potty training & what ended up working for us

if someone had asked me a week ago that my 3-year-old would finally be potty trained 7 days later i would not have believed them, not even a little bit. it actually would have enraged me because i genuinely thought the day would never come. we had been talking to our little guy all about the potty for well over a year. every diaper change we would bring it up or every time he would run and hide to go number two. we would try here and there to get him excited about going on the potty, bribing him with toys or treats. we tried no diaper with hopes the feeling of not having a diaper there to catch anything would make him stop whatever he was doing. my MIL even gave him his own little potty and big boy underwear. we made a big thing of it hoping it would get him excited but sadly, it did not. it got so frustrating for both my husband and i because no matter what we said or did, he wasn't interested. i guess we thought one day it would just click, and he would magically just start wanting to go sit on the potty.

i finally had enough when i dropped him off at preschool last week and had to tell one of his teachers that he told me right when we pulled into the parking lot that he had to poop and felt awful leaving someone else to clean the mess, even with knowing that is something they are well used to navigating on a day to day basis. as a mom i just felt a little embarrassed that my almost 3 1/2 year told was still in diapers with what seemed to be no end in sight.

a few nights prior to the spontaneous potty-training weekend we ended up having, i was casually looking at potty training sticker charts on amazon and my son happened to be peaking over my shoulder. he asked "mommy, what's that?" so, i proceeded to explain to him how he could pick out his favorite sticker chart, we would hang it up in the bathroom next to his potty and every time he went, he would get to pick out a sticker and put it on the chart. he was thrilled with the idea and we settled on a car themed one but then in true toddler fashion, he very quickly moved onto playing with his monster trucks. i ordered it anyway and thank goodness i did because just two days later we were all in with potty training. we talked it up big time the night before, went to the local dollar tree to get a basked of fun prizes he could collect and set out a mechanical kitchen timer. we started first thing in the morning and the night before decided on having him wear no diaper or pants, just a t-shirt. by the grace of God, he picked up on it almost immediately. we had a few accidents initially but after the first few hours he was good to go! we rewarded him with one sticker when he peed and two stickers when he went number two. the following day we upgraded to big boy underwear, and we were nervous that would throw him off but again by the grace of God it did not!

to any mom reading this that is currently feeling hopeless with getting your little one interested in the potty just know it WILL happen eventually. keep trying different things and more importantly, do not feel like you are doing something wrong just because it's not going your way right when you want it to or because other parents around you with kids younger than yours are potty trained. every little guy and gal are different, it just takes time.

with love,

Sarah