Are You Ready for Potty Training? Use Our Free Checklist to Help Decide!
Toilet training is something that every parent should strive for eventually. However, it's not something that every parent needs to aim for straight away. It's also unnecessary to worry about it at all, at least for the first couple of years in your child's development.
Of course, every child is different, so some develop quicker than others, and that's okay. We will look at just how important toilet training is and what you can do about it.
We also thought we could throw in a potty training readiness checklist for all of you who think you might be ready to try it out. If your child ticks all the things on the list, then it's perhaps time for you to take that next step! Stay tuned for that at the end of this post.
The Importance Of Toilet Training
Honestly, we can't stress enough the importance of toilet training; however, we also can't stress enough how important it is not to rush it. It can be incredibly stressful for a child to learn to toilet train when they're not ready for it, but we'll get to that in a little while. For now, we'll focus on the positives and what you can expect from them.
First of all, it's a huge milestone! For both parents and children, reaching a completely trained state of potty independence is one of the first significant milestones in any child's life.
It's great for the parents to know that they're capable of helping their child understand more complicated instructions, and it's great for the child because it teaches them new things (and who doesn't love to learn new ideas when they're growing).
Seriously, if you haven't got the point of toilet training just yet, you've got a world of joy coming your way. There isn't a single thing about the joy you feel as a parent when you can watch the physical results of your child's development.
The Positive Impact
We're sure many parents will agree with us, but the sense of independence a child gets from their first successful potty training session is unlike anything else.
Sure, now that we're all adults, we might have forgotten the joy when we learned toilet training, but we're sure that our parents will be able to remember how excited we were at gaining our first proper taste of independence.
Not only that, but it's great to welcome confidence into a growing child's life. Confidence at such an early stage is a game-changer, and it can be the difference between your child growing up to be a well-developed, confident young adult or not. We can't overstate how important it is to make sure your child has a chance to enjoy the confidence that comes along with it.
Making Sure They're Ready
While toilet training is a goal and milestone for all parents and children, it isn't something that you need to rush. There is plenty of time for children to figure out when they're ready.
You'll often find that they're more than capable of telling you when this is the case as well. You can start as early as you feel necessary, but if you put too much pressure on them with it too early, then you're setting them up for failure.
It might help you to know that most children aren't toilet trained by the age of three. In fact, studies have shown that the average age for successful toilet training in the United States is about thirty-seven months.
So many parents overlook this fact and believe that their children are slow to develop if they're not already toilet trained, but the chances are their child hasn't even reached that average age yet.
We don't want to rush our children to do anything they're not comfortable doing. It's even harder to do something like that when your child isn't at an age where they're able to let you know how they feel.
That's why it's essential to understand their body language associated with toilet training to know whether or not they're ready. It's better to wait too long than it is to start too early, so make sure you listen to them.
The Potty Training Preparedness Checklist
Before you consider potty training your child, you might want to go through this potty training readiness checklist.
If you find that you can tick off all the points we're about to list, then your child is most likely ready for the next stages in potty training! It's all for fun, so if you feel prepared even without everything on this list, that's up to you! We're merely sharing our guidelines with you!
Physical Signs
Your child is already able to walk (and maybe run).
Your child is capable of urinating quite a lot at one time.
Your child has well-formed bowel movements.
Behavior Signs
Your child sits down quietly for extended periods.
Your child can pull their own pants up and down.
Your child isn't resistant to learning about toilet training when you try.
Your child demonstrates the desire to become more independent.
Your child doesn't like wearing a dirty diaper.
Other Signs
Your child understands when it's time for them to go and can tell you before it happens.
Your child is capable of following simple spoken instructions.
Your child has words already in their vocabulary for urine and poo.
If you think your child ticks all or most of these boxes, then it's time to think about toilet training! The sooner you can get it done once they're ready for it, the better you'll all feel!
Summary
Toilet training is one of the most important things for any child to get done. Of course, trying to rush it can be pretty damaging to them, so you want to know when it's time.
That's why we've included our checklist to help you understand when the right time to teach your child what to do is. Make sure you don't pressure them, and you'll see some dramatic results as soon as they're ready for it! Good luck!