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The following are some examples of how I’ve applied the strategies and advice in Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki to my own parenting. If you haven’t already, I recommend looking at the Summary or Quick Look to get an understanding of the strategies I mention.      

Potty training was years ago, so unfortunately I don’t remember a lot of details. Some of it stuck in my memory, so I’ll share what I can recall.

Potty training snuck up on me for my first child. It wasn’t really on my radar; I hadn’t read any potty training books, so the only information I had was what I saw anecdotally. Most of my friends didn’t have children yet, and I was still making new mom friends. My nieces and nephews had been potty trained around 3, so that was the magic number that stuck out in my mind, and probably why I didn’t pursue reading about potty training until my son was close to that age.

During the year my son was 2, I do remember seeing two mom friends with kids of similar ages potty train their kids. I figured their kids were just extra motivated or “ready” for whatever reason.

When my son was close to 3, and I picked up this book, it was a shock to read all of Jamie Glowacki’s potty training myths in her book because I believed most of them. I started to panic a bit, because here I was with a kid close to 3, reading about all the reasons you shouldn’t wait until past 30 months to potty train. So I started right away.

As far as I can remember, it went fine. I’m sure there were power struggles, but I must have tuned them out. The most important thing I probably did was commit 100%. I was scared to wait any longer, so failure wasn’t an option in my mind. I also did nighttime training at the same time. It wasn’t fun, but honestly it didn’t last long. Maybe because my son was almost 3, he was able to hold his pee through the night pretty quickly. Of course there were accidents, but I don’t think more than usual. At that point I had already invested in a waterproof mattress cover for diaper leaks and vomiting.

When my daughter rolled around two years later, we were more prepared. We also cloth diapered, so I was extra motivated to be done with diapers! I borrowed this book from the library again, and this time started the process when my daughter was a month from turning 2. It went well! Again, I don’t remember the details enough to say how many days it took before she or my son was using the potty consistently, but I know it wasn’t a long, drawn out process. Was it fun? No. Did it go smoothly? Probably not. But was it overly dramatic, stressful, or time consuming? I don’t think so. And it was DEFINITELY worth it. At the end of the day, she was more or less fully potty trained at 2, saving me a year of washing and drying diapers, or carrying them around everywhere.

I do remember it taking longer to get my daughter to poop on the potty. I remember a LOT of cleaning. She seemed to pick the carpet every time, despite there being plenty of hard wood floor. She would wait until I had to leave the room for a minute, and then strike. I don’t know what overcame it except time. We didn’t do a consequence or anything, just told her that she needs to poop on the potty. We did a lot of books on the potty—in fact, my kids still read a lot on the potty.

The biggest take aways I can remember are…

• Be consistent, and not allow diapers back into the picture even when you are tired and sick of cleaning up poop. I’ve learned this through many different aspects of parenting. Consistency is key. Inconsistency is confusing and makes kids ignore what we say.

• The author isn’t kidding about dropping everything the first few days. You really need to focus on your kid or you’ll miss every time they pee, which only delays the process. It was kind of fun in a way, having nothing to do except hang with my kids all day. Except for the whole cleaning up pee part.

• Make it part of your schedule to pee upon waking, before eating, after eating, before going anywhere, etc. We used these transition times as potty times for awhile after potty training, and I think it prevents a lot of accidents. Because…

• …It takes awhile for kids to tell you they have to pee. Often when they start telling you, it’s too late. They get absorbed in what they are playing/doing, and it’s just not a top priority for them. So maybe drop expectations that once you’ve potty trained your kid, you’ll no longer have to prompt them to go pee.

• Get a travel potty insert for public restrooms. It just helped me feel a little bit better about the germ situation, plus the toilet seats in public restrooms are too big for kids, especially 2 year olds. Also, let go of some of the germ phobia. Public restrooms can be gross, but there’s no avoiding them when your are potty training and want to leave the house. I remember turning around once after gathering up the potty insert and flushing to see my kid sucking her thumb. After touching most of the stall we were in, including the ground. I like to think that helped build up their immune system…

• Remember the pay off at the end. Especially when it gets tough or stressful. Take a breath, do what you need to boost your mood a bit, and keep your goal in the forefront of your mind, focusing on how sweet it will be when you’re done with diapers.

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