Thank you very much for posting this article. I have a 3.5 year old boy, that doesn’t care about being wet, going to the potty, or wearing undies. People say let him pick out his undies, did that still pees in them, I told him he can go to school like his friends when he doesn’t wear diapers anymore. Doesn’t care. “One day” he tells me. Why can’t that day be today? I want to say. I’ve tried stickers, M&M’s, Kindle time, and vast other bribes and hopes and all I end up with is doing laundry all day every day and not understanding how a kid can sit in a puddle of pee at 3.5 and play with his toys like he isn’t soaked at all. So thank you for the article. I really appreciate knowing that there are others. 🙂

So glad to read this!!! I have twins – my little girl literally potty trained herself. No bribery, no M&Ms, no nothing – just handed her panties one day and that was it. I can count on my hand the number of accidents she’s had in 9 months. Yet, her brother, now 3.5 years old could care less about the whole thing. Underwear or pull ups, it doesn’t matter – he’ll poop and pee in both and sit in it. I just don’t understand. He knows exactly what I’m saying and just doesn’t care. No amount of M&M’s will do it. So now we have taken a totally granola approach – I’m just letting him figure it out when he’s ready – even if he may be 4 by the time it happens. I’m just too tired to care. And too tired of poo laundry. So glad i’m not alone 🙂

Thanks so much for posting this. Seriously, I thought if I had to hear from one more mom about how easy potty training was I was going to scream. My almost 3 year old is not interested at all and no incentive seems to matter to her. She is very much a child who will only do something when she is ready. I’m just hoping she gets ready sooner than later!

I love your sticking to your guns! I might have caved 7 or 8 days in! It’s interesting what works for kids, and this is a great post to keep in mind as we will one day have to potty train #2 and #3! Wyatt was fairly easy. It wasn’t three days, but over time he figured it out fairly quickly.

I love you so much for posting this. I have felt so alone in my potty training woes! It seems like people all around me are potty training their 9 month olds (exaggeration, yes) with ease while I feel like I could promise my near 3 year old child a brand new car and he would still poo in his underwear.

I loved this! I think so many times we try over and over the same thing because it works so well for other kids and other parents, and we feel like we have tried everything and something must be wrong with us or with our child. This example give me hope to take a second look and be a little more creative and a little more patient.

Thank you so.much for this post!!! It is exactly what I needed right now. We started trying to potty train my 2.5 year old about a month ago in preparation of the arrival of our baby girl in September. The first couple of days were great then it became awful. He ended up scared of the toliet and me crying my eyes out to my husband whwn he came home. See for years now I worked as a preschool administrator so I was always the one walking parents through this process and telling them all the tricks of the trade well none of those worked for my son!!! So I stopped. We got a book that we started reading sometimes at night and when he asked to go we will take him (he hasn’t actually used it yet). We stopped making it own main focus and now he is starting to show interest again. I however have decided that he will do this on his own at his own time. And yes this means I will have two in daipers at the same but really ia that such an awful thing!!

Thank you so much for this post! I needed it. We’ve tried EVERYTHING. And first day of preschool today I was handed a bag and they told me they changed him 3 times in 4 hours. Ahhh.

OK your gonna think I’m one of those lucky moms whose child potty trained over night but bear with me. My son did, technically potty train pretty much overnight. After two YEARS of NO progress whatsoever. He was almost four and I was pregnant with number two. I had enough. I knew he was ready because he was already having dry nights. Thank god! You hear about heavy wetters but my boy had to have an INSANE combo of cloth and disposable to have any hope of a dry morning. I was still changing sheets more often than not in the mornings. But I digress. I tried EVERY single method I heard of. NOTHING worked. I even had him checked by a urologist just in case. Once we got the all clear from him I finally had enough and woke a lil early one morning and stuck his butt on the potty and told him “don’t get up until you pee”. It was a long FOUR hours (after twelve hours overnight) before he finally couldn’t hold it anymore. He stood and started peeing on the floor but my husband jumped up and pointed him at the potty just before he finished. Then we partied like it was 1999! Just kidding, we partied like he had pottied on his own. He got one of three new toys that had been sitting in the bathroom waiting for him to potty for ages. The next time he had to go he went on his own and peed by himself on the potty. Again we partied and another toy. After that I told him he had to poop for the next toy. That took a couple days of miralax and half a chocolax to accomplish. That’s it. It was all done after that. We had a little issue with not wanting to potty at preschool. He ended up with a uti because he was holding it too much. I had to go to school and take him to the potty myself to reassure him that it was alright. Now he has been potty trained for two years with only a handful of accidents very early on. Now I’m pregnant again and everyone is asking when I will potty train my second. I keep telling them I’m not until he shows signs of readiness like his brother did. Even if it means that I have two in diapers at once. Most of our diapering is cloth anyway so I’m not too worried.

Thank you for this article. I attempted to potty train my older son for two summers in a row without success. Like other mothers who have commented, I tried EVERYTHING. And just like with any other delayed milestone, other “successful” mothers gave a lot of unsolicited/unhelpful advice. What FINALLY worked was me changing my attitude about it all. I quit pushing and made peace with the idea that throwing away soiled underpants (multiple times a day) was just going to be part of our routine for the indefinite future. And then one day, three weeks later, something just clicked in my son’s brain. He was three months away from turning 4.

I love this. My now 5 year old daughter took FOREVER to potty train. She totally understood the concept but just didn’t want anything do to with it. She was well past 3 when I had reached my limit and really started to believe that she never would learn. But my great-grandma gave me the exact same advice. She said to just stop focusing on it but to promise the thing she wanted the most when she finally got the hang of it. In her case it was an Ariel Barbie. Worked like a charm…she finally just did it on her own and then never looked back. Every kid is different and unique. While I love sharing tips and advice, as mamas we have to remember that every kid is different and there is no formula that works for everyone!

My own mother had a nightmare with me 45 years ago. She tells the story of babysitting my cousin (9 days younger than me) and SHE went potty and she praised her up, down and sideways in front of me. (Evidently, I was not-so-good about it.) My mom happened past the potty chair a while later and low and behold, I had gone – and was potty trained from that moment on. It just takes the right moment of motivation.

Like a lot of mom’s I was done with doing the soaked laurdry. Everyday that went by and I didn’t get him potty trained I felt like a failure I’m a teacher and I can’t even get my own kid to potty train. Jake isn’t really my son he is my nephew and he was premature birth along with being development delayed. Witch means he is behind in most areas of school. The doctor told us he is about 3 to 4 in his skill set and he will be four in 2 months. I heard everything that had being said previously and I know they go potty when their ready I just thought it would be sooner.
But any way I regress but he finally learned to potty this past weekend I couldn’t be happier. It’s being 5 days I have my fingers crossed it continues. But thanks for the article it gave a wonderful in site to the other side of potty training.

Super grateful to read this post. I am in the beginning of day 3 and I feel like I am trying to force something on my 22 month old baby that she is clearly not ready for. She has pee pee and poo poo in her toilet but far from regularly and 60% is me catching it before she goes outside of the potty. I will follow through with the third day but I too can not handle all the wet areas of the house and frankly it makes her feel bad and thats not what I want for her!! After today, I will proceed with the old fashion way. Pull ups and allowing her to go when she is ready. I have 3 sons all adults now and I potty trained them as they were ready between ages 2-21/2 and it worked out perfectly just as it was meant to be.

If only you could see the smile on my face when I read that you were talking about your DAUGHTER!! I was for certain this would be about an active little boy, as all of these types of struggles seem to be. We’ve had quite a time with potty training our daughter. I probably haven’t worked hard enough at it because I’m pregnant but ahhhhh the comfort to know there is another girl momma out there who knows my story!!

Very happy to have found this! I seriously feel so relieved! I am on I am on day 6 of the “3” day potty training! Definitely not for my son. He is 2 years and 8 months. I have felt like a horrible mom these past few days but reading your post has made me feel a lot better! I know he understands because he will tell me he is peed or pooped after he has done it and when I asked where pee and poop goes he says the potty but he really just doesn’t want too! So back in a diaper he goes tomorrow. I’ll try again when he is ready.

Hi all! I have a 3 year old boy (just turned 3 in late June) and we started that 3 day method. It is day 4 now and I am the one who is still telling him when to use the bathroom. He refuses to go #2 in the potty. Do I need to take this as he is not ready? HELP!

Thanks for posting. But… my question is now, what the heck do I do from this point? We’re on day 3 and I don’t imagine this day is going to end with my daughter magically “getting it.” So, I don’t know what to do after today? Do I go back to diapers? Or use panties and just let the accidents happen and pray they end quickly? We will use pullups for nap and bedtime, but should we use those all the time now? I don’t want to confuse her but I also can’t send her to daycare tomorrow and have her peeing all over the place. I am defeated and have no idea how to proceed. Any advice is welcomed.

Thank you so much for posting this. I just finished day 3 of the 3 day training and feel like a failure. I actually cried when I read this. It’s what I needed to hear.

Thank you so much for posting this!! I am currently potty training my 3.5 year old twin girls….1 doesn’t give me any issues getting on the potty and the other flips out when I even mention it…lol! For awhile, I felt like a bad mom since they were older for potty training. I just felt that it wasn’t the right time when they were younger. Also, 1 of my twins finished cancer treatment in December of 2018….I didn’t want to push her with everything she had been through. We are going to keep trying and hope for the best!! I am going to follow your advise!! Thanks again!!

I’m trying so hard to train my almost 3 year old. And she just won’t give in. She will hold it until she’s off the toilet and literally say “look mama” as she’s peeing all over the floor. I know it takes patience but I just want to give up.