Author: Shannon Fitzgerald
I’ll be the first to admit, toilet training twins does not excite me, not one bit.
The only thing I like about toilet training is that I won’t have to pay for nappies anymore. As far as the how and the why go, I didn’t really do any research about toilet training.
I just knew it had to be a stress-free toilet training process. Although to be honest, I was hoping daycare would sort it out for me.
Toilet training does seem to be a high traffic topic on the mummy blogs. You’ll find constant questions like how do I train my 18 months to go to the toilet, how to toilet train boys, the guide to toilet training in a day, the secrets to the 3-day toilet training program etc.
MY EXPERIENCE WITH STRESS-FREE TOILET TRAINING
A quick scan of the latest toilet training craze and I’d discounted them all. When I read you had to stay home for three days, well that was out of the question. There was no way I was going to be locked in the house for three days with three kids. I don’t know about you, but that was surely not my idea of stress-free toilet training at all.
What I do know from my Early Childhood studies (many years ago) is the child needs to be ready. They need to make the connection between brain and bladder (feeling).
With my first, I made a half-hearted attempt. It seemed to go really well. My first enjoyed the attention and applause, and me “goo goo gah gahhing” over the cutest butt in the world in a pair of undies.
Then he decided he didn’t want to do it, so he stopped. Yep, he just stopped. He wouldn’t sit on the toilet. In fact, he would cry when I tried to make him. I was pregnant with twins at this stage so I gave up on the toilet training – can you blame me?
I couldn’t remember seeing any kids start big school in nappies so surely it would happen.
So I left it, and the training, well it went down the toilet (excuse the pun). I didn’t bug him or try to get him to go. Then one day six months later when he was 2.5 years old, he just took himself off and sat on the potty. No asking, no prompting – he just did it. I thought it was a miracle, it was amazing. It was strange but hey, I took it as a win for the team. From then on it was easy sailing, few accidents and it was pretty much sorted – at 2.5 years old he’d pretty much toilet trained himself. It was stress-free toilet training action.
Toilet Training Twins
When it came time to toilet train the twins a few years later, I thought I’d give my lazy parenting style another go. Plus by this stage, being a single parent with twins and an older brother, I was simply too tired to wash wet clothes every day.
I had the potties around, I showed them how to use them, they watched their big brother go to the toilet and that was it. I didn’t push or pay much attention to it. When they were about 2.5, I asked the twins if they wanted to wear undies. My daughter did and my son didn’t. She wanted to wear undies over her nappy. No problems I thought, let’s give it a go.
STRESS FREE TOILET TRAINING & THE MOMENT THEY GET IT…
It’s funny when you actually see it click. You literally see their little brains spark and there’s recognition – the wee is coming, and the wee is coming right now.
For a few weeks, my daughter asked to wear her undies without a nappy. Every time she felt a wee coming she would run to me and say ‘nappy on, nappy on’. I would quickly put her in a nappy and she would go. I went with it. About two weeks later she said ‘no nappy’. Now, hand on heart, we have only had one or two accidents in the past 6 months. She’s been fantastic.
For her brother, we were looking at the same result but 5 months later. He was dead set against going to the toilet or wearing undies. And so again, we went with it. And then one day just recently, he just walked down the hallway with the potty. The contents of which were splashing from side to side (all over the carpet) but I didn’t care, I was so excited.
In the beginning, he was very hesitant to use the big toilet, but with his brother and sister by his side and holding his hand, kissing his head and rubbing his back (I wish I got it on video) – he wee’d in the toilet. The child almost wet himself with excitement (pardon the pun). He was skipping everywhere, telling everyone. I was so happy as I watched, although my heart broke a little. In the back of my head, I thought “this is it.’’ No more nappies, they’re not babies anymore… where had the time gone?
I nearly (just nearly) wished for it all back, and then I saw the cutest butt in undies and I melted.
The moral to my toilet training story is: I’ve found with all of my children that if I just let them ‘be’, they work it out themselves – when they are ready. My stress- free parenting ‘style’ is how we get through as a family, and it allows my kids to work at their individual pace. It is stress-free for me and them.
I don’t worry about what other parents do, or think should be done. It works for us and that’s all that matters. It may not work for others and that’s ok. I’m just giving another perspective of our experience with toilet training – an experience with stress-free toilet training.
So if you’re struggling or overwhelmed at the knowledge that toilet training is a thing you’re going to have to embrace fairly soon, my advice is to throw out the books and do what feels right. Stress-free toilet training is totally achievable!
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