for he first time, my daughter was simply shocked, confused and in tears! This is THE moment, I thought. Calmly, with a smile on my face, I reassured her that everything was fine, and then directed her to the potty, explaining that THIS was the place where this kind of thing should take place.
After that, I kept her diaper-free more often, and every 20 min or so, I'd ask her whether she wants to use a potty. After a while she was initiating her visits to the bathroom herself! Accidents still happened occasionally, but I was able to leave her without a diaper longer and longer every day. Still put one on before nap and bedtime, until noticed that the diaper was completely dry anytime day or night. And so it happened.... by her 26th month, my little girl was fully potty trained. Nature took its course, and my fears and confusion were far behind me. Now, it's her brother's turn. He is now 25 months, but boys are late bloomers, they say... So I am giving him a couple more months to catch up ;) Already he is showing interest in using the potty, pushing me out of the bathroom so he could do it all by himself ( and then play with toilet water while I am not looking - so sneaky, this one!)
So this how it happened for us. Hopefully, we'll be a completely diaper free family soon.
How was this process for you? Do you have a funny story to share? I would love to hear it, dear readers! I am sure someone somewhere will benefit from this.
