How Potty Training My Stubborn Toddler Went

If you’re coming from my Instagram then you know that I spent a good 2 years whining and crying on my Instagram Stories about how my son wouldn’t go to the potty no matter what we did. We tried EVERYTHING and I’m talking everything. We did the typical go potty get an M&M, shoot for the cheerios in the toilet, let’s wear pull ups and take you every 30 mins (he would hold his pee), we even tried the naked method for 3 days. I then got to fed up that I told my husband to just put him in his briefs underwear but he would pee himself and not have a care in the world that he did.

It was frustrating to say the least and I spent many days and nights crying. I also kept wondering if something was wrong with me as a mom. Why could I potty train all these kids that I used to work with at the daycare but couldn’t potty train my own son? I felt like a complete and total mom failure. My husband tried so hard to help me but with him working and me being the only one home with Giovanni, it was rough.

When we moved I truly thought that this would be the way he’d learn because we are temporarily living with my sister and she has 3 boys that Giovanni looks up to. However, that was a total no go and he just kept on doing his business in his pull ups. We talked about enrolling him two days a week at a daycare just to give him some socialization and while everything was great at the daycare, there was one problem. Before Giovanni could start he had to be potty trained. We told Gio that if he would go on the potty like a big boy he could go to school and his response “I stay with mommy.” Poor dude was totally attached to me.

Going full force on potty training…

I went weeks praying and asking God why all these kids younger than Gio were potty trained yet here he is about to turn 4 in a few months and he still kept going in his diaper. I felt like I’d be spending $100 on diapers every month for the rest of my life. I told my husband one night after we had a hard day of lots of crying over going potty “that’s it! He’ll be in diapers till he’s 8.” Robert laughed and said that he wouldn’t and I just needed to not give up. So, the next morning I woke up and told Giovanni that today he’d be naked and he cried and begged for a diaper. I told him no and put on underwear. I said a prayer and went in full force with every 30 minutes but he kept having accidents. I cried and cried while he sat on the kitchen floor after an accident and begged for him to go potty.

I’m talking went on Instagram stories and just said I give up and cried on there some more. Real, raw motherhood moment happened. I then got a text from one of my best friends Allison that said “don’t give up. He’s not going because he knows you will.” and shortly after that my other best friend Megan told me “you got this mama. You were made to be his mama.” I picked myself and the kids up off the floor and we ventured to Target.

The turning point…

I told Giovanni that we were going to Target to pick out a potty and some underwear. Mind you, the kid had like 20 pairs already but if he needed brand new ones then so be it! He picked out a Paw Patrol potty that cheered when he went and made flushing sounds. $25 for a plastic potty? I mean, I could do without the price tag but whatever would make him go. We then went to find underwear and he picked out some Lightning McQueen ones and we were all set to leave when I saw the gold.

Back story on this, I have a friend on Instagram (it’s 2021 so this happens y’all) who’s son is newly potty trained and was wearing boxer briefs. I had NO clue they made them for Giovanni’s size and honestly never saw them. Until this day when we ventured to Target. I grabbed them and told Gio he could have daddy underwear and his face lit up like a Christmas tree and he threw the Lightning ones to the ground. Score one for this mama!

We came back home and he went twice on the potty that day. Woke up the next day and he went a few more times but had a few accidents. I told myself he would only wear diapers for nighttime and we would only wear underwear all day no matter how many accidents he had.

And we’re potty trained

It took about 3 weeks give or take before Giovanni was officially potty trained during the day. He now knows when he gets that sensation to go to the bathroom. We are still working on number 2 but, I’ll take what I can for now. It has certainly been a true journey trying to potty train this stubborn little dude and I can only pray that Gracelyn is much easier when the time comes for her.

At the same time, it makes me a tad sad because this just means he’s one step closer to no longer being a toddler. While yes, I love that he is going on and we’ve cut down on our cost for diapers it’s just one of those things for a mama. We just don’t want our babies to grow up!