Amanda’s Blog- My Own Toilet Training Experience with my Children

Being a young mum of only 22 years old I really had to learn things the hard way when my children were born there was no such thing as forums, internet, Facebook etc. I was the only one in my group of friends to have a baby so sometimes I felt very alone while all my friends were doing the ‘travelling’ thing, I was at home breastfeeding. Was I too young? This was obviously my choice but sometimes I did feel I was missing out but to this day I never regretted it.  

Tackling all the milestones of motherhood were sometimes very tough but not as tough to me as tackling potty training. I used to think to myself How on earth am I going to get this little boy out of nappies when he is quite happy doing his business in them and where do I start? I spoke to my health visitor and luckily enough 20 years ago I was able to contact them unlike today where they are so stretched due to cut backs. She gave the best advice she could but to be honest I did not feel it was enough to make me feel confident to start this journey.

I was in Mothercare with George one day and he ran towards a Thomas Potty and insisted on taking it home. I decided to go with the flow as I believed he showed an interest at least in the potty that maybe I should give it a go. I bought big boy Thomas pants and hunted down Thomas stickers and made my own reward chart and George was super excited. My philosophy was if I was going to do I was going to do it the full hog. So the next day the nappies came off!!

Day one was quite a challenge I am not going to lie, how tough could this possibly be? After a few accidents it was so easy for me just to give up knee deep in pee and poo all over the house with George denying he did any of it blaming his 2 week old sister! But I was not going to be defeated so constant reminders and stickers bribes to sit on the potty resulted in an eureka moment where we had our first wee in the potty. I screamed so loudly with excitement that I made George jump and the potty tipped over still stuck to his bottom and yet again there was wee all over the floor, this time it was my fault!

After a couple of days George just totally got it and could see his mummy’s delight of how proud she was of him.

The poos were abit of a challenge as they were with Hollie my second child and for some reason my children loved to hand the poo to me even when I was driving in the car. I used a different reward system as I could see the stickers were beginning to be not as exciting. I had an old quality street tin which had special treats inside and they could not wait for me to open this and this really did encourage them to do a poo in the correct place.

The thought and fear of going out and about and making sure I had everything with me; the potty which was in a plastic bag, spare clothes, wipes. Not only did I have to remember everything for a toddler, I had a baby who was only a few weeks old and had to make sure I had everything for her too! It took me 3 hours to get out of the house, kids strapped in car seats, and George needed a wee as soon as we started driving. I am not going to lie my stress levels were sky high! So I pulled over got the potty out the boot and sat George on the front seat and he did one drop of wee, but at least he asked. When I put him back in his seat, Hollie started to cry and needed breastfeeding, so the car did not move for a while!

It felt like 2 weeks later I eventually got into town had everything loaded up in the pushchair and we set off to look around the shops to treat myself to some new clothes as I felt super skinny even though it was only two weeks but naive as I was nothing fitted, so I gave up! After a few visits to the Boots breastfeeding changing room we set off again. Then I hear ‘Mummy I need a wee’. Trying not to panic we found a quite place on the high street put the pushchair in front of George and let him do his business. Excellent no wet pants he made it in time. Proud Mum Alert! When he had finished and ready to go, I spotted the nearest drain, and poured the wee down the drain when this horrible foul mouthed man shouted at me for doing this. I felt absolutely awful not only did he make me cry (hormones) he made George cry too. I was absolutely devastated. I decided to give up on this expedition and give up and go home. But I never let this man put me off as it was important that George felt confident to ask to go for a wee when he was out of the home.

That night when the kids were finally settled and that overwhelming feeling of the day’s events kicked in, I started thinking to myself there has to be something else better than this. Why can’t we have a lid on a potty so we can just shut it and dispose of the contents at our convenience? ‘Easy!! I am going to make this!’

Stay tuned for Part 2 Next Week

With Love

Amanda xx