Potty Training Commandments All Parents Should Follow

If you're not really interested in buying all the potty training books Barnes & Noble has to offer or spending hours on Pinterest saving links to mom blogs that promise to have your kid trained in three days (like I did), you can save yourself the trouble by reading Babble's 10 commandments of potty training.

Here's what you really need to know:

1. Thou shalt not covet the neighbor who potty trains with seemingly no effort.
Keeping up with the Jones’ on this one just won’t pay off. Follow your own child’s cues and try not to get swept up in competing with the parent down the street who started potty training when her daughter was only 6 months old.
2. Thou shalt not get discouraged.
I would do well to remember this commandment myself because I’m currently in the throes of a formerly potty-trained toddler who has regressed back to wetting his pants regularly and I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t discouraged. Potty training can feel like an exercise in futility.
3. Thou shalt not force the process.
One of my biggest regrets as a parent is forcing my first child to be potty trained before she was ready. She eventually got the hang of it, of course, but not without significant stress on both of our parts.
4. Thou shall not dread it.
I dreaded potty training so much because I just knew it would be horrible, hard work. So you can imagine my surprise when my husband started potty training the toddler — and had him trained in only a week. Sometimes, putting off potty training might just be worse than actually going through it. Kids can surprise you when you least expect it.
5. Thou shall be consistent.
Consistency is key when it comes to potty training, especially when it comes to getting started. It’s called “training” for a reason, right? Pop that kid on the pot in the morning, before naps, and at bedtime.
6. Thou shall always pack a change of clothes.
Because despite the best of intentions and even in the most potty-trained of children, accidents can happen. Also, you may as well pack a spare for your spare change of clothes. You can thank me later for that one.

I broke a lot of these when I started potty training my son. I was instantly jealous of all my friends whose children used the bathroom without complaint. I harbored a special resentment for my friend who was able to train her child, younger than mine, in one week.  It was pointless and embarrassing, but I was certain we'd never get our little guy going to the potty consistently. I was totally discouraged.

Try not getting discouraged while you're bending over 7  months pregnant to clean pee out of the floor for the tenth time in a few hours. Seriously, how does he pee that much in such a short period of time?!?!

Shortly after I pep talked myself out of discouragement, I entered the “forcing the process” stage. That's the one where I totally lose my patience because the kid who just finished telling me he did not need to potty is leading me by the hand to show me how he peed all over his Thomas the train track with a giant grin. Without even thinking, I quickly moved from gently encouraging him to potty to insisting that he go potty and insisting he help me clean up his trains.

Consistency is really hard. Especially when you're at the mall and you're on your fifth pair of shorts in an hour. You've hauled your kid in and out of every restroom from JCPenney to Sears and he still won't tell you he has to potty until you feel the pee soaking through his last pair of shorts and onto your shirt.

After that trip we went back to diapers for a day or two. I just couldn't take it. The only plus side to that experience was that I got a new shirt at Sears to replace the one my son had peed on.

Need to know more about the potty training commandments and how to follow them? Check out the other 4 commandments at Babble. Then share your potty training experiences in the comment section.