• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Products / Baby Gear
    • Best Mom & Baby Products
    • Ultimate Baby Registry Guide
  • Pregnancy
    • Prenatal
    • Breastfeeding
  • Baby
    • Month 1-3
    • Month 4-6
    • Month 7-9
    • Month 10-12
    • Second Year
    • Toddler
  • #MomLife
  • About Rookie Moms
  • Nav Widget Area

Rookie Moms

Pregnancy > Parenthood

You are here: Home / Blog / More tales from the potty chair

More tales from the potty chair

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

We have an excellent little potty chair. That’s not the problem. We have a very useful (and much easier to clean!) toilet seat insert chair-topper as well. Also not the problem.

The problem is that you can lead a kid to the toilet, but you can’t make him pee.

Shortly before having Milo, when Holden was about 18 months old, we introduced the little potty chair to the bathroom to see if he had any interest on his own. I think that very first day (or maybe the second), he peed in it. We were shocked and amazed and hurt our arms patting ourselves on the back. But it was not to be repeated for a long time.

Fast forward a few months. We introduced a newborn into the house and I found myself saying things like, “you’re wearing a diaper, use it.” Now the kid is two years old, he knows what the potty is for, but he doesn’t really care to use it. Alec and I each spent 20 to 30 minutes at a stretch sitting on the bathroom floor not pressuring Holden while he sat there and Did Nothing.

Fast forward a few more months. He started a preschool — luckily not one that requires potty training — and I let them take the reins for a while. I expected that the communal mini-toilets and the peer pressure of his little buddies would do the job where I had failed. I was partly right.

The preschool did about 97.5% of the job for us, but it still took most of the year. At each diaper change, his teachers would give him the choice of diapers or undies (or sometimes both). I think he liked figuring it out on his own. This is around when I created the sticker chart. I was afraid that bribing with candy would send the wrong message (his teacher told me, “you don’t get candy when you use the toilet, so why should they?”) so I used a combination of stickers and new toys. Then again, I don’t get stickers or toys when I go to the bathroom…

Potty training sticker chart

I made the chart (I tried to do it with him but he kept putting his decorations in the wrong places and negating the logic that I invented) and awarded one star sticker for peeing in the potty, two star stickers for pooping in the potty, and then one large Thomas sticker when he got to the large spaces on the chart. For each large sticker earned, Holden could also choose a (not-very-expensive) toy.

Some days he would fly through earning stickers. He earned two little Thomas vehicles for the train table before we all lost interest in my his sticker chart.

Round about his third birthday — when we had already given up and were content to have two in diapers for the rest of our lives — Holden declared he was “done with diapers.” I remember being quite terrified the first time we went to a restaurant and he was in undies, like he was a ticking time bomb. The question was when and not if he would pee all over the place. I’m relieved to report that he did not urinate all over a restaurant, but I did carry him several times to the restroom for false alarms.

As for training the next kid… we just dragged out our little potty chair to see if Milo has any curiosity. Nope. And he’s already at the preschool where they have those adorable mini-toilets. Plus he has an older brother who can pee in a toilet standing up. If all that’s not motivation, I may just bust out the M+Ms. Talk to me in about a year when I start to panic.

Related posts:

  • Notes on potty training a 21-month old (yep, Scarlett’s trained!)
  • 99 balloons and 99 poops (how Whitney bribed Julian with wall art)
  • The one where I wish we could stop doing underwear at night
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
RookieMom Heather
RookieMom Heather
RookieMoms co-founder & mom to 3 boys in Berkeley, CA. Bossy big sister and project manager turned blogger. Find me on my other site on 510families.com or hiding in my minivan eating dark chocolate.
RookieMom Heather
Latest posts by RookieMom Heather (see all)
  • Best Gifts for a One Year Old – Top picks for 2023 - October 10, 2023
  • 6 Fool-Proof Strategies for When Your Toddler Won’t Stay in Bed - August 13, 2023
  • 7 Super Great Nursing Sports Bras + 1 to Avoid - June 6, 2023

May 21, 2009 11:21 pm RookieMom Heather Filed Under: Blog, Having 2+ kids, Momoirs of a Rookie Mom

Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter

Primary Sidebar

Search our site

The Best 20 Stay at Home Mom Jobs in 2024!

The Best 20 Stay at Home Mom Jobs in 2024!

19 Best Nursery Gliders of 2024! [Tested by Parents for Parents]

19 Best Nursery Gliders of 2024! [Tested by Parents for Parents]

The 50 Best Toys for 2 Year Old Boys in 2023! [+ Toys of the Year]

The 50 Best Toys for 2 Year Old Boys in 2023! [+ Toys of the Year]

6 Fool-Proof Strategies for When Your Toddler Won’t Stay in Bed

6 Fool-Proof Strategies for When Your Toddler Won’t Stay in Bed

The Best Gender Reveal Gifts (30+ Unique Ideas!)

The Best Gender Reveal Gifts (30+ Unique Ideas!)

10 Best Strollers In 2023 – For Every Mom’s Needs!

10 Best Strollers In 2023 – For Every Mom’s Needs!

Join our Rookie Moms Facebook Page

Rookie Moms

Disclosure

Review Policy
Privacy Policy

This site is an Amazon affiliate.

Popular Articles

150 Unique Middle Names for Girls

Footer

Browse By Age

  • Pregnancy
  • Month 1-3
  • Month 4-6
  • Month 7-9
  • Month 10-12
  • Toddler
  • Preschooler

Problem Solving

  • Sleepy
  • Eating
  • Breastfeeding
  • Home
  • Baby Registry
  • Pregnancy
  • Baby
  • Toddler
  • Preschooler
  • Baby Gear
  • #MomLife
  • Holidays
    • Holiday Gift Guide
    • Holiday Entertaining

© Copyright 2016 · Pretty Lifestyle WordPress Theme by: PDCD