Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Potty-Car, Bath-Van, Whatever



Today I am going to share my secret for potty training without going insane. Be wary, the ability to garage-sale is a necessity unless you have much spare moo-lah.

First, I have three identical potty chairs. I used to have four, but I gave one to my mother-in-law who had a crummy one (also given to her by me after I realized it was crummy but better than transporting mine every time we visited).

I keep one in the living room. Television is on and potty trainer is in the room? Potty-trainer is on potty. Period. No arguing. (Until they are somewhat trustworthy.)

I keep one in the bathroom. Duh. If the child is too little to climb up to the big potty I have to be in there to help. Thus they can never toilet themselves and don't try. And yes, my bathroom was teeny. It was worth it.

I keep one in the van. Yes, the van. ever been at your favorite park (which coincidentally doesn't have a bathroom) when toddler screams "potty!" Yeah. Don't knock it 'til you try it. I even have developed a reputation for the potty-van. But when my family goes on road trips and I get the thirty second warning, all I have to do is pull over. Who cares that the next rest stop is 20 miles down the road? House shopping? And one of my children had a mortal fear of the big toilets at church. Something about the split in the seat, the loud noise and the inability to keep dry pants dry even when we made it in time. I just ran said kid out to the van.

Hey, works for me!

2 comments:

Michelle- This One's for the Girls said...

I can't believe no one else commented on this idea. I think it's fantastic and am definitely going to try it with my Jane in a few months.

Gina Conroy said...

I've never kept one in the van, by I always kept one in the kid's room. It saved many accidents!