Potty Training – I’m not ready!

Daughter Person’s pediatrician mentioned potty training to me at her 18mth appointment two weeks ago, and thought she was showing signs of being ready, then yesterday, her daycare teacher told me the same thing.  I had noticed some of the signs myself, but since I tend to push her (sometimes too much according to Dad), I didn’t want to act on my observations.  But I’m not ready for this yet!

We bought her a potty seat about the time she turned one.  We didn’t make a big deal out of it, just put it in the bathroom next to her room and left it there, no show and tell.  She follows me into the bathroom all the time (her bathroom happens to be the main floor bathroom, so it’s well used), and started sitting on the potty fully clothed while I did my business.  She’ll wait patiently until I’m done, then look in, close the lid and try to flush for me.  She’s not quite strong enough to actually pull the lever, but she tries.  Then she wants to be picked up to wash her hands with me.  If I don’t let her into the bathroom with me, she’ll cry and scream outside the door – and she does when Dad goes in since he won’t let her in with him (something about scarring her for life).

At daycare, she’ll go into a corner before messing her pants, and she’s starting to not want a diaper on at home.  According to the online “readiness checklists”, about the only thing she’s not doing is pulling her pants off herself.

So when two experienced individuals mentioned to me that they’re noticing these signs too, I know it’s not me pushing her, and I figure it might be time to at least consider starting.  I’m not ready for this!  Everyone told us to expect it about 2-3 – not 1.5years old!  We have no clue what we’re doing, or how to go about doing it, and hadn’t even thought about getting ourselves ready until she turned almost two.

Do any of my (admittedly very few) readers have any suggestions on where to start?  We’ve looked at pretty much any web page Google returns when we search for “potty training”, but it’s all so confusing – so many different ways to do it, so many successes (and failures) for each way.

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