My husband and I have been talking about potty training for a while, both husband and I were potty trained once we turned one. But when Abby turned one we both felt she was not ready to be potty trained until she could identify and know the difference between “poop” and “pee”.
Abby began to show interest once she saw one of her older friends using the bathroom and she began to ask us for “undies” and this is when we decided that it was time to start potty training. My husband and I went back and forth on our potty training plan until we decided to start on a Friday, during this time she was about two years old and a couple months. Abby and I that went to Target that Friday morning and I let her pick out her own underwear, she was so excited to pick out Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig underwear.
We did not go anywhere that weekend (expect church on Sunday morning) and left her with just underwear and we set a timer with our Amazon Echo for 15 minutes “to go potty”, we had many accidents for two days and we were ready to give up and then on Day 3 she went potty by herself and so from there on whenever Amazon Echo said it was time “to go potty” she went. So once we knew she was getting the hang of it and would tell us on her own we slowly took the Echo timer away and the next thing we knew she was telling us on her own. When we would go out we would put her on a pull-up and underwear over that, just because I wanted her to know that “undies” were still there and she understood that because after a few weeks she did not want the pull ups anymore. One day she woke up and said “no diaper mommy, I am big girl undies please”. It’s been months since she’s been on underwear and she’s had maybe around a couple accidents here and there but nothing major.
So any parent out there that is going through this journey just know that no matter how your potty training plan looks like just know that there will be accidents… many accidents for sometime but they will eventually get it. Have grace on yourself and know that they won’t be a teenager having accidents, they will be fine. Just be PERSISTENT!
EXAMPLE OF POTTY TRAINING SCHEDULE:
Day 1-3: Just had her on undies and we set Amazon Echo on to go potty every 20 minutes and left her on the potty for 5 minutes.
Day 4-8: Just had her on undies and we set Amazon Echo on to go potty every 15 minutes and left her on the potty for 5 minutes.
Day 8 to present time: by this time she would tell us completely on her own when she needed to go and did not need a timer.