If Your Child Is Thirty-Six Months or Over
We don’t have time to beat around the bush. To me, this is the
danger zone. I know many people are convinced that three is the new
age to potty train. In my experience, it’s infinitely harder.
So again, ditch the guilt. You are where you are, and we can’t
change that. Okay? I’m imagining you were “waiting till she was
ready,” and now she’s showing no signs of being ready. Or you need to
get into a preschool. Or something clicked in your head to get this
done now.
Whatever the case, it’s seriously time to put your big mama
panties on and really get this done. When a child is three or older,
there’s actually very little learning to be done with regard to the
potty. It’s highly unlikely that your child is brand-new to potty
training. Most kids at this age have simply rejected your attempts, be
it in a big, violent tantrum kind of way or a constant peeing-in-pants
quieter way. Regardless of what you’ve done in the past with your
child, go ahead and start the whole process as I laid out in chapter 5,
“Ditch the Diapers! The How-To.” Even if you have some success
under your belt.
Former client Mary came to me because her son, Dillon, was
thirty-eight months. He was being denied admission to a preschool
because he wasn’t fully toilet trained. Dillon could pee on the potty
most of the time, but poop was hit or miss. Sometimes he’d do it in
his pants, sometimes make it to the potty. He was still having a few
pee accidents as well. Sometimes he was wildly resistant to the potty
and other times, he’d just go. It looked like a hot mess, and of course,
Mary was going crazy because of the preschool thing. It was, like,