I love meeting and chatting to parents whilst out on deliveries. Lately, one of the main topics seems to be potty training! For many this is a daunting subject and looms ahead since our babies are only a few months old. I was also one of those parents that often worried about potty training way before our daughter was even close to being ready.
As with all other milestones, comparing your child’s potty training story to that of other children is completely unnecessary and only adds (unnecessarily) to the worry. Uncalled for advice also adds to the general fluster that potty training seems to leave most of us parents in. The fact that ‘summer is approaching’ or other absurd reasoning is not grounds to start the potty training process if you don’t think your child is ready!
A few months into our potty training story I can now speak of our personal experience. As soon as I noticed that our daughter seemed interested whenever one of us made a trip to the loo, I placed a potty in our bathroom. However I never pressured her to sit on it or try and use it. A few weeks went by and she started refusing to have a nappy put back on during her nappy changes at home. At this point we took the opportunity and gave her some responsibility. We allowed her to wear potty training pants instead, which for her were the equivalent of grown-up underwear. And so she did! I am not going to say that the switch happened overnight however that was certainly a turning point. Whenever accidents happened we talked about what went wrong and never made a big deal out of the ‘accident’.
As the saying goes, timing is key. A child has to be ready in order for potty training to be successful. Below is a useful infographic to help you identify whether your toddler is ready or not. Potty training time is an exciting milestone in child development. Embrace this period. It too will pass and when it does your child will have reached a newer level of independence.
