potty help please 3 year old boys

[mummytotwinsss]

will try to keep this brief! got twin boys who turn 3 in 10 days. bright, fantastic speakers, early with everything, crawling at 7 months, walking at 10 months. have thought they ready for potty training for some time and was only waiting for warm spring weather which is now here. we are on day 7 today since i put them both in pants, they are great first thing in the morning, will do wees in potty's even without prompting sometimes which shows they have the thought process and ability to do it, have to be bare bummed tho. by day 4 /5 they were doing say 4 or 5 wees in potty each and having about the same amount of accidents, 4 or 5 each. Is this good would you say? Are they ready? Day 7 today has been regression and i feel so deflated, they are beginning to rebel about the whole thing, i first noticed it creeping in yesterday, tantrums, refusing potty, saying NO and generally playing me up.

Should i go softly softly and ease up my reminding them all the time (i have been on their case a lot and i think they tired and frustrated and i have to admit i lost my rag today which upset them) or should i get tough and insist on the potty and fight through the tantrums? i dont want to do more harm than good and end up with a complete rebellion, but i dont want them to feel in control of the situation either. its tough with twins as it feels like they can gang up on you and play up more. Help me please!

I would stick at it if you can, sounds like they have made a lot of progress, it can be hard trying to remain positive when you see signs of slipping, but they have proved they know what to do. The tricky bit is keeping them motivated. They do say putting nappies back on can be confusing. Have you used a star chart or similar? Lots of praise, telling them what big boys they are etc. also good to let them choose their own big boy pants!

My ds2 had a bit of regression after a few days, put a nappy on, then when a wee came, we talked about babies wearing nappies and he opted to use the toilet and put his big boys pants back on....I have no idea about twins tho...

Good luck!

We have twin boys, 2 yrs 7 months. Went cold turkey (Potty training boot camp) in easter hols. went pretty well, we have had a few bad days (just like you described) when we felt like they were going backwards but in general the progress has been steady.

Now 9 weeks on, rarely accidents and they are asking for the potty (don't need to be reminded any more) for both wees or poos. Currently switching to the toilet to spare us the potty cleaning!

Stick with it - and good luck!

thankyou all for your replies. bombastic, can you tell me what your first week was like in compasion to mine? it would help me a lot, did it all feel like very hard work and were they stubborn and resistant to sitting on potties? having another very hard day today, they are both point blank refusing to sit and having major tantrums it all feels so very hard i was actually close to tears this morning. and yet 3-4 days ago i was so happy they seemed to be really getting it. we have gone backwards :( and i dont know why. is it best to be very laid back about it and kind of let it all slide and have the attitude that they will do it in their own time, keep in lighthearted, or is it best to 'train' and insist on them sitting on potty say every hour and be quite firm. i am very confused about this i feel me losing my rag and shouting the other day has turned them against me on this !!

Hi mummytotwinsss,
DOn't despair!

Are you using any bribes? We used 2 choc buttons for a poo, one for a wee. That seemed to work quite well, though they have forgotten all about it now. ALso (an idea I picked up from here) we talk about the poo going to pooland (where it wants to be) and the wee going to weeland (naff I know but weirdly it works). Ie the poo is sad if it goes in the pants as it goes in the bin instead of to pooland. Also had quite a lot of success with character pants - Thomas the tank engine (with rather lame finger puppetry of my finger wobbling him around) would say "Thank you for not widdling on me" when he was kept dry, for e.g.

Our first week was pretty bad, I suppose. Probably 3 or 4 accidents each on days 1-4, maybe 1-3 on days 5-10. We still have the odd accident 9 weeks in.

I combined lovely uber mummy (when feeling patient) with cross harpy mummy when not - I have had some of my least finest parenting moments ordering reluctant boys onto the potty. Something that really helped was to say the nappy fairy was in charge of it all (she was the one who took the nappies all away and left the big boy pants). If the boys were refusing to go on the potty before going in the car, I would completely depersonalise it by saying "Well, they are not my rules, that's what the nappy fairy said, so no potty, no going in the car" Or, if they wanted nappies rather than the pants "well, I know it seems a big step, but the nappy fairy has decided you are grown up enough for big boy pants, so you must be ready".

Does any of that help, at all? Really, we just muddled through it.

Get some more wine in!

Me again,

SHould have said - we had one who was quite reluctant at first. I know EXACTLY what you mean about them ganging up on you! We did have a few tantrums (the boys too ) but we managed to get through them with the 'blaming the nappy fairy' tactic - you know, blame someone else so you and the boys are on the same side working together rather than you wanting one thing and them wanting another.

Hope that makes sense..... (writing it down I am becoming aware that my parenting strategies may be a bit weird...)

ha ha thankyou bombastic you have really cheered me up. pooland, weeland and the nappy fairy, love it! you actually sound just like me, i am always having a bit of fun like that, its the wide eyed look on their faces when they are taking it all in, its priceless. Always said there is something about having twins that makes you bonkers, humour is the only way to get through it. (Have seriously lost my humour this weekend tho) !

How's it going, mummytotwinsss?

Hope it's improved a bit - if not, you can always drown your sorrows by eating the chocolate buttons yourself!