The whole truth about potty training is indeed not glamourous. There are some potties whereby your kid would do his/her business on & then you throw it into the toilet bowl. Something like what Kate Gosselin used for her children.
I didn't wanna have to clean that potty. :( Sorry. I can hear some mothers fuming now. ;) Anyway, I used the toy'R'us little girl/boy toilet, bought steps for them to be able to get up there & be able to do it independently.
It took me a full week. I know some mothers did it in a day. Or 3 days. But ya, I'm not a super mom. I had 7 full days.
While there are many ways to train your kids, I went with slowly letting my daughter see what I do at the toilet. Ok, if you count that, then that's two weeks! I basically explained to her what I am doing & why I do it there. Showed her the routine & end it with the flush ( she somehow enjoys the flushing for some weird reason)
After a week of that, I slowly asked her about the idea of not using diaper. Started with half day of no diaper. She didn't understand controlling her bladder concept. I said "tell me when you wanna pee". And she told me when she was actually peeing!
There I was wiping her puddle golden shower! ;) There hasn't been BIG accident - thank god!
From half a day, she began to like the idea of no diaper. She asked for full day of no diaper. I allowed her to do so. Sometimes, I suggested we go to the toilet for her to pee. She did it & got herself a chocolate. If she doesn't pee, I would tell her that the next time she pees there, she will get one. So one is waiting for her.
Slowly...very slowly, she was grasping the concept of "getting the chocolate" -yup, not really the potty training part! Sometimes, when she remembers she would wailed out, and we would rush her to the toilet, have her pee successfully on the toilet, and she gets her chocolate.
Whenever she forgot about the reward, the accident would happen. Yes, it happened so many times, it's too easy just to give up & just stuck a diaper on her. Especially when I also have a one year old to run after. EXHAUSTION is the key word here. But I didn't give up.
Somehow, the number of times of her running to me announcing (to the world - yes she was that loud) that she wanted to pee slowly became more than the accidents. Eventually, it didn't happen anymore. We (My husband & I) celebrated it -well, maybe we just wanted to open that bottle of champagne so bad! ;)
Today, she only wears diapers when she is sleeping. Fair enough. I thought since she is not aware yet while she is sleeping, that can be another step.
Another reason to pop the bottle open! ;)
