Of all of the things there are to teach my child, one of the things I was most afraid of was potty training. I don’t really know why, but I was afraid of the whole process. Oh ok, I do know why — it’s messy, it means public restrooms and diapers had frankly gotten so easy!
Of course, I couldn’t put off potty training forever, so when K finally got over her total fear of the potty (after practicing sitting on the toy potty for months), I decided it was time. (That and it was Christmas break, so I had two and half weeks to get the basics down before back to school.) She was three months shy of three years old.
I got lucky, K potty trained (gasp) easily. I am sure it was in part because I waited so long, but I am happy to report it went smoothly. Now the whole #2 potty training thing, that was a whole other ball game…
Potty training isn’t just about the potty part (although that is obviously the main goal), it is also about learning good bathroom habits including how to wash your hands properly. (Something far too many public restroom visitors seem to have missed out on learning. Seriously, wash your hands people!) To help little ones learn the importance of hand washing with pottry training Sam’s Club, Huggies Pull-Ups and Dial Complete teamed up to introduce the Go-Wash-Go routine.
The Go-Wash-Go routine offers helpful training tools including:
- A printable door hanger to help your trainee feel like a big kid
- Helpful tips for potty and hand washing training
- A downloadable hand washing jungle to help your big kid know how long to wash their hands
Singing the Go-Wash-Go jingle takes approximately 20 seconds, which is the recommended length of time for hand washing to be most effective. The jingle is so catchy that when I played it on my computer, and my daughter came right over and started bopping to the beat. When it was done she asked me to teach her the new song. Guess what I will be doing after I finish this post — memorizing the new song to teach K.
Potty training is no easy task, but you will get through it mom. The key is to arm yourself with lots of tools (you never know which ones will work best for your kiddo) and lots of patience. Good luck!
Disclosure – I a promotional package as a thanks for this post, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.