My Potty Training Experience in 3 Days

Ok don’t be fooled by the title. Yes, my son was basically potty trained in three days (except for naps and nighttime – different story, different blog post) but it was not without a lot of effort, setbacks, frustration and tears. And I’m not talking about Jackson. Potty training is hard work and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. And no, it’s not like after day 3 I didn’t have to do anything. Potty training is a daily task. But Jackson learned the concept of using the bathroom and holding his bladder in 3 days.

Before I really dive into this post, I just want to preface it by saying that every child is different. You know them best. And only you know what will work for you and your little one. This is not meant to be a “how to” on potty training. There are professionals and books designed to do that. This is just my own personal experience-what worked for me and my son. And what didn’t. I read the books (namely: Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki) and the Pinterest articles. I asked my friends what they had done. And this is what I concluded: There is no such thing as a step-by-step guide to potty training. Yes, the resources, books, articles, opinions are helpful. I would have been lost otherwise. BUT, like I said before, everyone’s experience is going to be a little bit different.

So outlined below is what I took from the books and articles and opinions. And this is how it all went down:

Step 1: Is he ready? Oooof, what a loaded question. My son will be 3 in March and this is something I really struggled with because some books say “the earlier the better” while others say boys aren’t ready until after their 3rd birthday. Ok, not helpful. So then I read articles about readiness signs. Does he ask to go to the potty? No. Does he show interest when you’re using the potty? Uh hard no. Does he tell you when he has to go? HAHA NO. Does he hate wearing a diaper? Nope, pretty sure he told me to buy MORE diapers when I said we were going to potty train. All signs-NO. Every article would have told me, “Stop there. He’s not ready. He’ll tell you when he’s ready.” I call BS on this. Although side note: I do have a girlfriend who’s 2.5 year old came home from school one day and said he didn’t want to wear diapers anymore and that was it. Voila! The kid basically potty trained himself. This wasn’t going to be my kid. He was going to dig his heels in. So guess what, I threw all those books and articles out the window and made the executive decision to JUST DO IT. He’s almost three, can reason with me, understands that he can’t wear a diaper forever but he doesn’t like change. Who does? So step 1 – is he ready? Unsure. Am I ready? Hell ya. We’re doing it.

Step 2: Set yourself up for success. What does this mean? Get the bathroom ready. While I did purchase this potty and treats as incentive for using the toilet, I didn’t go out and buy new toys to only be played with on the potty or books about going potty. First of all, I’m not trying to encourage my son to be like my husband (and everyone else’s husband for that matter) and spend hours in the bathroom. Special toys for the potty? What? No. Get in and get out.

When it came to the potty, I tried to act really excited about it and tell him that it was his only and that no one else could use it. You know, really enforcing that whole sharing concept. Oops. But he couldn’t have cared less. Cool mom. A toilet. Can I go back to my cars now? He wasn’t buying it. But I was armed and ready with the potty, marshmallows, M&Ms and a secret brand new car for a really momentous breakthrough.

Also, it’s important to note that I felt it would be easier to potty train him sitting down. However, I honestly believe you can do it either way. The aim and fire method just seemed like it would get messy. I wasn’t down for that.

Step 3: Decide when you’re going to start and STICK TO IT. My son was out of school for two weeks and I decided that this was the perfect time to start. We had nowhere to go, nowhere to be. The only outing we had was to the grocery store and back. This is one thing the books say that I truly believe. You have to be ALL IN. No halfsies. Stick to your guns, mama. You GOT THIS.

Step 4: D DAY. It’s time. You’re armed and ready. We started the day by stripping him down to nothing. No diaper, underwear, or pants. I put a shirt on him because it was 35 degrees outside but that’s it. {{In hindsight, doing this in the Summer would have been wiser because he could have been outside the whole time but ok, lesson learned. Better luck with the next kid.}} They say underwear can give kids a false sense of wearing a diaper so I ditched those.

He hung out naked on the couch, I pushed liquid every 10-20 minutes (water, milk, watered down juice) and told him every 20 minutes that we were going to use the potty, which was always followed by a firm, “No!” It’s so important to change the narrative from, “Do you have to use the potty?” to “It’s time to use the potty.” My son kicked and screamed his way to the bathroom every time. I had to sit him on the toilet and hold him down. He was MAD. So, so mad. But finally, after a few tries and some kicking and screaming, he went. And those screams turned in to squeals of absolute delight and pride. I made a huge deal out of his success and gave him 5 mini marshmallows as a reward.

Now, poop. That was a different story. He was afraid to go and held it all day long until his nap when I put a diaper on him (I wasn’t ready to be THAT hardcore and tackle the nap/nighttime potty training gig). However, on day two, when I knew he had to go number 2 (you know, when you see them pacing back and forth and hiding in a corner), I enticed him with a shiny new car. “If you go poop on the potty, you get a new car.” Done. Worked like a charm. Obviously I couldn’t do that every time but at least he was no longer afraid to go. It took about one month for him to get comfortable going poop and now he enjoys it because phew- talk about sweet relief!

After three days of doing the same thing over and over and over again, he mastered the art of using the bathroom. He could control his bladder, hold his pee and wait to get to the potty before going. He isn’t the best about telling me when he has to go and I still prompt him A LOT but we don’t have accidents like we did in the beginning. The marshmallows were key to all of this, by the way. “If you go to the bathroom, you get a marshmallow.” Some books say not to give rewards because do you get a reward every time you use the bathroom? Of course not. But I had to do something. Either take something away (stick) or reward him (carrot). He responded to the carrot (ahem, marshmallow).

He’s back in school now and doesn’t wear a diaper or underwear at all during the day. It’s easier for him to get to the bathroom, pull his pants down, handle his business and get back to playing. And he has yet to have any accidents at school, which I credit his amazing teachers for keeping up with the program we established at home. I recently purchased underwear and he will begin to wear them in the coming weeks because sorry kid-free ballin’ isn’t exactly socially acceptable these days. And I am confident in his abilities at this point.

As for naps and nighttime, I know we aren’t ready to tackle that milestone. There are days when he wakes up completely dry and others, not so much. So I am not going to push it. We’ll figure that out when the time comes. A close friend of mine has a daughter a year older than Jackson and she just recently stopped wearing a pull up at night and it happened organically. Her daughter basically said she didn’t want to wear a diaper anymore at night and that was it. So this is the approach I am going to take and trust that it will happen in time.

But overall, he really surprised the hell out of me. Kids-they are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and even though every book would have told me to wait, I am so glad I trusted my instincts and went for it. He now only uses the regular toilet and sometimes stands when he pees. Mini milestones happening every day but like I said earlier, 3 days was all it really took to master the concept. Not bad, right?

For my mama’s out there: parenting is hard and all of these transitions are ROUGH. Change sucks. Let’s be real. But that’s why we have each other to bounce ideas off of and go through it together. If this post can help one struggling mom out there who’s currently IN IT, then I’ve done my job. So if you have any questions or comments or personal experience with this topic, leave a note below. You never know who it might reach.