I didn’t want to proclaim that Little Bug is truly completely potty-trained (daytime only) until I knew for sure, but Little Bug has been completely trained since last Monday morning!!

There have been virtually NO accidents!

One time, she said she needed to go potty, and took off running. But then, she decided she wanted to go to our bathroom instead of her bathroom. As she was trying to move her potty seat and stool to our bathroom she wet a little bit.

There have been NO times where she is playing and just forgets to go to the potty and pees on herself.

That really does surprise me, because I was totally prepared to have to clean up pee off the floor for a good while.

I still credit all this to the fact that I trained Little Bug when she was ready – not when I was ready to have her potty trained. Because, believe me, it would have been nice to have her out of diapers way sooner than at over 2.5 years old!!

Tuesday (day after initial training), she got up and wanted her panties on. I continued that day to say “Are your panties dry?” every so often. We went to my parents’ house on that day which meant a car ride. Instead of letting her drink milk before we got in the car (like I usually do), I had her wait until we got to their house. I was thinking that she may not have accidents in the house, but surely when I put her in the car for a car ride, she will. But, she did not!

Wednesday and Thursday I continued to say “Are your panties dry?” every so often. And she continued to go to the potty every time she needed to go.

Friday I hardly said “Are your panties dry?” and she continued to use the potty every time. Dave’s parents even took her to the neighborhood park for about half an hour and she stayed dry the entire time!

Now, a week later, I don’t even need to say “Are your panties dry?”. If she needs to go, she goes to the potty on her own!

There was a time when she needed help getting on the potty. She didn’t actually really need help but on the training day she somewhat slipped on her little potty seat and then from then on, she wanted assistance in sitting down on the potty. But now she will independently go on her own and she doesn’t even want to use the little potty seat on the big potty anymore!

She did fabulous at church too on Sunday! No accidents.

My girl is potty trained. It is still hard to believe how easy the training process really was.

I really do believe that we as parents make a bigger deal of training than we should!!

Having just trained a child these are my top three tips:

1. Wait until your child is totally ready to do this. Don’t force your child to train! If potty training becomes something you want to do and not something you and your child wants to do, you are only asking for accidents and frustration! Put quite simply: Don’t stress about potty training!

2. The one-day method philosophy is so smart! Instead of training by making your kid go sit on the potty, use the philosophy from that book and instead ask your child if their panties are dry. That way you are putting the focus on the main goal (keeping pants dry/clean) instead of having to constantly take your child to the potty so they won’t have accidents. You are putting the responsibility on the child and they will want to go on their own to keep their pants dry and clean without you having to constantly remind them to “go use the potty”!

3. Don’t even start with the little toddler potty seat. This is totally my opinion, but to me, they are GROSS. Little Bug trained on the big potty and I am so glad because I am not worried at all of her being afraid of going on the potty in public bathrooms when we are out and about. (Although I am afraid of the GERMS that she will come into contact with in using those public potties!! Yuck!!) **Update: She has successfully used the public toilets with no problems. I tried getting her to use this paper to cover the seat but it didn’t really stay on the toilet well so she just sits on the public potty seat now like a big girl. Ewww. I just try not to think about it and wash her hands immediately upon getting up. Oh well.

My Big Girl!

- Elaine