“Honey, I think it’s time!” – These five words meant something completely different 2-3 years ago when my water broke and Jansen was ready to make his debut into this wonderful world. Once again these five words make my husband want to run for the hills. He knows what is about to happen in our home, on our floor, all day – not a square inch of our home will be safe. Nakedness – and lots of it. By “nakedness” I am NOT referring to my own personal free spirited liberation from clothes, but rather the impending little naked boy booty running to and fro. Jansen is once again the topic of our conversation. He has proven that he is ready… now it is up to me to prepare our home for the execution of his next big milestone: POTTY TRAINING!
I am drawing on my experience with his two older brothers, as I compile a list of ten things to load up on before potty training. You don’t want to miss it, because if you are reading this article, chances are that you too will shout “Honey, I think it is time” in the very near future. (This post contains affiliate links.)
With that said – there is definitely more than one way to potty train a child. You will have to gauge your child’s readiness, the amount of time you have available to dedicate to the process and if it is something you feel needs to be done sooner rather than later. Personally, I have never been in a rush to potty train any of the boys. I feel that we started a little too soon with our oldest and it just dragged on forever.
10 Things to load up on BEFORE #PottyTraining! Best tips and tricks from a #mother of four boys!… Click To TweetPerhaps we were not firing on all cylinders because we chose not to use all the advice thrown at us at the time – or maybe it was just that Jacob wasn’t ready. Since then, we have just waited for the boys to show full interest and readiness, and after that the process has been simple and relatively quick.
Ten things to load up on before potty training:
- Potty
- Potty seat for toilet
- Step stool to reach toilet
- Reward: sticker chart and stickers work for our kids. The “experts” recommend non-food rewards, but m&ms worked with one of our boys. Hopefully we haven’t messed him up too badly by rewarding him with food – if we did, rest assured that I will blog about it in the future.
- Underwear: this is something your toddler can pick out at the store. Make a big deal about buying big girl/ boy pants.
- Cloth training pants: I recommend cloth because they are more economical and your child still feels wet if (s)he has an accident. Pull-ups are really just diapers that pull on and off – they serve little to no purpose in the potty training process. The cloth training pants are great for when you need to leave the house too. Leaving the house with a potty training toddler is MUCH more stressful that going out for the first time with a newborn – consider yourself warned!
- Patience (a lot of it)
- Toilet paper (a LOT of this too)
- Hand soap (go to Costco now to stock up)
- Potty training books – for your child to read while in the bathroom, and potty training guides for you to read. You will have a lot of time to read while you sit in the bathroom waiting for “results”.
I recently read a fantastic Potty Training guide written by Becky Mansfield. She uses a little different timing strategy than we do, but essentially the rest of the process is much the same. It is well worth your time to read her book, as she has great advice and her method has been a success for everyone who has used it.
She is also a mother of four, which automatically qualifies her as an authority on potty training. Her book teaches you how to potty train your child early and quickly. As I mentioned previously – we wait a little bit longer than she does, and our method takes a few weeks vs. her weekend.
“Potty Train in a Weekend” $9.99
Click here to view more details 
Regardless of which method suits your family best, always keep in mind that potty training is NOT a linear process. And I repeat – it does NOT only move in one direction – forward. Potty training is more like a dance – one step forward, two steps back, one to the side, hopefully two forward then one to the side – be prepared for set backs and side tracks.
If you start seeing more steps backwards than forwards, then put the whole thing on the shelf for a few weeks – WITH A SMILE – and then pick it back up again once life has settled, your child has gotten over an illness, or he/ she has simply just matured a little more.
Keep in mind – they will N O T be going off to college still wearing diapers. And another great point to remember, no one EVER asks you at what age you were potty trained – so who cares if it was later than your neighbor’s daughter or your brother’s kids. Potty training success is not an indicator of future education or employment success – I promise! Don’t stress over this – it WILL happen – eventually.
Interested in potty training? Read all of the related articles:
Potty Training Readiness : “Ten Signs Your Toddler is Potty Ready”
Preparing to Potty Train: “Ten Things to Load Up on Before Potty Training”
Potty Training Steps: 20 Potty Training Reminders for Hopeful Parents
Nighttime Training: 20 Potty Training Reminders for Hopeful Parents
Potty Training Reminders & Encouragement: 20 Potty Training Reminders for Hopeful Parents
Just starting potty training with my third, and yes, going out with a training toddler is much more stressful than a newborn!
We will be embarking on this journey in the somewhat near future, so I am just soaking up all this wisdom! Great point about the cloth training pants—seems like a way better idea than pull-ups. And I am promising myself that I won’t have too high of expectations, since I know that’s just setting myself up for frustration and disappointment. Expecting the process to be a non-linear one is the way to go!
Katie – I have to admit that our toddler doesn’t like to wear the cloth training pants – because they don’t have Batman on them – so I figured out how to be smarter than your average two-year old… I just stuff them inside his Batman underwear – and he doesn’t even notice that he is really wearing two pairs at the same time – ha ha ha. SO THERE! 🙂
I Remember when hubby and I were training my oldest son to use the potty, we were thankful that it was summer, because we were able to give him lots of Naked Time! It seemed to motivate him to use the potty willingly☺
Anya – we did a lot of naked time this weekend – well, our toddler did – I spared the family and decided to wear clothes – I am just nice like that.
I really need to remember this for when potty training starts again. I never really thought to make a list of things I need.
Rebecca – I make lists for everything… I actually carry a note book full of lists and then I re-write them over and over – I think it’s like therapy to me.
I wish I would have read this a month ago. I learned the hard way. One thing I still need to get is the Potty seat for toilet. That would be very helpful.
Jennifer, I find that a potty seat is SO important for one reason – it prevents them from falling in! HA HA HA – all joking aside – they get the “deer in headlights” look when they are about to fall in and that will scare the cr@p out of them – enough to be one of those dreaded “step in the wrong direction” on your potty training progress. But trust me when I say – DO NOT sit on their potty seat… it WILL break (speaking from experience here).
First I have to say, I appreciate your sense of humor. I read all the comments and loved your responses. I won’t be potty training for quite sometime, but I wrote down the name & author for future reference. Thank you.
Flushable wipes! And if you don’t already have a nightlight in the bathroom, now is the time to get one!
Great ideas – especially the night light! 🙂
We started putting our daughter on the toilet before every bath around 18 months. Just letting her get use to it. She rarely did anything sometimes we would get some pee. She is now 26 months and literally 2 days ago she told me she had to go potty so we ran to the toilet and she did her number 2 job and has everyday so far! We are still working on going to the toilet when she has to pee; I don’t think she can recognize the sensation yet. We do give her M&Ms after she does something but only if she pees or poops. I didn’t think I would do that because we rarely give her sweets but hey it helps and she is using the potty. And my goal is to have her completely potty trained before our 2nd one gets here in 4 weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Wow, good luck with your new little one and your potty training journey. We always saw a good amount of regression in one way or another with our older kids when we brought home a baby. So don’t be surprised – but over time she will master it beautifully, I am sure. BEST OF LUCK.
Hi! I found this post on Pinterest and I think your list is great. My son is not quite two, and hasn’t shown tons of interest in potty training yet other than enjoying sitting on his potty fully clothed :P. Question for you: how many cloth training pants would you recommend I get? I have a couple already but am unsure of how big my stash needs to be.
Thanks!
Hi Monica,
Thank you for reaching out. My BEST advice for you with regard to potty training is “DO NOT BE IN A RUSH”… we started too soon with our oldest because I was so anxious to try potty training – and it dragged on FOREVER. Our other boys I didn’t even start potty training until after their 3rd birthdays – and it went much quicker with them. With regard to cloth training pants. Depending on how often you want to do laundry, I would count on having at least 5-6 per day. They also take quite a while to line dry – even a little more than your average diaper inserts.
GOOD LUCK!!!!