Cast your vote: Potty training, before or after the holidays?

[Chandra]

We may be going on holiday in September and I have a dilemma, should I potty train DS before or after the holidays?. He seems to be ready for the potty but the idea of "Mummy I need to wee now!" in the middle of the motorway or while waiting in the very long queues of some popular holiday atractions just makes me wonder if it's better for the three of us to wait until we came back from the holiday. Any opinions?

Merlot, ROFL at your post because it rang a real bell with me! We went away when dd1 was 2.5 and just potty training. It wasn't the upholstered seats (which would have been less embarrassing in this case)... it was when we were having lunch in a restaurant which had those sort of fake plastic wicker seat bottoms... and she just did this H-U-G-E wee, that went right through the holes in the wicker seat and splashed off the tiled floor below in a very audible way.

As I said below... with dd2 we left it till after the hols!

Aw, but they all have accidents regardless of whether your on your hols or not. Mine weed through the shopping trolley the other week!

I say go for it now if you think he's ready. And just because he may be dry in the day he can still wear nappies at night. That won't cause confusion. But I wouldn't revert back to nappies in the day for your hols. He'll probably surprise you and it'll be a lot easier than you think!!

Also, summer is the perfect time for potty training, all that bare-bottomedness running around in the garden....

I only have a front garden have such a mess at the back one that I certainly wouldn't like DS running bare in it

Nice descriptions Elbell and Rodeo...you are really convincing me to wait

Dd was potty trained before going on holiday, a couple of years ago (aged 2.5 years) but wet herself a few times while we were away because she was distracted which really upset her. We also explained to her that for the flight she would be wearing her nappy, because it was not always easy to get to the toilet - we went to Mexico - and she was fine with that. Until she was about 3.5 any car journey more than an hour, or where you did not know where you would be able to stop we took a normal potty (travel potty we took abroad but were never confident about how stable it was).

We did not decide when to potty train dd, she decided at nursery to copy some of the older children but even when dry during the day, I carried on putting a nappy on her for the journey home (over one hour including train) until I felt confident and I don't think that it did any harm. We did not use pull ups much at all - bought one packet and felt not worth the extra money, the same with knickers that were supposed to hold a small wee (never worked, unless dd never had a small enough wee ).

My vote would be try for before holiday, but if does not appear to be successful after a couple of days give it a break and even if it does work expect accidents while away.

I would be led by your DS, if he really seems to not want nappies anymore than go with that. However, if there is any doubt that he is totally ready I would say after, I woudnt want the stress of potty training whilist on holiday.

After. DS will be 2.10 when we go on holiday in July, I'm waiting until after (following one failed earlier attempt when he wasn't ready). Don't add to the holiday stress.