We’re Potty Trained (well almost), Here’s What I Learnt!

So I think out of all the things I have to do as mother, this is the one thing I dreaded the most.

I had been contemplating potty training my daughter for a long while because well, diapers are expensive and to be honest I was kinda getting tired of changing them but the thought of it scared the ish out of me. Like really scared me, so I did all I could to cope. I googled potty training, watched videos and made my Nunu watch them too. I asked moms around me (my mom, sisters and friends) and they all said to go for it especially if I think my child is ready, thing is I was the unprepared one.

A couple of weeks later I finally did it and these are the things I learnt:

1. Children are different – one thing I learnt early on in my parenting journey was that my child hits her milestones a little later than some children (e.g my niece who is 4 months younger than her). I kind of lost this revelation when I started potty training because I wanted it over and done with as soon as possible. Watching “How to potty train your child in 3 days” videos also did not help. Especially because most of the children trained in 3 days were a bit older than my child.
2. Patience pays – so it took about a week and tons of “accidents” before we had a successful trip to the potty. It might take you less time or maybe even more but it will eventually pay off.
3. Stay calm – It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the number of “accidents” and how often they occur especially in the early days of potty training but hey, it does get better so stay at it and it is definitely not easy for a first time mom. You might feel the urge to shout at your child but this might actually make the regress and become scared of the potty (we do not want this).
4. One step at a time – so children are different but for my Nunu and I, we focused on mastering the number one in the potty before we focused on the number 2. It really helped on easing the pressure on both of us. It was also kind of something I didn’t plan to do. She used to hide when she did it so I kind of didn’t have an option but to do it according to her readiness.
5. Goodies are your superpower – One of my friends told me she wished she had given her child one treat for both the number 1 and number 2 because her child only did whatever got her the goody she preferred. I immediately knew this is what I wanted to do and it worked. We would celebrate every successful potty trip with a dance, a song and a goody. IT REALLY WORKS!

We still have “accidents” every so often and have not yet fully night trained but honestly I am happy with were we are and proud of what we have achieved so far.

How has your experience been?

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