Will you please say “potty”?

I love the fact that there is so much to read on child development, really I do. But sometimes I also find it really frustrating that there can be so much literature on just one subject! Sometimes I find myself in more of a confused state than when I first set out to look for information - those precious words of wisdom and experience. What I would really like to do now is carry out a focus group interview on a parent’s experience with potty training. However, time is a precious commodity in my lifestyle, so like many working mom’s today I have to go the dot com way. Naturally, I have subscribed to a mom’s online blog to help me deal with various parenting and domestic crises as they come along (some are so unexpected that my brain seems to freeze over when I try to think of a solution). Anyway, as I was saying… my latest subject of interest is potty training. So I logged onto my usual blogs to see how potty training was going for the moms out there. What I found is that potty training, like almost everything else to do with children and parenting, has also become highly commercialised and for a common human process too sterilised. I am not exaggerating! I mean, who comes up with phrases like “Potty training Boot camp”? I found that one particularly distasteful. Boot camp for a toddler? Really? Who does that? And yes, I do realise it’s just a name but why would you call a toddler’s anything ‘boot camp’? But I also found some helpful testimonials. One mom wrote: “Well I’m a veteran mother. A 15 yr old daughter, she was potty trained at 16 months. An eight and a half year old son, whom I presumed would be my last and he wasn’t fully potty trained until three and a half. And now I have my last son who is almost 19 months and God knows I have no desire to start potty training him. It goes to really show how motherhood at different stages throughout your life can also change how eager you are to accomplish these milestones with your children. So as long as you love them, nourish them, and nurture them everything will certainly fall into place.” It is always nice to come across something that sounds human and believable rather than something that seems to put down ones parenting skills even without meaning too. It is hard enough being a parent, being fully responsible for another human life without being judged by some outsider who may not even have the full picture of your situation. One parent went on to brag: “My dear daughter was potty trained at six weeks and I can hardly believe there are two year olds whose parents have been too negligent to potty train them. I am glad my daughter will not be pooping herself at nursery! And I am a first time mom!” That right there is laughable! All I can say is we live and learn! I don’t want to knock all potty training advice I have come across and I must admit The Potty training readiness checklist at www.babycenter.com was really helpful. Bottom line is that although my toddler checks almost the entire list, I have abandoned Project Potty Training because MOM KNOWS BEST! And as frustrated as I get sometimes, I know that we will get there eventually. It is a natural process, isn’t it?