Category Archives: potty training

I savored the sweet taste of freedom on this third day of potty training house arrest.  For the first time in two long days,  I actually left the house.  I didn’t do anything special, but going to the grocery store without a peeing and pooping time bomb felt indulgent enough.  I also made a quick stop at Toys R Us to stock up on “poop surprises.”

When I potty train, I don’t mess around with poop.  It’s the wild card of potty training.  I know kids who master peeing within a few days but refuse to poop in the toilet, or who poop in the toilet at home but not at school, or who pull down their pants, poop on the floor, and then pull their pants back up, or who hold in their poop for so long that they have to take laxatives.  The thought of any of these scenarios makes me anxious, and I’m already an Anxious Mama, thank you very much.  In my house, when a trainee lands a poop in the toilet, I go way beyond stickers. 

Riley’s doing great, by the way.  He’s not telling me yet when he has to go, which means I do a lot of this:

“Do you have to pee?”

“Do you have to poop?”

“Is there pee-pee in your belly”

“Do you want to try to pee?”

“Let’s pee now!”

“Is it time to sit on the potty?”

“Let’s get your poops out!”

It’s as annoying as it sounds, but he hasn’t had a single accident today (and only one yesterday), which means my Jedi Apprentice is learning well. My hope is that by the time he goes back to school on Tuesday morning (and becomes someone else’s problem for a few hours), he’ll be initiating the trips to the bathroom.  We’ll see.

In the meantime, as I publish this post, there’s a fierce lightsaber battle taking place in the living room and we are still accident free. And there is more freedom in my future.  We have a babysitter coming at 7:00 p.m.  Happy Saturday Night!

On Day Two of potty training Riley, this is what I know for sure:

• I know a lot about poop. Period.
• Smartphones and tablets have transformed potty training.  Apps on the Kindle Fire have been a godsend for keeping Riley’s tush on the potty for more than twelve seconds at a time. 
• “Flushed Away,” an animated movie about a British mouse named Roddy who gets flushed down the toilet and discovers an underground mouse city, is a great tool to demystify the scary, dark hole at the bottom of the toilet bowl.   This movie should be on every parent’s potty training supply list.
• Potty training never ends,  Riley is the one on the hot seat (literally), but Dylan has wet his bed two nights in a row.
• Laundry does not put itself away.
• Kids remember everything.  I told the boys I would take them to the Naples Zoo when Riley was done with potty training.  Now, every time Riley pees,  he asks, “Can we go to the Naples Zoo now?”