Wait! You Need to be Ready for Potty Training, Too!

Are you ready for potty training? Being ready to potty train your preschooler has much more to it than his signs of readiness. Sure, we all know your preschooler should be able to express his need to go and appear interested in staying clean, but the more important indicators are from you. Are you actually ready for potty training, too? It can make all the difference in the world.

Do You Have Time?

Despite potty training strategies that can teach potty training skills in a single day, you need to devote more time than that to getting your preschooler on the potty in a regular fashion each day, every day. For that you need to have long stretches of open time.

Can you rearrange your errands or get a friend to pick up your older children so you can stay home with your preschooler and your potty? Many working parents decide to potty training over the holidays or over the summer. The holidays are often extremely full of other activities and guests that can be time consuming. Rather than a few false starts, it would be best to wait until you have little else competing for your attention.

Do You Have Patience?

If you are in a very stressful time due to any number of things, you won’t have the patience you need to help clean up after the inevitable accidents. Your preschooler needs you to be strong and patient. He will rely on you to make the rough times okay and to celebrate successes.

If you’re stressed and cranky you can actually make the process negative for everyone. The same is true if you are trying to potty train by a set time or deadline and feel stressed thinking there is a magical time limit on how long this should take – potty training is different for every preschooler.

Do You Have Energy?

Parents often try to start potty training when they are taking vacation days from work or on a long weekend. Unfortunately, a vacation is often the time parents need to regain their energy and rest after long stressful periods of work. If you are worn out and don’t have the energy to make continuous sprints to the potty or are simply too drained to even think about performing your special victory dance, rest for a while before starting. Older preschoolers are often easier to potty train anyway.

Do You Have Dedication?

Finally, you need to be ready to follow through on potty training once you get started in earnest. If you start pushing your preschooler to use the potty and he is agreeable, you will send a very mixed message when you suddenly put him back in diapers so that your family can take a trip or you can take a break for a day.

Potty training is a bumpy road, but once you are rested and ready, the process is just like any other developmental area in parenting – challenging, different for everyone, but infinitely rewarding for you and your preschooler as he takes another step toward growing up.

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