why did no one tell me about this aspect of parenting?!

[Misty9]

Potty training. I had kinda expected wet pants and puddles, but the poo!
Has every parent gone through the repeated clearing up of shite phase? How long does it last?! Does your house/soft furnishings ever recover?

Oh dear, hate to worry you but ds2 wasn't properly clean until he was almost 6! used to do it behind sofa or just not "know" he'd got one in his pants. No SN or health probs , it just resolved itself.....eventually

ds1 struggled for a week or two but got it immediately when dh offer him one of the shiny coins from hs pocket for every poo in the toilet. Syddenlystarted pooling 6 times a day mind

Double pants aren't so crazy, better containment.

No - we didn't go through that. DD was reluctant to poo without a nappy on. She would wait for her bedtime nappy sometimes. We had puddles, but no uncontained poo. However DD was over 2.5 when we trained her so she was pretty quick to train.

He's 3 in early september... All his friends are trained and have been for ages, but we knew he wasn't ready. We thought he was now, but perhaps not so we've gone back to nappies for now.

Would pull ups be better though? So he could choose when to use the potty? Luckily his poos have been outside so washing down wasn't too bad!

We went to pull ups really early as they looked neater under DD's clothes. It meant that we couldn't use them as a stepping stone and I think that might have been confusing anyway. Once we ditched the nappies/pull ups (for the second time, the first ended in a retreat), that was it during the day.

I think most "experts" say that pull-ups don't help with toilet training - to the child it feels just like wearing a nappy, but what do I know? it took me 3 years.

One suggestion was to put pants on under the pull up, then if they have an accident they know about it..bit of a pain to clean but apparently works! (Caveat haven't tried it myself!)

Mine were in pull ups for months before we potty trained just after their third birthdays. Stops the mess but means they can get used to nipping to the potty or toilet when they need to. The final step to pants isn't too messy then. In fact I think there's only been 2 poo incidents, I remember because I binned the pants and one was a cool peppa pig pair.

I definitely wouldn't rush to train if you don't think he is ready. It is unnecessary hassle.

Buy the cheapest pants you can find, and bin them after a poo disaster - tesco basics pants were cheaper than pullups!

I HATE potty training.

We potty trained dd at just over 2 1/2 and we still get poo accidents a year later. She just doesn't respond quick enough. I'm assuming (hoping) it'll pass eventually...