Potty training - how?!

I guess she doesn’t want wee in her car? I don’t either.

I still drove places as normal, so still don't get it tbh

By out I mean she takes them to soft plays and to parks via drives in the car.

When we trained our son we didn’t go further than the local park until we were sure he could handle a drive. He trained very quickly though. By day three we took him into town to go shopping. Childminder was sceptical when we sent him back the following Monday but he had no accidents. He was great! I anticipate my daughter taking a little longer.

But you really don't have to keep them in all the time!

I really don't get the approach of book a week off, stay in the house. Seems to just make it all into a huge deal.

I felt like you with my first, must take some time off, cant leave it to nursery etc. By the time I got to number 3, nursery said just send her to us in pants with lots of spare pants, leggings and socks and we'll handle it. She cracked it in less than a week doing it alongside all her pals at nursery, never had an accident at home and only a couple at nursery in the first couple days. She was ready though, and they did it earlier than I would have, but they felt she was ready so I went with them.

We trained our son a bit too early in November. He only started being consistent with poos a couple of months ago! I wish I’d waited longer for more signs of readiness. FWIW we did 5 days with both of us off work (weds-sun) and then he went to nursery, wees were sorted in a couple of weeks but poos took so long.
My friends that did it when their toddlers were a bit older (closer to 3 than 2 years old) managed to do it over a long weekend.
The advice to do it sooner I think comes from the fact that too many children weren’t being potty trained properly before starting school. But I think if you force it too early you just have to deal with accidents for longer!

She’s really good at what she does and my daughter is very happy BUT they’re out all the time so I think that’s what she meant. She doesn’t want to have to keep them all inside whilst one potty trains.

Nursery potty trained my two.

I honestly don’t know what’s happened in the last 20 years. My entire mum-friend group at the time all potty trained ours between 2 and 2.5, with no major problems at all, each taking a few days. Maybe peer pressure?

I remember going to a Penelope Leach talk (that ages me ) where she said don’t worry about potty training, they all learn - you never hear of children starting school still in nappies. And now you do. What’s changed?

I would have zero confidence in a childminder who couldn't cope with potty training a child while looking after others!

Oh she’s so young I’d wait until summer and take a lond weekend
fhe book no crap potty training is good!

A long weekend take a Friday off she should be ok by Monday at nursery

This is what I thought but she says it’s not fair on the other children 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh I don't know, could it possibly be that people are suggesting it because dealing with an accident out in the garden is a lot less of a pain than cleaning up puddles from a carpet? Did you honestly think people were suggesting that children should intentionally pee and poo in the garden?

My youngest, who's now 18, told me she was ready at just shy of two and a half by whipping off her nappy in soft play and refusing to have it put back on. This was at the beginning of a soggy wet half term. She never had a single accident, unusual I know. Her sister who is older did it a more standard way at the same age with only minor hiccups. It's my least favourite part of parenting.

It only took us a weekend with minimal accidents after that OP. I used pull ups in the car for the first few weeks but dropped them after that. I wouldn't do it on holiday unless you're staying in your own villa. And even then the change in routine and tiredness may make it more challenging.

Leave it until she is really ready and it won’t take as long. I first tried with DS at aged three but every time he wet himself he would get really upset and it was the middle of winter. We went back to nappies for a few months and tried again the following spring when he was 3.5 and it clicked immediately. I think boys aren’t ready as soon as girls though. I used to pick him up from nursery and his boy peers would be handed over to parents with multiple pairs of wet pants because they were trying to stick to an arbitrary age of 2 being the ‘right’ time to start.

I trained DD as she turned two as I'm a teacher and it was the six weeks holidays. I didn't look for signs of readiness as summer and me having time off work was a good time to do it! It took about five days I think before I dared take her out anywhere. When she first went to nursery I sent her with every pair of trousers that she owned and got loads back sopping wet 😂. They didn't mind though and were happy to support.

She's 2.5 now and we have the odd 'bad day' where for whatever reason she doesn't want to use the toilet but generally she does really well and if she does have an accident it's a little dribble in her pants. I'm so glad we did it and no longer have to deal with dirty nappies!

I work full time. DD woke up on a Saturday morning when she was two years and a quarter, announced she wanted to wear pants, so we just got on with it. Kept at it over the weekend, she got the idea, childminder carried on, on the Monday, and she cracked it pretty quickly. No time off necessary.

Oh really? In my 20+ years in early years I’ve never gone across a child minder/nursery that won’t help with toilet training! Seems so odd to me, surely our job is to support children learning new skills!

Yep we thought it was odd too when she told us about it with our son a few years ago. I even made a post about it here and was told it was normal.

Interesting approach from your childminder! I’ve always been of the mind set that it is part of looking after children🤷🏻‍♀️

Also when I say I booked a week off work- it wasn't only for the sole purpose of potty training. It was half term so I was going to book it off anyway as I also have a school aged child and rubbish school holiday childcare options here 😂 i just meant it gave us a dedicated extended chunk of time to just focus on cracking it as I wanted it done and knew dc was ready.

My childminder won’t accept children who are in the middle of potty training. They need to be pretty reliable before they come back to her, hence our need for a week off.

It wasn’t so much about offloading the responsibility, but asking for their support. You’re talking about booking time off to stay at home to do it. What I meant is, you can do it in a regular week. They will support your DD with it, so no need to worry about having time off to do it.