There’s More to Potty Training Than You Think

Potty training is a process that usually takes place when your baby is finally a toddler. It involves a LOT of cleaning urine puddles, running to the bathroom, and dancing (pee pee dancing). But there’s A LOT more thats involved when potty training, especially if you are a neurotic person -like me.

Sure, the biggest goal of potty training is getting from those ridiculously expensive diapers and pull ups to big boy or girl underwear. You have to teach them WHEN the right time is to go- which is a balancing act in its own. But there was so much more to the training than just ‘not peeing in your pants’.

Lets take the whole process of getting the toilet ready. You have to make sure the bowl is always ready (aka clean) for those little hands. Girls are touching the toilet on the sides when they go. If theres no seat insert and the poor kid has to balance themselves from falling through the hole, they’re probably on the verge of hugging the bowl by the time 3 drops of pee or an unsuccessful poop is complete. If you have a boy, they have to touch the seat to put it up. If you don’t clean your seat everytime someone uses it, then there is probably little drips of pee on the bottom of the seat. Ladies- be a little considerate and scoot your ass back when you pee. You don’t think of it because you never have the seat up, but the closer you are to the front of the seat combined with the power of your pee spray usually drips all down the front. When you come to my house if you  don’t scoot back (or lysol wipe the seat after you go) my kid has to touch your urine.. not cool. And yes, I have Lysol wipes on the back of my toilet, feel free to use as needed.

After your kid does their business, of course the next logical thing is wiping, flushing, and WASHING THEIR HANDS. Why kids think they don’t have to wash their hands is beyond me. This is without a doubt one of the most important steps in potty training. And I don’t mean turn the water on, run your hands under & then call it a day. When you are training your child, I want to see scrubbing & bubbles from the soap. LOTS OF BUBBLES. We usually sing a song with my son .. its fun for him and gets a GOOD cleaning on his hands. Once the song is over then he rinses.

I can do dirt, I can do messy, but I CANNOT do nasty. Not teaching your kids how to properly wash after using the bathroom is downright gross. Pee & poop are no joke especially when it comes to getting sick .. like really sick because their toys have traces of feces all over them. Its disgusting and literally makes me want to slap you as a parent. If you have a child that comes to my house & uses my bathroom, they better know how to wash those little germ hands. If I hear the toilet flush & then they come running out, please believe I will send them right back in to get clean.

Then we have the “I only went a little in my pants” kids (and parents). If there is enough “drops” of pee OR poop residue left from wiping in their underwear that I can SMELL it… they need to change their pants AND you need to wash them. Stop the laziness, and just do it. If you don’t want to wash a million loads of laundry from your child changing their underwear every time they use the potty, then buy more underwear. No one wants to smell it and no one should have to sit in it.

If you instill these additional practices WHILE potty training I can guarantee, it will become second nature to your children. However, I cannot guarantee that your three year old won’t blatantly call out their friends when they don’t wash their hands. For whatever reason flushing tends to slip the mind of many boys, but hey I’ll take a non flush with overly washed hands anyway! Happy Training!!