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How to Throw a Potty Training Party

Throw a potty party for potty training? Yes! Let’s talk about how to kickstart your potty training adventure with a party.

Starting to Potty Train 3 Year Old

We are a month into potty training and oh BOY what a fun month it’s been *insert eye roll*.  At the end of March, our 3-year old Izaiah kept pulling his diaper off after he did his business. My husband threw his hands in the air and declared we were potty training him

While some people are anxious to get their kids potty trained, I was not one of them.

potty training party how to

Each Kid is Different

See – the first 2 kids we had a wonderful sitter who started the process around 18-months and our kids were potty trained with no issues all while we are at work.  My work is now at home and the toddlers are with me most of the time. I’ve never had to (or wanted to) go thru this process but I guess it was time.

Read: When to Start Potty Training

Toddler Doesn’t Want to Use the Toilet

We originally started potty training with the potty training potty in the living room. Thankfully we don’t have carpet in much of the house. Izaiah turned the potty training potty into a car and would scoot it everywhere. The last thing he wanted to do in it – well was potty.

We then tried the be naked and we’ll run you to the potty whenever you need to go – and yeah, that just resulted in me cleaning up urine and feces from various places (GAG!)

Last up – We decided on throwing a potty party.How to Throw a Potty Party

Huggies sent over a potty party kit. With a few supplies your kid will think he is king of the world.

how to throw a potty party

Potty Party Kit

  • Party Hat
  • Party Noise Makers (party blowers – you know those things that your kid blows and the paper comes unrolling out)
  • Stickers
  • Sticker Chart
  • Potty
  • Cookies or gummies
  • Your kid – duh
  • Patience

Here is how to throw a potty party. First you want to make sure your kid needs to pee. We did this by letting the kid drink lots of his favorite drink, which in our case is chocolate milk (judgey moms looks away).

Encouraging Sitting on the Potty

We then encouraged him to sit on the potty and try to make the pee pee come out. This is where the patience that was listed in the party supplies comes in handy. Read books, play on the iPad (hello iPotty), sing songs – do whatever you need to do to pass time until the urine passes. This is tedious and frustrating and while I really kept doubting that this would work… it will!  Another trick is using the bathroom in front of your child to help them understand what happens and that this is normal. Awkward, totally.

We kept encouraging him that once he went potty we would have a party.

Potty Training Takes Time

This process took a while for my kid. I know some people can get this potty training down in 3 days or 24 hours – whatever.

Eventually your toddler will get it. There will be pee in the potty and then it’s time to party. We blew the horn. We put a sticker on the chart.

We let him wear a sticker. He got a cookie (we eventually learned to just buy the mini cookies from Trader Joes).

We then put on the Huggies Pull-Up. Something we later learned is to put on the Pull-Up before getting the cookie or else he would run away naked.

That’s it! Now we don’t blow a horn every time – but he reminds us that he needs a cookie – or gummy packet.

Introducing Body Parts

This is the perfect time to introduce body parts by the way. We tried to call the penis the penis with our first round of kids, yet my son called it the peanut.

We thought it was cute and didn’t think anything of it. Somewhere along the way he forgot the word penis and still some 7 years laters calls it a peanut which doesn’t help when trying to introduce the sex topic. “You do what with your peanut??” Anyways…. 

Potty Training Potty Seat

One note on the potty training potty. Over the last month of this potty training business – my kid used the bathroom on the potty training potty, maybe twice. He saw it more of a toy than a seat you use the restroom on.

Ultimate Potty Training Tool

If you are going to invest in anything, I so wish they had this back in 2013 when I was in the midst of potty training toddlers! Look at this thing!

potty training tool toilet add on step stool seat

That’s a WHOLE lot of information. After a month, I’ll say my son is about 90% of the way there. He has had 2 accidents int he last week because he gets pre-occupied so I’m trying to be better at reminding him to go, but we are getting there.

3 kids down, 1 to go. For the last boy who is 20 months now, I think we will wait a bit. 🙂

{ How to Throw a Potty Party is part of the Digital Mom Blog series Toddler Talk }

What Potty Training Tips Worked Best For You?