I’ve mentioned our attempts to potty train E on Facebook quite a few times. 
She’s been pretty switched on with the whole thing since she turned two, but with the huge move across the world we decided to wait a while before attempting it. They say to avoid potty training when you’re having an upheaval – well in the space of 12 months she moved out of her home, spent two weeks with one set of grandparents, two weeks with her other set of grandparents, four weeks in a holiday home in Australia, moved into a new home here, started a new daycare, and has now finally moved into our (hopefully forever, or at least very long term) home. It’s been a pretty hectic year, so we haven’t pushed it. Each time we tried to go without a nappy for a few days, we had endless accidents. Rather than keep going and try to force it, we decided to wait.
She is VERY headstrong and I knew that it was just a matter of finding the right button to press with her as she was more than ready – she just had to decide she was ready. The boys were reward orientated (I got through so many sweets and stickers while potty training them) but she’s not so into sweets, so Smarties weren’t hardcore enough.
You know what finally did it? On her third birthday I gave her a pack of Frozen pants and a pack of Disney princess pants. That was all it took. For my princess-obsessed daughter, giving her the right sort of pants was all the persuasion she needed. That day she refused her nappy in favour of her new pink undies and the rest is history. Barely any accidents.
Potty training has been SO easy this time round. If you ignore the two or three failed attempts we had through the year 🙂 And it was a heck of a lot cheaper than the bribe of visiting Peppa Pig World which is how I finally managed to potty train T1.
Good luck if you’re going through this right now. Don’t stress – the secret is it happens when they’re good and ready and not before. And a good bribe will definitely help things along when they are ready.
Six years of nappies and we’re finally clear during the day at last. It marks the end of an era. And an improvement to my bank balance.
Thomas the Tank engine pants worked for the eldest, he was desperate to be a big boy at three years old! We did the initial trial on holiday in Spain when he could go butt naked in the villa and it didn’t matter about accidents on a marble floor – he got it in days as was double continent.
The same could not be said for the youngest who coveted similar Thomas the Tank pants but did not want to actually wear them at three! Potties and loo seats were provided. Zip. Much was made of being able to flush the loo. Nothing. He’d go into a corner to poo, so it was a conscious decision, but he’d declare “change my nappy” rather than be tempted onto the potty or loo seat. In the end he seemed to be upset by one of the other kids at nursery saying he smelled rather than anything else. Oh and us telling him what an enormous poo/wee he’d done. The boy is clearly sensitive but has boy standards!
Haha they say boys are harder to potty train than girls. I’m very happy this phase is done with now at last! It feels like we’ve had nappies around for so many years – it’s odd not having to worry about them anymore.