Potty Training My 3 Year Old

Potty training Ryan has definitely been something I've been dreading since as long as I can remember.  The first time Ryan tried out the potty training thing, he was about 2.5 years old.  My mom took him for a few days (the first time I ever let him leave me) and when I went to pick him up a few days later, he was wearing underwear.  The problem was, he was wetting one pair of underwear after the other.  He was having small tinkles all day pretty much, I decided that he was NOT ready to be potty trained.  After two days if it wasn't clicking at all, I didn't want to push him on it.  Plus I could tell he started getting frustrated.

We put it off for a couple more months, and I tried again January 2013 over MLK, jr holiday.  This time, he went potty a few times on the potty but continued to have his accidents.

We put it off for a few more months.  This time, he was having more successful potty trips than unsuccessful ones.  For the first time, I thought he actually might be getting it.  However, he had an accident on the couch that traumatized him and he did NOT want to wear underwear.  He cried when I even said the word underwear and would not let me put them on him.  Again, I didn't want to pressure him if he wasn't feeling it.

Once Summer started, I was happy to have 10 weeks off of work so that I could actually stay home and have the time to potty train him.  But that didn't happen either.  Elyse came for half of that time and we're always running around when she's here.  Plus we had lots of play dates and other things scheduled so I put it off all summer.  

So finalllly, when fall break rolled around in October, I knew it was time.  I just had to get this kid potty trained.  I made sure we had absolutely no plans for the entire week.  We went shopping at Walmart where I let him pick out his potty seat for the regular toilet, some new underwear, and some prizes.  When he woke up on Saturday morning, I put him in his underwear and showed him the potty surprise box and told him if he went potty on the toilet he'd get a candy and a sticker.

[Ignore my messy counter!!]

This time, he was finally ready to be potty trained.  He spent the whole week going potty in his little toilet and was so proud of himself every time he went.

I spent so much time reading blogs and looking for stuff on Pinterest about "How I potty trained my 1 year old in 3 days." There is so much stuff about this 3 day method and how it only takes three days until your child can be fully potty trained.  Eventually, I gave up and realized that every kid who went to kindergarten was potty trained and one day Ryan would be too.

I'm glad I quit forcing it until he was ready and willing to be potty trained.  No matter if he was 2 or 3 years and 4 months, I'm still proud of my little guy.

And this sticker chart stayed up on our fridge for about 6 weeks, until every white spot was filled with a sticker for going potty.