Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right

If your child gets freaked out and starts to cry, keep her on the pot and just hug her. Look her in the eyes if that helps her—some kids really need you to look them in the eyes if they’re having a hard time, though when things are progressing normally, most kids prefer not to be stared down—and let her know it’s okay.

If he can say his ABCs, he’s probably ready.

potty training is easiest when done between the ages of twenty and thirty months.

wait for the child to start peeing and then get him to the toilet. I think this is because he makes the connection between “feeling” and “doing” faster this way.

we are, in general, offering our children too many choices. Further, we are expecting them to have the thought processes of an adult. Children don’t have fully developed frontal lobes, which are responsible for judgment. We cannot present them with unlimited choices. If we do, they will not make good long-term choices.

Ninety percent of all resistance is caused by overprompting.

Tantrums are due to your child wanting something—anything—and you not giving it.

“I’m putting your pants on.”

Your child should go commando (aka, no underpants but with pants) for about a month, give or take a week.