Motherhood Moments: How I Potty Trained 4 Kids

Today I'm chatting about potty training - what worked for us, what failed, and what I'd do different if I could go back in time! Grab a cozy drink and tune in 💕

Transcript

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Hi, I'm Kristen, fellow mom, and your biggest cheerleader in all things motherhood and parenting. My husband and I co-founded Parker Baby Co. with one mission in mind to nurture and grow strong families. And that mission continues right here on Rooted Conversations. So grab a cozy drink, take a deep breath, and remember you're not alone in this journey. Hi everyone. Welcome to Kirsten's Monthly Motherhood Moments. I am Kirsten Hebner and I am the co-founder of Parker Baby Co. And this is rooted conversations, but like a sub-group of that where it's just me talking and um it's just a little snippet of little monthly motherhood, I don't know, encouragement and then me to telling stories. I don't know. I'm just I just blab, I guess, about being a mom. And there is no rhyme or reason to what I talk to or what I talk about. And um today I'm going to talk about potty training. I potty trained for kids. Um, okay, guys, also you everyone needs to understand being a mom and anybody talking about being a mom, they're talking about their experience and their children. So keep in mind I'm talking about me and what worked for my kids. What I do may not work for your kids or what you're comfortable with. But this is what I did. I just found it so helpful as a mom to listen to what other moms were doing, and I took pieces of kind of what everybody else was doing and made my own little plan for basically everything in motherhood. Like I loved listening to other moms about like with what they were doing and how they're parenting or how they were feeding their kids or how they were doing sleep training or how they're potty training. And I took bits and pieces of everything and kind of made what was best for me. So that's what I'm doing for you. Is I'm just telling you what I did. Hopefully, you can learn something or um be like, oh, that sounds really good, or I want to try this part of that, but I don't like this part. Um, and I'm just here to tell you what I did. So I potty trained really early with all my kids, um, like 20 months, some younger than others. Now I did have three girls, and I some people say that that's there's a difference. Three girls, and my youngest is a boy. Um August, my son, potty trained really early. So the twins, that's an interesting one, and they're my first one. So I think they kind of fed off each other, and I had my kids so close together. So I always did it when um we had when we got home from the hospital. Because why not? Like with a with a baby, like why not? My thought process is like, we're already home, like not going anywhere, and like laying on the couch, why not just potty train too? And they say, I don't know who they are, okay. This was just they, as in other moms, I guess, at the time. Like, don't potty train right before having a baby because like you bring a baby home and it just like disrupts their life so much that they can regress. I don't know. I've had moms, like I think my sister-in-law potty trained right before she had a baby, and everything went fine. So I don't know. It just that's what I've heard, and but I've also that people have debunked that, so I waited till after babies were born, and then we did like the I think it's called like the five-day method, where you're the baby, the kids toddlers are naked for like three days straight, and we put like like the plastic shower curtains on all the sofas and everything, and we made like sticker charts, and like when they got when they went to potty, um, they got a sticker on that, and then once they got like six in a row, seven in a row, or whatever, they would get like a prize, and I had prizes on hand, so it was like instant gratification. So, like when they got it, I was like, Okay, here's your papa drill toy, here's your you know, candy bar, whatever. Um, so instead of like a piece of candy every time they went, they got a sticker and then they got like a big toy after seven successful trips to the bathroom. And by successful, I mean like they start paying at the beginning. It was like they start paying, and I like would run them to the bathroom and like set them on the toilet, and they would get like a few drops in the toilet. Like that was successful in my mind, you know, uh at the beginning. Oh, sharing this on the internet. I don't know. Like, we're a very open family, so like I have a lot of kids and I was home alone. I'm a home stay-at-home mom. So, like going to the bathroom with the door shut is like not a luxury that I have or had. And so they were used to that, like they knew what the toilet was, and I'm guessing, and like what happens on in the toilet, and a lot like I had like the little toilets, like toddler toilets in the bathroom that they could like sit on um and practice, and they would start to show interest even before we started potty training. Now, I did not like those. Um, we tried those at the beginning with the twins, but it we eventually moved to the toilet seats that have like the built-in like little seat that you can like flip down um so that they can climb up onto like the regular toilet. I found those are more comfortable and easier, and you don't have to like mess with the you know, all the poop and pee and like throw it away and then clean. So I did end up switching to that like pretty quickly because I really did not like the the like training potties. Um, I don't know if they have anything better anymore, but now they have all those like toilet seats that stay on your your toilet seat. So we would just like pump the kids full of drinks. So just like we'd sit and watch movies and like give them liquid all the time just to make them constantly have to pee, and we just run them back and forth to the bathroom. Um, and they caught on really quickly. Uh so that that was and then we did like the naked method for three days, and by day three, they were wearing undies and doing fine. Um, we never did pull-ups at night. We would do pull-ups, and then and the scariest part is then like going out outings when you're still potty training. You just have to make sure that you go to the bathroom before, and then like right when you get to a place, you like go to the bathroom. Also, a lot of my friends, I never did this because I don't know, I should have, but you have you carry like one of those training potties in your car, and you can put like a diaper in the bottom, and so that the kids can like sit on the potty and pee on into the diaper, and that so you can always have something ready, like if you're at the park, because that's the other stressful thing, is when you're like at a park, and um porta potties and those kind of things can be really scary. Um that was kind of our method. Um now night training is something different, and we never really trained that or pushed that. Um, we had one child that caught on right away and never really struggled with it. Um, a couple other kids took a little bit longer, and one took a really long time to night train. So it's just I don't know how you night train. I don't know how to do that. Um if you have any suggestions, let me know. But yeah, that that's what we did. We did sticker charts, and then I think with August, I was and we like would stick them outside the bathroom door, and they would really get really excited because that's like the age when they like really like stickers, and you get them like cool stickers to go, like their favorite paw patrol or whatever. And um, and then I think with August, I didn't make a chart or anything, I just had like a chocolate chip every time he went. Boys are a lot, I would think, easier because they can just go outside. I found boys to be a little bit easier. Some people disagree, and then I know a lot of parents have struggled with pooping, so kids will like hold their poop because they're scared to poop in the potty. That just takes some some getting used to and and some really encouraging words and running them to the bathroom and just really some dedication of staying home and working with them for like five days straight of just buckling down at home and not going anywhere and working with them on the toilet. It's not pretty and it's not easy, but it's it's worth it. I I just could not, with how many kids I had so quickly, I could not imagine just having me diapers. I one, it's expensive, two, it's bad for the environment. And I just like could not handle changing that many diapers. And once you have a baby, and then you change a toddler diaper again, you're like, oh, like this isn't baby poop, and it's kind of gross again. Like, you're like, ah, this is like big kid poop, and baby poop is just you know not gross. So, anyways, not a fun, not a super fun conversation, but I don't know. I I learned a lot in my potty training journey. It's a big step, and it's can be really daunting, and sometimes it's just uh figuring out a time in your schedule to make it work and working with your partner to figure out when you can both just really buckle down and figure it out, and then working up the courage to actually go outside again without diapers on, but it can be really freeing, it's really exciting. Um, and then your diaper caddy can turn into something fun, like I don't know, a craft caddy or a hair caddy. So, anyways, that's all I've got today. I'd love to hear if I missed anything or if you have any crazy good tips and tricks because I know moms are always looking for great potty training ideas, or if there's any good books or blog posts or anything. So I hope you guys have a great month of July, and um, you guys are having some great family time and time with your kids. Anyways, I'm so thankful for you, and I will talk to you guys next time. Bye. Thank you so much for tuning in to Rooted Conversations. I hope this episode reminded you that you're growing. You're growing a strong family, and you're growing as a parent. One moment, one choice, and one hug at a time. I'll see you next time.