Potty Training - Fun and Easy? Or Almost Broke Me?

I have to admit that potty training my daughter was one of my least enjoyable experiences of being a mom. I even preferred the getting up several times per night with a newborn to potty training her. That's saying a lot. I asked for advice from just about everyone and from every resource I could find - because not one book, or piece of advice seemed just right.

The one piece of advice I did use was "wait until she's ready" - as if, one day she would wake up and tell me, "Mom, I am ready to use the toilet like a big girl." That never happened although I did hear that Urban Myth that it did actually happen that way to one lucky mom. May she know how good she had it!

I also tried the "let her run around naked - she won't go on the floor" method. That didn't work so well, and yes, she did.

In an effort not to lose my mind, I put her in pull-ups while potty training her. You know what? That was a bad decision on my part. I think much of potty training is parental motivation. If you are motivated to get your child potty trained, that's going to increase your chances of success. Like before there were disposable diapers, the vast majority of babies were actually potty trained between the ages of 12-18 months. Anything different with the babies? No - the main difference was parental motivation - those parents didn't have disposable diapers. I found that when my daughter was in pull ups, I was much more willing to say/think, "she can just go in her pull up." However, those times, when she was in underwear, I was making sure that she tried to go potty every half hour.

I remember attending a Baby Signs® Conference the summer after my daughter was finally potty trained and hearing the great news that the Baby Signs® Program was putting out a potty training program. Would have been even better news to me had it come out a year before! The surprising thing is that I didn't even think to use signs when I started potty training her even though she had tons of signs, and I was even a Baby Signs® Certified Instructor. It definitely would have been helpful to tie the two together.

My daughter is now almost 6, and has been fully potty trained now for almost 3 years (yes, made it just under the wire with having her potty trained by age 3). However, it is not an experience I would want to repeat.

If you are in the process of potty training your child, be sure and visit www.pottytrainwithbabysigns.com as there are some freebies and other information on there that may be helpful to you. Good luck to you!