I've done it four times...the most important thing for me has been that I have to make sure that *I* have the resources to stay calm and cheerful during the initial week or two. I can't do that if we have lots of other things planned, if I'm sick, if I'm not resting and eating and laughing. I.e. you have to prepare yourself interiorly to deal with a lot of mess and a lot of emotions on the part of the child. Get yourself squared away first so that you can respond to accidents and such well! Not just on day 1, but on day 4!
Agh, yes, this is so true. And that skill set has done me so well in so many other areas of parenting, marriage, friendship, and even just my prayer life and my self-talk.
Oh, also, each parent should get to take breaks. If we're potty training and my husband is also home, I'll take an hour to go to a coffee shop. And he gets an hour somewhere, too!
“Never ask the Substack AI photo generator to make you a picture of potty training. Just find a different picture.” Howling laughing! Great post, too. We have another on the way, and our first spontaneously potty-trained herself very early, so we’ve actually still never potty-trained; this guidance is very relieving.
Our eldest was out of diapers by about 17 months very much as an extension of our EC practice, and so far the baby has really taken to EC, so I’m hoping it stays smooth sailing 🤞🙏 but we’ll see!
Dixie had some great thoughts above, but I hope this series is also helpful! Potty training is such a mindset game and depends so much more on parental readiness than child readiness.
Your series is very useful for adult training . I am still absorbing ways to stop over-communicating, over-talking.
I'm glad you're enjoying it, Trisha! There's a lot we can learn from our littles, and from how they need us to relate to them.
This is really cool!
I've done it four times...the most important thing for me has been that I have to make sure that *I* have the resources to stay calm and cheerful during the initial week or two. I can't do that if we have lots of other things planned, if I'm sick, if I'm not resting and eating and laughing. I.e. you have to prepare yourself interiorly to deal with a lot of mess and a lot of emotions on the part of the child. Get yourself squared away first so that you can respond to accidents and such well! Not just on day 1, but on day 4!
Agh, yes, this is so true. And that skill set has done me so well in so many other areas of parenting, marriage, friendship, and even just my prayer life and my self-talk.
Oh, also, each parent should get to take breaks. If we're potty training and my husband is also home, I'll take an hour to go to a coffee shop. And he gets an hour somewhere, too!
Pretty applicaple in our house right now! Thanks for this Sara. Looking forward to the next 10 weeks.
“Never ask the Substack AI photo generator to make you a picture of potty training. Just find a different picture.” Howling laughing! Great post, too. We have another on the way, and our first spontaneously potty-trained herself very early, so we’ve actually still never potty-trained; this guidance is very relieving.
It was horrifying! The stuff of nightmares 😂
Our eldest was out of diapers by about 17 months very much as an extension of our EC practice, and so far the baby has really taken to EC, so I’m hoping it stays smooth sailing 🤞🙏 but we’ll see!
Dixie had some great thoughts above, but I hope this series is also helpful! Potty training is such a mindset game and depends so much more on parental readiness than child readiness.