Potty Talk

Even with 4 children successfully wearing undies night and day, I consider myself a potty training rookie. My first was trained mostly by Grandma, in the summer, teaching him to pee on trees. My next was trained in one day by our cleaning lady. That girl trained her little sister, also in a day, using the “strawberry shortcake underwear and m&m rewards” method. Training the twin brother was a total disaster and he was in diapers until he was 4! He decided to make a power play out of it, and I lost, big time, he trained when he felt like it, pretty much on his own.

So, here I am again with a two year old on my hands. He takes off his diaper when he naps and in the morning, no matter what he is wearing, so I have been having to wash his sheets twice a day. He follows his big sisters into the bathroom and has even had a few successful visits to the potty chair before his bath. He can take off his pants by himself, and he puts his own diaper in the trash. He follows one step commands with about 80% obedience, and he is fairly verbal. For all of these reasons, I think he might be ready to begin training, but I do NOT want this to be a 2 year start and stop process.

What are your thoughts, ladies — have you had success with training two year old boys? Should I just wait a year and do it the easy way when he is 3? How much discipline will it take on my part to take him to the potty every hour? Since I am already changing one in diapers, and they wear the same size, would it be easier to just keep him in diapers? If so, how do I keep his diaper on for the nap? Duct tape? And, how do I go about training, do I just let him run around naked for a while and put him on the potty every so often, hoping it works? Do you think this slot machine potty would help?