Inside: The best way to help your potty training toddler master the pants. This content contains affiliate links. One day when I went to pick up my son from his toddler Montessori program, I was surprised to discover that he could put on his snowpants all by himself (at the time he was 19-months-old with other toddlers under 2.5 years old). And it wasn't just him. All his little friends were able to do it, too. We live in the snows-till-April state of Maine, and I can't think

Inside: How to potty train without that feeling of pressure when you start potty training. This content contains affiliate links. Hello, my name is Jen and I’m a perfectionist. And that made potty training pretty tough for me the first time around. Because motherhood pushes you to embrace the messy, the unpredictable, or recognize the pressure building in your Brooklyn apartment while trying to *do everything right* in potty training your 22-month-old daughter. There’s no sco

Inside: Potty training without the toddler power struggles and meltdowns. This content contains affliate links. Here’s a magic trick I love to watch whenever I get the chance. Sitting in on my kiddos Montessori class, I watch as the teacher moves through the changeover in their day and rising volume of 15 preschoolers coming in from an outdoor recess.. She guides them to the next thing (potty, wash hands, get ready for rest time). Without nagging. And these small humans all d

Inside: Children's books about the human body that help with potty training. This content contains affiliate links. With both my kids, there's one time when I consistently get their best, focused attention. It’s not when I’m standing in the living room reminding them we have 10 minutes before leaving for swim class. It’s not when they’ve just returned home from school, tired, and hungry for a snack. Nope, it’s always the same time everyday. Bedtime. Our bedtime always include

Sometimes your child is using the potty at home but then when returning to daycare, you hear your toddler refuses to sit on the potty.

Inside: How your voice can help with normal toddler behavior around potty training. This content contains affiliate links. I remember reading somewhere that you can qualify the dynamic of your family (and how conflicts look) with food terms like spicy or mild. Are there hot tempers rising? Or did you grow up in a quieter, mild-mannered household? It's fun to think about. (I definitely grew up in a spicy family.) But here’s the thing. Despite hearing my fairshare of yelling as

Inside: Use these 3 rules for bringing down toddler resistance to go pee in the potty or take a potty break. This content contains affiliate links. When my daughter was an infant, I saw for the first time how FAST things evolve with your child, and how you have to keep shifting what works (when it no longer works.) How to hold her comfortably in a carrier shifted as she got heavier and heavier. How to safely change her diaper shifted as her bum got wigglier and wigglier. And

Inside: Here are 5 common problems that get in the way of potty learning when you start potty training your toddler. This content contains affiliate links. When I first became a mama, we lived in Brooklyn, a short walk from a special baby shop stocked with carefully-curated supplies and shopkeepers who helped with the hows, whats, and whys of everything from cloth diapering to babywearing. (What a support to live by such a helpful resource!) And here’s what I did — I got supp

Inside: How to know if potty training issues are a matter of toddler behavior, or something else. This content contains affiliate links. Every time I put on a pair of ice skates, I feel like I’m either going to fall back on my bum or land flat on my face. (Skating lessons would be smart.) So what happens? I turn into the slowest moving skater on the ice. Because I haven’t mastered the balance. I don’t where to lean. Forward? Backward? Instead I wobble back and forth and skate

Inside: Help your toddler who's scared to poop in the potty with this simple solution to normalize pooping. This content contains affiliate links. The first day of ___ The first time you go into labor. The first time your child feels a bandaid being ripped off. We’ve all heard the saying we fear the unknown. That simple truth shows up all the time in the potty training process...with a child who’s afraid of pooping. Because let’s face it. It’s a really different sensation to

Inside: How praise can help your toddler feel more confident and help bring potty training success. This content contains affiliate links. They say the words we say to our children become their inner dialogue. If we’re always quick to say no you can’t, you never do, or in potty training, if we’re repeatedly saying throughout the day, for days.. Pee goes in the potty, not on the floor then it's not so surprising some toddlers will shut down. Stop hearing us. That's when you se

Inside: How to set up for success on outings with your diaper-free child in the early days of potty training. This content contains affiliate links. It starts off with small pushes in the bucket swings. Your baby, big enough to sit up, flashes a toothless grin of absolute glee to fly back and forth in the playground’s swing. Next comes your toddler’s first slide. Maybe first with you. Then all by herself. The playground becomes the backdrop for seeing your child morph into a

Inside: How to stop the power battles with your child over going pee in the potty. This content contains affiliate links. You can muscle your way through being tired (with a needed cup of coffee). You can power your way through an intense workout (with some good music). But you can’t power battle your child over peeing in the potty. You’ll lose. I’ve heard parents at the brink of desperation try seemingly everything to get their child to just sit on the potty and pee. Everyth

Inside: What's it look like to go around with a diaper-free child? Here's a day in the life of a potty training toddler. This content contains affiliate links. When I was pregnant with my first child, I didn’t seek out everyone’s opinion on everything, but I did reach out for one particular inside peek into what to expect. Other mamas’ birth stories. I wanted to hear as many of the day in the life of what happened when their baby came. I read this book (twice) for in-depth st

Inside: How to help your toddler be more independent with going pee in the potty. This content contains affiliate links. Sometimes I’ll hear from a mom whose toddler is getting their pees and poops in the potty. Accidents aren’t an issue. But the mom is feeling super frustrated. Why? Here’s how a pee in the potty looks. The mom prompts her child to go pee in the potty (always). The mom brings the child to the potty. The mom helps with the pants. The mom helps with wiping. The

Inside: Heres a potty training tip to help the toddler who forgets to wipe after going pee or poop in the potty. This content contains affiliate links. It takes a village with motherhood means more than reaching out for babysitting support or a shared comraderie over the sleepless nights. It means stumbling upon those must-try tricks. The little ideas that help you in the daily messes as a mama. Like your friend’s go-to dinner when Friday exhaustion sets in (and the refrigera

Inside: Why does your child refuse to sit on the potty? Are you potty training a stubborn child? Here are early potty training tips for this potty training problem. This content contains affiliate links. Now we can joke about it, but there was a hard season back when my daughter was 3-years-old where we would suddenly — without warning —  find ourselves in a scenario that looked like this.. No, MAMA helps me with the car seat. (When look, Dad was right there to help her.) No,

Inside: When should you switch from pull-ups to toddler underwear in potty training? This content contains affiliate links. Timing dinner in our house means get food on the table before the kids turn into hangry loons. Running more than a half hour late? Then I can get caught up doing more peacemaking than cooking in the dinner hour. Ever watch an overtired child go to bed 30 minutes late? Suddenly the behavior swings to looking anything but tired.. Bathtubs turn into battle

With how to toilet train a child, the question always comes up on when should you drop the small potty chair. Here's what to know..

Inside: 3 tips to help your toddler poop in the potty when you start potty training. This content contains affiliate links. It’s ironic how happy-go-lucky the poop emoji looks when you consider how poop can spark overwhelming anxiety in parents who are potty training their toddler. Before the diaper comes off, one worry is what if the poop goes in the wrong place? A poop in your child’s pants. A poop on your floor. Or a poop in the middle of spaghetti dinner night. Right ther