The Key to Potty Training at Any Age

It is wondered what the key to potty training is. After watching several different moms and a couple of teachers potty train, the key to potty training is patience and perseverance. As parents you think it is supposed to be easy and the doctors even tell you it can be done in 48 hours. What no one tells you is if the child is not ready the child will not be potty trained no matter how hard you try.

Do not take the child not being potty trained as a sign of failure. Parents start moping and think they are horrible parents if they do not get the desired result. Patience is truly a virtue when it comes to potty training. The child has to be physically and mentally ready to potty train. He or she needs to be able to know when they need to go potty. If a child doesn't know he or she needs to potty how will she or he know to even go sit on the potty?

The other problem with potty training is you can "lead the horse to water, but you can't make it drink". Parents will sit their child on the potty and the child will sit, sometimes not even knowing what they are supposed to do. Just because you can get the child to sit on the potty does not mean the child will go in the potty.

It is great to get the child familiar with sitting on the potty. This is also where patience and perseverance come in handy. At some point almost all children decide there is a monster in the potty or the potty is going to eat them. Your child may even stop going to the potty at this time. Just try to keep putting them on the potty and let them know there is no monster.

My daughter said both before she was fully potty trained. I had her look for the monster. Then, after the monster stage, she decided the potty was going to eat her. Explaining flushing and the water going down is not always easy to do when a child is two. Of course, also watch what your child is watching. Baby Looney Tunes had an episode of the potty being a monster. Kids "learn" a lot from television.

Keep reassuring your child and at least have them sit on the potty. A potty-training potty is sometimes good for this stage. Once they realize the potty will not eat them and there is no such thing as a monster, the child will start using the big potty again.

Remember to be patient. If your child is not ready to be potty trained then do not push him or her. Most children are potty trained by four years old unless there is another problem. Just watch for the signs of the child being ready to be potty trained.

The most important sign of being ready to be potty trained is that your child will be able to hold their pee all night and they will know when they have went or if they need to go. If your child can hold their urine overnight their kidney and bladder are physically ready for them to be potty trained.

Children should be able to tell you when they went so you can change them. That is a strong indicator that they are ready to be potty trained. They are "feeling" what is going on. Once they realize things are happening you can explain why and what to do.

It really does not matter how long a child takes to be potty trained, he or she will eventually learn in their own time and in their own way. As a parent, do not feel pressured to potty train your child and do not pressure your child to be potty trained. This only causes bad feelings and will cause the child to take longer being potty trained.

Source: Personal experience as a mother of two, and caregiver of many.