and the comfort. Then they took a few tentative steps away from you
but quickly needed your hand again. In strange environments, they
hold your hand to tug you along to where they want to investigate.
Prompting is holding their hand.
Some kids might immediately start to self-initiate. Most kids will
build it slowly; usually about three weeks into the process, you can
start counting on self-initiating. Until then, it will be a few days of
you always prompting. Then there will be a few days during which
they tell you maybe one or two times that they have to go. Then,
every once in a while, they will sit on their own and do their
business. It will continue to build. And in strange situations, you may
have to do some more hand holding. And one day you will wake up
and not have potty training on the brain. I swear to God, this day will
come.
When to Prompt
The big trick with prompting is to not overprompt. Ninety percent of
all resistance is caused by overprompting. So the question becomes
how often to prompt without slipping into overprompting (aka
bugging, nagging, and general overtalking it).
While your child is learning to use the potty, you actually should
be learning some things, too: namely, your child’s pee pattern. Some
kids can drink 4 ounces of fluid and pee nine times in an hour. Other
kids are camels and can drink 32 ounces of fluid and pee twice all
day. Some children are camels until they “break the seal” (college
drinking days, anyone?). Then it’s nine times in an hour. Every single