OH CRAP! POTTY TRAINING: EVERYTHING MODERN PARENTS NEED TO KNOW TO DO IT ONCE AND DO IT RIGHT by Jamie Glowacki ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The simple review is that technically, it worked. We did our best to follow the book’s rules, laid out in a series of learning stages, and we made it. The problem — it took one restart, a hundred messes and misses, and about 40 days to feel like we may have actually succeeded. I don’t even know if where we are is Certifiably Potty Trained or not, but it’s better than where we were forty days ago. I guess we can credit the book with that.

These were some of the hardest days we’ve had in Year Three of parenting. In fairness, the book does warn about that, but damn were we overly optimistic. If there’s any advice I have to those taking the plunge and devoting multiple weeks to watching your kid and their bowel movements like a hawk, I’d say keep your head up and be patient. You’re probably gonna live in this pantless world for a while. And if you’re lucky and it only takes a couple days to go from naked to fully using a public restroom without tears, congratulations on being one of god’s favorites.

This can all be done of course, another reminder from the book. We all eventually (generally) learn the social norm of going potty where we’re supposed to. And each kid learns it in their own way and in their own time. Maybe that way includes tactics from a totally different book or reference! This is just the one we happened to try. It wasn’t a perfect book, and though we were THIS close to giving up and trying something else, it did have fairly clear directions and answers. I could’ve used less extrapolating and opinionating on things that don’t matter, but I get it. I’m sure it’s hard to universalize parenting advice. Almost as hard as reviewing it.

Looking back, there’s not much we would have done different or that I’d change, even on the days I worried we’d maybe have to buy diapers for another couple years. You just have to keep trying and continue to be a supportive force for good, a lesson raising a toddler seems to be teaching me over and over and over and over and over and over again.