Well, okay...you asked for it!

I start this post with this disclaimer: I am not, by any means, an expert in this field. So if anything crazy happens while you are trying this at home I cannot be held responsible. However, several of you have asked for my advice on potty training. First and foremost - wait until your child is ready. If you try to potty train a child that doesn't want to or isn't ready (like doesn't wake up dry or whatever) then potty training will be very long and messy! Then, when they are ready, I am a firm believer in going cold turkey. By that, I mean no pull-ups or diapers just at night - I mean straight to underpants and no going back! For the first few days I put them in sweat pants or tight jammie pants (like a size to small) because it helps soak up any accidents and keeps the pee from draining onto your clean carpet or into your kid's shoes (yes, that has happened to my kids - I try to learn from mistakes!). Jeans do NOT soak up pee. Neither to shorts. Anyway, my pediatrician said to put them on the potty chair every couple hours for 15 minutes or so. Reward them with a small treat only if they do something in the potty chair. With both my kids it only took a couple of days for them to get this down. And after they "get it" they don't even ask for treats any more! Weird, I don't know why they do this. Going poop is harder. With Rix, he figured it out by himself. Bryce didn't want to do this in the potty chair, but I found that if he went to hide, it was because he needed to go poop. So I would watch him, and when he went to hide, I would stick him on the potty chair and make him go - and my "make him go" I meant bribing him with all sorts of things! I figure that as soon as he goes poop once he'll realize it isn't scary or weird and he'll be okay with it for the next time. So far he hasn't had an accident since day 2 of potty training, and I totally trust him in public, overnight, and during nap times, in which he sleeps on my bed (he would be in SO much trouble if he peed on my bed!). I try to keep potty training stress free for the kids so they don't get freaked out, but I do let them know firmly when they have an accident that it's not okay anymore because they are a big boy. I hope this helps some of you out there! To me, if potty training is taking more than a week, your kid isn't ready yet. By waiting until they are ready you save yourself a ton of stress and carpet cleaner! Unless you enjoy cleaning up pee... And when they get the hang of going potty, I ditch the potty chair (too messy - and I never could figure out how to keep it completely sanitary) and make them go in the regular toilet. I like the potty chair for the first week or so because sometimes they can sit on it for a long (long long) time and it helps because you don't need to really be there to help - I just sat next to him for moral support and to read lots of books. But once Bryce got the hang of it I just help him on the regular toilet. He is too short and new at this to do it by himself, but it is faster and cleaner! What is your advice for people potty training their kids?? I know I'm not the only one who has ideas!

DISCLAIMER: Please Please Puh-lease don't take offense to this post! I promised some friends that I would post my potty training method for them - it is definitely not the only way or the right way to potty train. It just works for me. I don't care if you potty train by bribery, or if it takes months, or if you use Pull-Ups or whatever. I'm just too cheap to buy Pull-Ups and hey! Bryce is three and potty training is easy when your kid is three! So please don't think this post is directed at a specific person or that I'm judging your method (again, we waited until Bryce was three!). Just be happy with your own way of potty training, and know that all I am doing here is passing on my method and some advice.