Guest Post - 3 Steps to Potty Training Success

Today, I have Lizzie from This Happy Life. Lizzie and I met through blogging and have become fast friends. Lizzie is a mom to three children and one of them happens to be named Avery...just like my little Avery. I love reading about Lizzie's life and her adventures with her family. I am so honored to have her as a guest poster today. Enjoy!

Hey there! I'm Lizzie and I blog over at This Happy Life. I'm so excited to be guest posting on Danielle's blog; it's quickly become one of my favorites!

Today I'm sharing 3 steps to potty training. I've successfully potty trained 2 out of my 3 kids and thought this was a great topic to guest post about since I'm about to start training my 3rd.

1. Make sure they are ready.

How do you know? With my kids, I started noticing they were telling me every time they went pee and poo in their diaper.  That made me realize they understood what was happening and that they could probably start going on the potty.  Also, if my kids got excited when I would talk about going on the potty, I knew it was a good time. If they didn't get excited, I would back off.  Once I had both things (telling me when they are going in their diaper + getting excited about the potty) I knew it was time to start.

2. Go big or go home

When it was time to potty train my first two, I took the approach of just diving in.  I did not use training pants or diapers some of the time, it was straight to underwear. (well except for night time, that took a little while longer) We went to the store and I had each kid pick out their favorite pair.  I chose to start potty training both kids on a Thursday and knew that the upcoming weekend would be spent at home, just training. I gated off our downstairs family room and pretty much confined them to our first floor which has our living room turned playroom and our kitchen (bonus is these rooms are hardwood) I would ask my kids several times an hour, "do you have to go to the bathroom? do you have to go pee?" If it would be a while in between going, I would sit them on the potty but only for a couple of minutes.  I didn't want them sitting on it for so long that they just happened to go and then might not be able to decipher the difference of actually having to go vs just being on the potty and going. I would repeat this several times a day.

3. Be their biggest cheerleader

If people could hear me cheering my kids on when they would go potty, they would probably mistake my excitement for winning the lottery. That's how much emotion I put into praising them.  My kids loved this so much.  I would be jumping up and down screaming "You did it! I knew you could! I'm so proud of you!! Yayyyy!!" and my kids would flash me the biggest smile.  I honestly think making such a huge deal when they went played a big role in their potty training success.

And there you have it, my 3 simple steps to potty training.  Of course this may not work for everyone but it could work for some. And remember, there will be accidents, maybe lots of them, but try not to blame your child (I know that can be hard when you're cleaning up pee or even poop for the upteenth time, but try) Most of all, Good Luck!

Thank you Danielle, for letting me be a part of your blog while on your trip!

Thank you Lizzie for these three steps. We are about to embark on potty training the twins and I know I will need all the help I can get. I love your idea of waiting for them to tell you that they are ready. My girls love to go into the bathroom with me and watch me. They are trying to figure out what is going on and I hope it leads to them wanting to try it soon. Thank you so much for the advice. I know I will make awesome use out of this very soon!