Sitting 15m DS on the potty every day to get him used to it in advance of training...

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I knew my mum would be desperate for me to potty train my DS asap and I was right - I got the Phone Call at the weekend. I explained that generally people don't seem to be in as much of a hurry to potty train as they once were, and I'll just be looking for signs that he's ready in his own good time. Oh yes says mum, very sensible.

But apparently I should be sitting DS on a potty every day from now on, so when the time comes he isn't scared of it. My instinct is telling me that this isn't necessary at the moment and frankly, I can't be arsed either. But am I missing a genuinely great tip here - should I give it a go? All comments welcome, except by people who disagree with me naturally

I really really really can't see the point

IMO it is much more likely to piss him off and make him fed up with the potty

you could however (if you want to) have a potty around so that he could play with it and practise sitting on it when HE wants to

an older child to demonstrate would also be handy

DS is 16 months, we have a potty kicking around in the bathroom, I wouldn't put him on it tho, jsut letting him discover it.

So far he has worn it on his head, squatted over it fully clothes, and wee-d next to it . Don't think he'll be ready any time soon...

Agree with Franny. There is no point in doing this until you are ready to start training properly.

I think if you leave him until he's ready he won't be scared of the potty because he probably won't be using one...

He'll go straight to using the toilet instead

i think that is a good idea as my ds was petrified of potty to begin with it'll do no harm anyway

my friend sat her dd on potty from a yr and she has taken so well to potty training as was used to weeing on potty

Ditto Franny !

I knew it. I knew you lot would agree with me. Poor mum, she'd make a rubbish mnetter

I will buy a potty after Christmas and if DS wants to play with it that's fine, but I am not going to sit him on it every day. TBH I would rather keep the hope that he will go straight to the toilet a la nottonightbernard. It seems like a lot less effort to keep DS in nappies until he really is ready rather than be constantly forcing him to sit on a potty and cleaning up piss all the time.

The only thing is, now I have to bear the continuous stream of questions and commments from my mum and every other member of my 1970s family. Why oh why do other people who DON'T have to change my DS nappy care so much about where a toddler does or does not waz? I just can't bring myself to care about other children's toilet habits, so why are my family so obsessed? But that's another thread. Thanks folks.

bubblagirl do you think your DS was ready for potty training when you started or were you a bit early? Any idea why he was petrified of the potty?

I even had my (then) 88 year old Grandad asing whether dd1 was 'clean yet' !!!

(Meant to say, dd1 was about 18m at the time!)

Think maybe there was more incentive in years gone by to potty train early as would mean less nappies to wash. I think a lot of the early 'training' described by our mothers and MILs was probably more like catching what came...

I am going to go against the grain here. Don't flame me.

Since DD was about 9 months I have sat her on her potty while I go to the loo in the morning. It happens that this is the time that she poos anyway so by happy coincidence we soon started getting poos in the potty. I always praised her when this happened and she would get very excited. Now she is 15 months and we still do this. In the evenings I strip her off before putting her in the bath. A few weeks ago she started wondering over to the potty at this point and peeing! Again I praise her but I never push her. So now on an average day we have one pee and one poo in the potty.

I am not particularly advocating this. It just happened for us. There is no way I am going to push her to fully potty train but I do get to avoid most pooey nappies.

Yes that makes sense MaeWest (love your name at the moment BTW). But even though we use washables it's still not much hassle with an automatic washing machine these days. A LOT less hassle than cleaning up endless wees, as I saw my friend do with her 2 yo twins the other day.

Why thankyou

I use a laundry service part time as I am a lazy slattern

But are the younger children assoaciting the potty with weeing i.e see potty must wee like pavola dog - a conditioned reflex.

this is what sometimes the 'older generation' get a bot mixed up about whne they say ' so & so was potty trained at 9 months etc '

But at the end of the day each child is differnt and what works for one doesn't work for another .

Artichokes I wouldn't flame you! Thanks for your perpective (and that lovely image of you both merrily pooing away together). If DS was more regular in his habits I could see the sense of trying to catch poos, but he isn't so there is no point. It sounds like you have hit upon the perfect method for you and your DD.

The older generation used a more child led version of potty learning which relied at the start on more input from the SAHM popping said child on the potty at regular times. Eventually the child would learn to wait until the next potty option.

My own father was training in this way and out of nappies at 9 months and I believe this happened.

My own DD was mainly out of nappies by 5 months and is dry and clean by a year old.

However it took a little more effort than nappy changes whilst she was a small baby. Now at 15 months it is a lot easier than nappy changes. Plus I won't have to do toilet training properly...just wait until she is physical capable of pulling her pants up and down, can climb onto the toilet herself plus accurately wipe poos.

So like everything else in life, this is not for everyone and has it's own sets of advantages and disadvantages. For instance try and get a nappy on my child during the day outside the cot and she will undress and remove it or scream until I take it off, she never grew used to wearing them.

That said if you don't want to try this (or think those who do are crazy ). This is your child and your mum should keep her advice to herself. You should start introducing the potty when you feel right about it.

Artichokes,

My daughter and I use to wee together in the morning. Her on a potty and me on the toilet.

In our case when she was little, hearing me do something triggered her to do so, if she needed to.

Sadly she refuses to use the potty and insists on using the big toilet. So I hop about the bathroom with legs crossed waiting for my daughter to finish. While she sits on the toilet and chats to me and the wall, plays with toilet paper etc.

my ds used to sit on potty every time i changed nappy when he was younger

he was ready for potty training had to do lots of encouragement and praise and singing when he sat on he was ok standing at toilet weeing he was 2.2

must of seen his dad it was when he had to sit on toilet or potty within 2 days he was sitting himself on potty and taking himself when he needed too

although 2.6 and is back in nappies it was a phase he went through and will have to try again soon although was ok up untill he got tummy upset