Losing my mind with potty training

[ElizaSchuylerHamilton243]

My second DC is the most stubborn child ever. Day 2 of the Oh Crap method (which worked with my first). He knows when he is about to go and can sit on the potty for two seconds before bouncing up again. At this point only a small amount of poo has made it into the potty (when I carried him over mid poo). No wee at all has made it - it's all on the floor. He will say about five times and try the potty five times before then weeing on the floor.

Honestly I'm losing my mind. I feel like we make more progress without other people and distractions. We are trying not to overprompt but he just doesn't want to sit. Help!

I'd shelve it for now and try again when he's a bit older. I know some people don't agree with the idea of waiting until they're ready, but I do. My DS was 3 when he potty trained and I tried three times that year (booked a week off work each time so we could just be home and focus on it) and he just wasn't ready until the summer. The two previous attempts were just frustrating for both of us, but on the third attempt he was ready and had it down in about 3 days.

Sounds like you are doing really well given his age and he’s obviously ready if he can signal when he needs to go.

It sounds like the main difficulty is getting him to sit for long enough to the pee/poop to happen in the potty.

We used to keep a few books by the potty for this - so DS would sit and we’d read a short story then all done, whether he’d gone or not.

Helped him relax (which helps with ‘letting things go’) and kept him sitting just long enough.

You could also try a visual timer (build it up in length gradually) with a reward for sitting for the duration. So a choc button if he sits for 1min, then 2mins etc.

Bribery is nothing to be ashamed of!