My ten tips for potty training a two year old!

Another working mummy friend of mine recently went through potty training her young man and it reminded me of when we did ours with Riri. I will write a detailed post on our potty training experience here. But for now, here are some of my tips for potty training:

• Review and chose a potty well ahead of time –  if it turns out that your little person is ready before you think they should be, then you are prepared. Go potty training together and let them choose.
•  Let your little person see you use the toilet –  your little person may benefit from having the potty out and about in the house to get used to it but we chose to let Riri see us in the toilet instead. Doors open and all!
• Work with your nursery/caregiver – it’s important that you are on the same page with any other care givers so that your little person continuously gets the same message. Thankfully, ours were very much fully on board!
• Talk & read about it –  I read and then talked about the potty, toilet, flushing, washing hands, cleaning up. We didn’t buy any potty books for her to read but
• Buy the big girl/boy pants – this is one we decided to let her “choose”. She wasn’t at all interested on the day, so we picked them for her. Now she gets to choose which ones she wants to wear daily.
• Take time off work –  I took a week off so we could stay home from nursery. This was wedged into two weekends, so we had nine days in total.
• No pants on the first few days – this really helped to get used to the idea of not needing a nappy. Not recommended in winter/cold weather though.
• Travel Potty – though our potty toilet seat is solid and sturdy, it doesn’t fold and taking it out was a logistical nightmare. On day three of potty training, we had to go for a doctor’s appointment and lugging that seat around was not fun! Found a nice little four-fold seat which can fit into my coat pocket – it mainly stays in the buggy though!
• Have some old cloths, plastic bags and change of clothes for car journeys in case of any accidents. Thankfully we haven’t needed these yet since we hardly use the car!
• Do not stress out about it – if and when you’ve decided that it’s time, do not stress! They perceive that stress as little as they are and this may end up making it more tearful (for both of you) than it needs to be.

Have you got any other tips? I would love to hear them in the comments.