Way back when Moses was parting the Red Sea I was potty training my oldest child. After using M&M candies to bribe her and washing out I-don’t-know- how-many pairs of poopy panties I had a lightbulb moment. I figured out how to potty train my daughter with an alarm clock. It worked like a charm and it became the tried and true method of potty training with my other children. Here’s how it works.
This method starts the moment you wake up. Set an alarm clock for the normal time you get up and get up when it goes off. No hitting the snooze button for a few days. Set up another alarm clock in your child’s room if they don’t sleep with you. After you’ve gotten out of bed go immediately to your child’s room and wake them up. If you’re lucky the alarm clock will have already done that.
Point out the ringing alarm clock to your child. Make a big deal about how exciting it is. Make it a GOOD thing. Then take your child to the potty right away. Chances are you’ll get the first morning pee sucessfully in the toilet. If it doesn’t happen don’t linger around the bathroom.
As soon as the first morning potty session is done go get your alarm clock and put it in the living room or somewhere nearby where both you and your child can hear it. Set it to go off in one hour.
When the alarm goes off in one hour, get excited about it once again and get your toddler to the potty.
Repeat this throughout the day. Yes you’ll run back and forth to the bathroom but there’s very little chance you’ll miss a potty opportunity.
For day 2 and 3 repeat the steps but this time extend the time between alarms to 2 hours.
On day 4 set the alarm clock for 4 hour intervals. This may seem like it takes a long time but I promise you it is easier than it seems. With this method there are very few times you’ll have to wash out training pants and in 5 days your child will be almost completely potty trained.
If you are super busy, having company coming, going to a barbecue, attending a party etc, get yourself a watch with an alarm or set an alarm on your cell phone to keep the consistency going. In no time flat your child will recognize the sound of the alarm clock as time to go potty and it’s all uphill from there!
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May 20th, 2010 at 4:48 am
I cannot thank you enough for the blog article.