Allow Me To Introduce You To My Nemesis

It feels like we have been potty training Mini all her life.  In reality, it has been about 8 or 9 months, on and off.  Her nan had been talking about it since she was 6 months old as this was the age that her father apparently trained himself.  However, though I bought a potty early on, I didn't want to push something that Mini wasn't ready for, so I waited for the signs.

In September 2010, when she was about 21 months old, having shown very little interest in using the potty, she began wanting to sit on the toilet.  We were patient with her and held her on whenever she asked (this was before we had bought a child seat for the loo) but there was little progress.  I think she did about 2 wees in 2 weeks.

As she was starting to show an interest, I suppose the natural progression would have been to encourage this but I panicked slightly that her brother was due and what this combination of changes would do to her, so we held back on the potty training and dealt with the new sibling arrival first.  Months passed and Mini grew used to her brother and continued to be happy in nappies.  Hmmm.

When she turned two, it seemed a little more pressing that she should be trained; she would be starting preschool in January and although they were happy to change nappies, it was a reminder that she was growing up.  We bought a training seat for the toilet, a co-ordinating step and tried pull-up pants.  We had some success but it seemed that Mini was just terribly excited about being allowed to use the loo and wanted to go every 5 minutes.  She rarely actually combined going to the loo with having a wee or poo, though, and would generally treat a pull-up as an ordinary nappy with the added bonus that she could easily take it off and leave it somewhere as soon as it was dirty.  Great.

It got to the stage where she would tell me as soon as she had done a wee or a poo but by then it was, of course, too late.  I recently bought her some proper big girl knickers in the hopes that all of her enthusiasm and progress would come together...and you know what?  I think it's worked.  The last few days, she has been amazing.  If I put her in a nappy, she takes it off to use the potty instead and when in knickers, as she has been the last two days, there are no accidents.  Result!

However, I am now faced with the next stage - what to do when we go out somewhere.  Currently, we put her in a nappy before we go out and take it back off at home.  I have spoken to people about what to do next and the general consensus is that you must take the potty with you everywhere.  This is all well and good but I can't help but wonder exactly how this will work out in practise.  Mini needs to pee quite frequently at the moment, and very urgently, and she almost always gets on with it on her own, without saying anything.  She doesn't need help, she just lets me know when she's finished, which is great at home, but could cause a problem when we're out.  What if she just panics and goes because she can't immediately find her potty?  And what if she manages to tell me but it's urgent?  Is it acceptable to get a potty out in the milk aisle of Tescos?  And if that is OK, what do you do with the contents afterwards?  Oh, it's a minefield of potential obstacles for me!

I am, however, delighted with Mini and her ability to use the potty without assistance, and, unless I can be brave, I guess the next stage will just follow on naturally when we are ready.