Oh Crap! Potty Training

What is more important than learning a life skill? Imagine if a day
care offered to potty train. Holy crap: they’d have a waiting list five
years long and could charge double. What are they doing that’s more
important than that? Learning shapes and colors and dramatic play is
all well and good, but learning to put pee and poop in the potty? Even
better.
Day cares are essentially screwing you, especially if you are a full-
time working mom or dad. (Though I’m sure you’re used to getting
screwed by everything at this point, eh?) Because immediately after day
care comes preschool, and guess what? Preschools demand absolute,
full-on potty trained.
Ridiculous, yes? Yes. It ticks me off to no end. But the reality is
I’m sure your day care does care wonderfully for your child, and I’m
sure you don’t have much of a choice, so we’ll deal with what we’ve
got. I’ll go through the best way to set you and your child up for
success, and how to deal with the less ideal scenarios.
Take off as many days in a row as possible to start potty training.
Something like a three-day weekend with one extra day tacked on is
usually great. I know this is not the ideal way to spend a precious
vacation day, but it’s worth it in the end. If you can take even more
time off, that’s great. If day care is more a social thing and not a
necessity, consider keeping your child home for a couple of extra
days.
In that time frame, while potty training, really try to learn your
child’s pee pattern. Remember, that’s how much and how often your
child typically pees after x amount of fluid. The good news is most
day cares have a sort of formal routine for snacks and such, so usually
fluid intake is controlled. Still, you want to have an overall awareness