Toilet training and the turmoils we face

Hands up who has been through this? We all face challenges with having children, but this topic is one that we can laugh about, and often. You’d be hard pressed to find no one with a tale to tell on toilet training.

I was waiting at school the other day for my 5 year old. As the minutes rolled by more and more Mum’s congregated outside the door, waiting patiently. As one topic turns into another toilet training pops up. It soon turns into sharing hilarious stories about our own children and their training days. The roar of laughter was infectious.

J- “My daughter always chose to poop in her pants at a particular friend’s house. Why this friend? No idea, but invariably we would be visiting and the old catch phrase of G has pooped we gotta go became too common!”

G-“My 2 year old decided to poop in her pants. I just throw them away now. Who wants to clean that up?”

Whilst talking, J notices out of the corner of her eye something unfolding. She makes the mad dash, leaping through the school yard, dodging kids with ease to reach her son who had decided the small patch of grass was perfect for doing a wee on. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…. Not at school….please!!!!

Snigger, chuckle, snort.

My three were all quite good with toilet training. Besides a few little hiccups and washing of clothes we got through the training relatively un scathed.

My eldest did have an incident once at the shops though. And yes, it involved a particular favourite pair of jocks….

I was in the supermarket. I always say to my children before leaving the house, go to the toilet as there may not be one whilst we are out. Fortunately for me on this day there was one.

I had taken my time, exploring the aisles with my then 3 year old. We get to the check out and he proclaims. “Mummy I need to do a poo”

Ah geez, really? Now? Can you hold on for 5 mins whilst we get the shopping loaded and paid for?

Please just 5 mins… 5 lousy minutes was all I needed to scoodaddle out of there.

No he could not wait, who was I kidding, this kid was in training. He hadn’t got to the mastered stage yet. The nappy stage was still fresh in my mind and obviously his because from the time it took for me to grab him and abandon my full trolley barely having time to push it out of the way whilst telling the checkout chick I would be back-it was done.

We scramble into the toilets and make the mad dash to sit down….too late… favourite jocks were tainted. I cleaned him up and threw the jocks into the bin much to the disgust of my three year old.

“MUMMMY!!!! They are my favourite jocks”

How to explain to a three year old the thought of tucking them into my bag for the trip home was NEVER going to happen?!

I am pleased to say, he wasn’t scarred by the incident. He also never did it again.

At the time these incidents make you cringe. Don’t let them, embrace the toilet humour and laugh!

What stories have you got? Was it smooth sailing or a bumpy road to travel?

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207 Comments

- - Rachel said
  - 13 Sep 2015
    4:05 pm
One of the worst stages of parenting for me was toilet Training .. And each child is quite different .. I had one that was petrified because she thought she was losing part of her .. And just refused to go .. She eventually grew out of it .. But ugh it was hard

- - delenn said
  - 12 Sep 2015
    8:27 am
Dear lord I have the opposite problem, my 4 yr old is obsessed with trying every public toilet he sees, a recent trip to the circus (his 1st time, we were all very excited) saw us having 5 toilet breaks even one for a poo during the second act, every time we returned to our seats my nephew had to tell me \”you missed the best bit so far\” needless to say I didn\’t see much but the back of a port-a-loo door

- - mom94125 said
  - 04 Jan 2015
    12:16 am
haha i would’ve chucked them as well. to protect my purse of course!
- mom94125 replied
  
  12 Jan 2015 , 5:43 pm
  lol this was still a funny post. thanks for sharing
- - mom57522 said
  - 31 Aug 2014
    2:10 pm
This article brought back so many memories!

- - deangunna said
  - 07 Jul 2014
    11:00 pm
Poos are always the hardest. My eldest would go outside and play for hours, but only so he could poo his pants and not use the toilet. One day we had a win and he never did it again! YAY!

- - meedee said
  - 07 Jul 2014
    4:16 pm
I was very lucky really and with 3 children I only ever had one instant where my daughter wet her pants and we happened to be at a school fete so we simply went to the second hand clothing stall and found some shorts for her. Problem solved.

- - lizzyg said
  - 07 Jul 2014
    2:17 pm
my eldest was in training and wanted a potty like a friend’s. we duly purchase glow in the dark green potty from para rubber , he wants to carry it! That’s fine i didn’t want to walk he streets carrying a pottie anyway!, we all, my girlfriend her daughter he and I go into the post office. This was pension day in the days when the payments were posted and had to be cashed at the post office. we are in the queue and he promptly pulls out potty from Bag, pulls down pants, squats and Poos! He asks me for Paper! i gave him some paper(from a box of tissues and had visions of the potty poo and all coming home with us in the paper bag. Nooooo not happening!!!!! he gets up picks up potty goes to pot plant and empties poo and all into it and uses the paper to wipe the potty them puts it back in the bag!!!!!! I was one embarrased mummy!

- - sambii said
  - 07 Jul 2014
    1:44 pm
Ahahahahaaaaa a very funny read!!!

- - cairnsbliss said
  - 24 Jun 2014
    3:50 pm
Haha. I was pretty lucky with my first 2 kids I cant remember any horror stories, I’m yet to go through this stage with my 3rd though, and I suspect with his attitude it may not be so easy.

- - scottie said
  - 31 May 2014
    1:35 pm
I must admit it is not a stage i am looking forward to with Miss Two

- - catgrrl3 said
  - 27 May 2014
    10:35 pm
not one of the more fun times of being a mum
- ginoula5 replied
  
  27 Aug 2014 , 7:04 pm
  haha certainly not one of the best stages to go with kids, but oh when they do accomplish that it’s a joy
- - mom57522 said
  - 22 May 2014
    6:42 pm
It always seemed to be half way through shopping a loo was needed.

- - kazh said
  - 22 May 2014
    12:13 am
Ah the joys of motherhood

- - christial said
  - 14 May 2014
    10:43 pm
Haven’t managed to toilet train yet, so no funny stories so far! I’m sure there’ll be plenty on the way!

- - rachaelchara said
  - 12 May 2014
    1:28 pm
Thanks for sharing. This was an interesting read.

- - mummy liana said
  - 24 Mar 2014
    10:28 pm
thank you sharing this article good read

- - mummy liana said
  - 03 Mar 2014
    2:17 pm
thanks for sharing was a great read

- - yyon4699 said
  - 31 Jan 2014
    2:12 pm
thank u for this post

- - kafer said
  - 23 Jan 2014
    11:45 am
Thanks for sharing. This is probably the most challenging stage for both child and parents.

- - bubble6369 said
  - 16 Jan 2014
    11:07 pm
we are getting ready to starting training little miss now i am dreading it!