I realized parenting is indeed a tough job when I started potty training my daughter. I felt I was in a tunnel waiting for that day that I would finally see the light again! At 18 months, my daughter started showing some signs that she might be ready for potty training. She pauses and tells me “pee-pee” and holds her diaper when she felt she just did number one. She stops in the middle of a play and goes in a corner when she had to do number two. So I went ahead and bought a potty chair with a removable lid that can be placed in the big toilet. I tried to let her seat on the potty chair and she was so excited. She peed right away! I was really surprised. But that was it. After the first time, she did not want to sit there ever again. So I thought she might not be ready as I thought she was.

After a month, I tried to encourage her again to sit in the potty, but no good. So I just tried what will happen if I just let her wear panty without a diaper. Of course, she just peed anywhere and just gives me a “guilty” look. I tried to do it for another day. But on the third day, I gave up and thought she was not ready yet. On the following month, I tried again but just the same, I just gave up so easily thinking she might not be ready yet.

When she turned 2, I was told by my sister, my daughter had to be potty trained. Her daughter was potty trained at 20 months and that made me think my daughter might be delayed in this milestone. Of course, even though I have read a lot about potty training, that timing depends on the child, I still felt bad that I might not be doing the right thing. So I decided, I’m going to do it again and I won’t give up until she makes it. And guess what? In a week’s time, in the morning of the 7th day of training, she just went to the bathroom by herself, sat on her potty chair and that’s it! Well, that’s for number one. It took her another week for number two. It took a lot of patience and creative ideas to do it.

Here are some of the things I learned:
Be consistent
When you see signs of readiness in your child, you have to make sure you are also ready for this. You might give up in the middle like I did in the beginning but you have to be consistent and firm with your decision that you will train your child until she/he succeeds, no matter how hard it is. I think this is the most important thing to consider before anything else.

Be patient
I didn’t know what else to tell my daughter every time she pees right next to her potty after she has sat in her potty for half an hour! I felt she was doing it on purpose but she wasn’t. She was trying to learn a new thing and I just had to tell her calmly over and over again what the potty is for. Potty training for a child is big challenge as it is for the parents like you.

Let your child choose his/her potty chair
I didn’t ask my daughter what potty chair she likes. It helped a lot when I thought I would just buy her another lid with her favorite character in it (Dora the Explorer).  She was comfortable sitting on it and called it “Dora potty”.  We put on it on her potty chair and on the big toilet until she can comfortably sit without it.

Bring the potty everywhere in the house
Try to bring the potty chair everywhere you go in your house. I chose not to use the training pants because for me, it is still a diaper. I let her use panty though out the day with the potty chair just close by and a handy wet-vacuum and oxy clean (for the carpet) ready at hand.

Surprise box
Stickers really work but I did it with a little twist. I have a small toy chest box with some blocks, puzzles and shapes inside (a Christmas gift). Instead of opening everything at the same time, we pretended it’s a surprise box. Every time she did number 2 successfully, she puts her hand inside the box and gets to open a surprise toy. When I ran out of toys inside the box, I simply wrapped stickers (two stickers in a wrapper) and wow, she was so excited she wanted to do number 2 all the time!

I would say the average potty training age is 2. That’s when they learn to express themselves in words and when they start to have self-control. Most mothers I know say that boys are harder to potty train. I know friends and family having the most difficult time potty training their boys but they will also got there, maybe only a little longer than girls. One day, you will just be surprised your child will actually do it! Good luck!