“Yay! Potty training is so much fun!” said no mom ever.
Unfortunately, there’s no way around it. Right now, I am in the midst of potty training our third son. I realized something as we started the process. Potty training my first son is vastly different than potty training our third son. My time is much more limited with 4 kids in the house. (Six years old and under!) I’m learning that it’s okay to break my own rules. It’s okay to change parenting styles (when did that even become a thing?) It’s okay to just wing it. So, today I just want to share some of the differences between potty training Kid 1 and Kid 3.
Kid 1: We went to the store and picked out underwear before starting potty training. We had generic trainer underwear that were a little padded, and Mickey Mouse underwear to put on after the first week. Supposedly, it helps get the kid excited about potty training.
Kid 3: Dug out Kid 1 and Kid 2’s underwear that didn’t fit them anymore… because chances are that they’re just going to get ruined the first few days anyway.
Kid 1: I told myself I would never give my kids sugar as a reward. I made a “sticker book” and gave him a sticker for trying, and a big sticker for going in the potty.
Kid 3: He tried going potty, here’s 1 M&M. He (finally!) went in the potty, here’s 3 M&Ms. He went poo-poo in the potty; here’s 10 M&Ms. He went all day without any accidents; here’s the whole dang bag of M&Ms! Slight exaggeration, but you get the point. There were lots of M&Ms involved.
Kid 1: He sat on his potty while I was in the bathroom with him the whole time. We sang potty songs and read potty books while picking out potty stickers.
Kid 3: I plopped him down on the toilet, set a timer, and told him I’d be back when the timer went off because I had to make sure his baby sister wouldn’t try to eat any Legos they left on the floor. He basically potty trained himself. Again, slight exaggeration, but I was much more hands-off this round.