I have been fighting the potty training battle with my daughter for months. She has been flat refusing to train and I really wasn’t sure what direction to go with her.
We tried all of the popular methods of this day and age. The non potty training method that I used with my son fell flat. The weekend potty training that my friends swear by was meaningless to her.
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It seemed the more things I tried, the more adamant she was about not training. I tried putting her in underwear and taking her to sit on the potty every 5-10 minutes and she would wait until a minute or two after a potty drill to pee on the floor.
Have I mentioned how stubborn she is?
I knew she wouldn’t go for it until she was ready, but she’s about to turn three, and about to start preschool…but the school won’t take her until she’s trained.
So I turned to Olaf. And created the guilt-trip method of potty training. We bought some Frozen underwear for her, and I called her into the living room to talk about it.
I explained that Olaf (her favorite Frozen character) would be very said and it would hurt his feelings if she peed on him. I could tell this got her attention and she turned a bit solemn. We talked about how rude it would be to use the bathroom on her friends Elsa, Anna and Olaf. How she would have to work really hard to make sure that she didn’t.
She agreed, and we put the new underwear on her. In the first 3 days of wearing underwear at home, she had ONE accident. Just one. Because we don’t pee on Olaf.
So in the end, Olaf potty trained my daughter. There was nothing else I could do so I let our frozen friend who loves warm hugs take over and he did it brilliantly.
Call it a guilt trip, call it anything you want. But it worked. She’ll be attending preschool soon (she’s beside herself with excitement for that), and we’ve been out of diapers during the day for a week now. Olaf nailed it.
Are you potty training right now? Maybe Olaf should take the reins!
While your mind is on Olaf, I’m excited to share this AWESOME opportunity!!! You can join the Disney Movie club and get 4 movies of your choice for just $1. Replace the disc of Frozen your kids have already broken, or get one of the newer Disney films like Moana, or one of the Avengers movies! You can join the Disney movie club here.
These movies could make an awesome little reward for keeping olaf dry after your child officially potty trains!
fiftarina says
I would call this a ‘smart method’. =D I learnt from my son that I shouldn’t force a kid to potty train just because he has reached certain age. It took me a year to fully potty train him. Now, my daughter is 18 months old and she starts showing signs of potty-ready. I think I need to start reading about potty training again. Thanks for the book recommendation. In a weekend? Wow, it never crosses my mind to complete potty training in such a short time. Would be interesting to read it.
Lindsey Fraser says
LOL – I love this! I have been struggling to potty train my son for a while… I wonder if they sell Paw Patrol underwear anywhere :)
Robyn says
They do at target!
Ann S says
I’m embarrassed to admit this but my son is 4.5…YES FOUR AND A HALF and he absolutely REFUSES to use the toilet on his own. He goes when we send him and then 15 minutes later goes again in his underwear/pull-up/floor, whatever. NOTHING has worked on my independent, stubborn son. The doctor says nothing is wrong and just keep working with him. I refuse to clean up after him anymore, he has to clean himself up. He will tell me when he’s going or right after he goes and he says he can tell he needs to go because he has a tingly feeling down there (his words, not something we taught him). He just has no desire to go. We’ve been working with him for a year and a half. His preschool still took him last year but we keep telling him he cannot go this year without being trained. We’ve tried rewards, they don’t. He wants a dog and we told him we won’t get one unless he’s using the toilet himself. He’s picked out a toy at the store that he will get when he’s trained. We praise him when we tell him to go and he goes. NOTHING WORKS!! Every idea I find online, I try, but it doesn’t help. We are consistent with the main stuff (making him go every hour, even when out, and making him clean himself up if he has an accident). I’m at my frustrating wits end as I don’t know what else to do. It’s very difficult to not get angry at times.
Brooke says
Hey there! My son is six and he has been fully potty trained for 6 months now. It turned out he has encopresis and chronic constipation and it was preventing him from going to the bathroom. Does your child have a hard time with BMs?
Ann S says
Thank you for responding! No, he does not have a hard time with BMs. He has a BM typically once a day and they are to be expected. He doesn’t have a hard time with them or complain or hurting. I’ve even asked him if anything hurts or bothers him when he goes and he tells me no. Most of the time when I tell him to go, he’ll go with no problem. Once in a while he’ll get upset/mad about it, usually when he doesn’t want to stop what he’s doing. Even his 7 year old brother encourages him to go, telling him that it just takes a minute to run in, go, and come back to what he’s doing. We’ve let him choose to either use his training potty or stand at the toilet since he’s tall enough to reach. He’s not afraid of flushing either as he’ll do that no problem. We had a friend recently babysit him and she said she told him to go the first couple times and then he went on his own. He’s never done that for my husband and I. I asked him about it later and he said he went because he needed to go. Why he went on his own for her and not us is beyond me. It took my older son about 8 months to train and we started out the same method with my younger son. The one personality difference between the 2 that I think may be why we didn’t have any struggles with my older son is that he is a people pleaser. He likes having good things happen and making people happy. My younger son is very independent and wants to do things his way. That is the only reason I can think of as to why he’s giving us problems and we don’t see him struggling otherwise and I don’t think we’re “bad parents” and not approaching this the right way. But it sure makes us feel like we’ve failed at times.
Crystal says
I would try not doing or saying ANYTHING if you think it is purely stubborness. My oldest is like that! I have two with encopresis also and if the daily movements are not very large and then randomly there is a very large one, it can still be constipation causing the problem.
Debi Peterson says
Dont feel bad! My grandson is 3 and a half and OMG! He absolutely refuses to go to potty. He loves Lightening McQueen and Mater and I tried the “dont get Lightening and Mater wet” thing….he doesnt care. I dont want to shame him into going because then he really wont try. I have tried rewards, praise, everything! I give up!
AA says
Well you can’t give up because my sis isn’t potty trained
Rebecca N says
I love this!! I have to say that as a mom of nine (ages 24 down to 3 tomorrow), I have seen it all. My first two were a piece of cake to train. The third (a girl) was a stubborn little thing. She was almost 5 before she fully trained. Numbers 4 and 5—both boys, were super easy. Number 6, another boy and a pain to train. He was also almost 5 before he trained. My 7th a boy was the easiest. He was in diapers one day, the next underwear with never an accident. My 8th was a little harder but not too bad. And along came Lena, our first girl after 5 boys, she is a spoiled little princess. LOL Last summer I paid my oldest daughter (who is 22 and living at home still) to train Lena. She did OK for that week but regressed after about a month. Since then I haven’t worked at all with her.
If they sold little girl undies that were Minecraft—I would be set. ;) She will be three tomorrow and I really NEED her to get trained!!!!
Kristy says
My soon the be 3yr old sounds exactly like ypur daughter iv been trying to get her to potty train now for 6 months with no success. She just flat out refuses to even try and when we do she pees everywhere.
So thank you for the idea i will defanitly be giving it a go. Very smart idea. Thank You.
Mari Feline says
I cannot believe you people are taking months to train a kid. My son was about to turn three and I thought “I will NOT have a three-year-old in diapers”. So I took him to K-Mart and we picked out ten pairs of Jockey Shorts (his size) EXACTLY like his father’s. I said big boys do not pee in their Jockey Shorts, Daddy does not pee in his. That night I told my husband to take him into the bathroom and show him how to pee standing in front of the toilet. (He was tall enough). I told him to teach him to “sink” a piece of toilet paper with his pee. He wanted to be big like Daddy. Next day Jockey Shorts, only one mistake.he was in the back yard and didn’t give himself enough time to get to the bathroon. He would not bm in the toilet. I told him it would not hurt his poop to be flushed down the toilet. He held it in for 3 days and then was crying that his tummy hurt. I picked him up, sat him on the toilet and held him there for 2 minutes until it came out. I cheered and let him flush. I told him, OK you are a big boy now. TOTAL TIME TO TRAIN, INCLUDING SHOPPING DAY/…4. But you have to know when a kid is ready.
I would never use Pull-ups. Put the kid into underwear and If a kid pees itself down the leg, into the socks and shoes, a couple of times, and you act shocked and say Big boys or girls do not pee in their under pants. Then ok. Also, do not allow drinks between meals or after dinner. People think if a kid is thirsty you have to give them a full glass. 1/2 inch in the bottom of a glass will suffice. Duh. Trained my daughter at 18 months in 3 days. Don’t cater to them. Let them know IT IS EXPECTED OF THEM TO USE THE TOILET. There are people out there who actually let their kids throw food on the floor!!!!! One fling (which is not being naughty, just experimenting about gravity) and take away rest of food, wash hands and face, clean high chair tray and put kid down on the floor. No food until next sit-down-with the parent(s) meal. If they ask why, say Well, I thought you were finished with your food since you threw a piece of whatever on the floor.
Becky says
This is EXACTLY what we are doing right now…this very second! It’s almost like I had written this! We are on day 3 right now, with only 2 accidents!! Although, I am searching for a Frozen themed ‘reward’ chart so she can see her progress too! *I think I love Frozen just as much as my daughter does*!!!
beata says
My daughter is 2y7m now and I did exactly the same on Memorial Weekend, after manyyy tries before. I bought her nice set of Frozen panties and explained how Elsa/Anna/Olaf would be sad when wet. It worked! Still have accidents, especially with #2 but not too many and I’m very proud of my little girl
Louisa says
My son has just turned two and has potty trained himself, we have a singing potty that has been sat in the corner of the room for a few months an all of a sudden he just started going for a wee on it, he hasn’t got the hang of asking when we are out but does a fantastic job when we are home