Parent Diaries

ā€œI decided to try the 3-day potty training thing ā€¦ thereā€™s only so much poop youā€™re prepared to clean up ā€¦ so I figured it was worth a go.ā€

Potty Training

My potty training nightmare

JILLIAN, NEW JERSEY

Jacob turned three in July. We had an Elmo potty in the house and I’d encourage him to try it, just sit on it around the house. That didn’t work, so I tried bribery. M&M's, lollipops, anything to make him sit and go. But he would just sit there for two hours, finish the lolly, and tell me he didn’t need to go. Then he’d get up and poop on the floor five minutes later.

Potty training was maddening, such a battle. He just didn’t care if he was wet or had poop in his diaper.  I tried everything but it just didn’t work, so by Thanksgiving I decided to try the 3-day potty training thing. There’s only so much poop you’re prepared to clean up, and we had the long weekend, so I figured it was worth a go. It totally didn’t work, but they say you can’t go back to diapers afterwards, so I sent him back to school in pants. But of course he’d have accidents, and the teachers didn’t want to deal with it, so I had to put him back in pull-ups.

He kept saying to me “Mommy, when I’m four I’ll do it.” But I was really stressed, so I kept trying. He just wasn’t interested. I remember my Aunt saying “Jillian, it won’t work because you’re stressed, he’ll do it when he’s ready. You won’t be changing his diaper at his wedding!”

So I chilled out a little bit, or tried to. Then, when it came to the end of his 3’s programme at school, he turned to me and said “Mommy, I’m in 4’s now, I don’t want to wear diapers anymore.” He wasn’t actually four for another month, but that didn’t matter. He decided he was ready, and was fully potty trained in two days. Day and night. Totally refused to wear them. I just laughed. It’s like they say, when they’re ready, they’ll do it.