You know potty training is a very exciting time in a parents life. Especially if it’s your last child and you know that you’re gonna be diaper free any day.

But one of the problems that often arises when you start to potty train your toddler, is that he understands that this is very important to you. Right, and it’s a great way to get mommy to keep coming back into my room when I go to bed at night.

So it’s a bedtime game play right? I have to go potty and they realize when they say those words you drop everything. You throw the remote and you rush them to the bathroom. And they sit there and they try really hard to get something to happen. And then they go back to bed, and five minutes later here they are I have to go potty. And again you jump out and you run and you go. And they realize hey this is pretty powerful. She jumps when I say those words.

So it can happen two, five, ten times a night. And then it’s getting pretty frustrating for everybody.

So how do you nip this one in the bud. Well this is going to be a little tough at first. I get it because you’re so sensitive to this, right. You want him to have victory with the potty training. You don’t want him to have an accident. So you give in to this and you’re gonna have to be a little tougher.

So my suggestion is you make a potty pass. So something, I don’t know cut a piece of cardboard out, draw a picture of a toilet on it. Write the words potty on top and put it on the bedside table and say you may use this one time to go potty. So they come out of their bedroom and tell you they have to go potty. Okay make sure we’ve got the pass. So go back in have them give it to you. Give the potty pass to you. And then escort them to the bathroom, let them do their business and take them back to bed.

If they come out again however, they’ve already used their pass and you’re gonna have to be very clear about that. There is no more trips to the bathroom now because you’ve used your pass. Be ready right. They might’ve just been bluffing the first time and the second time they actually do have to go to the bathroom.

Now most children I would say, 99 percent of them are wearing some sort of pull-up. So it’s not the end of the world if they use their pull-up. But a rule is a rule right? And have some, you know you might want to put a plastic sheet over the mattress. You want to have clean jammies on standby, just in case their is an accident.

And you’re not gonna be mad about it right. You’re just gonna go in, you’re gonna clean them up, you’re going to put them back in bed. And the learning will occur. The child will begin to understand that I better mean what I say when I use this potty pass. I better be sure that I actually have to go. And really do they have to go? I mean I would assume that most of you are giving them lots of opportunity in the bed time routine to use that potty right. That’s probably the last stop on your checklist before you put them to bed. So chances are low that they’re urgently in need to go.

And you’re gonna have to just stick with your rules around this. And it really does, it works great they learn very quickly. And don’t underestimate your child’s ability to learn. They absolutely will get the hang of this within a few nights. Problem solved.

Thanks for watching, sleep well.