flattenme blog

My brother’s kids attended something called Booty Camp in order to get potty trained. A concept I thought was hilarious — mostly because of the name and also because I just can’t imagine outsourcing something that is so personal and a major milestone for my child.  I wouldn’t outsource teaching my kid to ride a bike either, but I certainly know parents who do. Each to their own.

 Someone just mentioned to me that the owner of Booty Camp was on the Today Show and is now being called the Potty Whisperer. As a mother of 4 myself, the idea of potty training in a day seems insane - especially with boys. My daughter trained herself in a day, but only after she decided that ‘it was time’. But Booty Camp worked with my two nieces. They were shipshape and ready for school — for which they had to be potty trained to attend.

 Her techniques are interesting — load up on salty snacks and sweet drinks. That will make ‘nature call’ often during the day you are training. Tell them when they need to go, walk over to the potty, pull their pants down and do it. If they don’t make it, the child has to clean up their mess.  She says she has a 98% success rate in 1 day. I think I’m going to have to try this one with my youngest who will be 2 in Oct.

 On the flip side, there actually is a woman who has marketed herself as the Potty Whisperer. I would bet she’s not too thrilled about the Today Show using her self ordained title. Her techniques are totally different from Booty Camp. A ‘late starter’ is one that starts after 6 months. And god help the poor little soul that thinks about attempting potty training after 24 months. Apparently all hope is lost. Again, this seems ridiculous to me. Yes, you can get a young child to go on the potty consistently. The person this is training is the parent. Not the child.

Regardless, here’s a list of her no-no’s which are good ones to keep in mind:

 ”Potty Whisperer’s No-Nos”:

• no punishment
• no pressure
• no coercion
• no shaming
• no competition
• no showing off
• no obsessing
• no perfectionism
• no rushing toilet learning
• no attachment to time goals
• no negativity

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.