13 Signs you May Be a Potty-Training Mama

Remember my toddler's new year's resolution from 2010?

I'm happy to say he did it! We did it. Potty-trained except for at night. Diapers only at nighttime (although there is the occasional post-naptime sheet change)!!!!

Every time I hear another mom say her child is pretty much potty-trained (it takes a long time before you'll claim them completely potty-trained, am I right?) I say, "Don't you think there should be some sort of award given to the moms (or dads if they are in the thick of the process day in and day out) when they make it through potty-training their kid?"

And I'm serious. Because I know the effort on the parent's part that has gone into that process. The countless trips to the potty, the clothing changes, the washing of urine-soaked and worse clothes, the books read about going potty over and over again, the cheering, the rewarding, the carpet cleaning, the 3 minute car trips that somehow still led to the complete dismantling and washing of the car seat.

It is an experience like none other! Tears and laughter are pretty much guaranteed from both potty-trainer and potty-trainee. But we all make it through, eventually.

So a year away from the trenches I share with you this list I first posted January 2010. We've come a long way Baby!

13 Signs You May Be a Potty-Training Mama:

1. Your 2 year old jumps up in excitement after filling an entire toddler potty with pee-pee, grabs the potty bowl in an eager attempt to dump it into the big potty but accidentally dumps it in your lap instead and you manage to still clap & cheer, "Hooray!!! You went pee-pee in the potty!"

2. You have made up a song that goes, "Pee-pee in the potty, pee-pee in the potty, let's go pee-pee in the potty!"

3. And you sing it loudly whenever your toddler demands.

4. You have also enlisted your older children to join in the chorus!

5. You can quickly calculate the amount of time before your toddler will need to go pee-pee based on the minutes since he last went combined with the critical factors of when he last drank something and volume of beverage consumed!

6. You have washed the car seat cover more times in the last month than in the previous 2 years combined!

7. You begin to think really mean thoughts about the mothers you've heard say, "She just potty-trained herself one day!"

8. You spend a good portion of a day wondering if and worrying that your house smells like urine!

9. When your neighbor stops by you debate asking her if she thinks your house smells like pee, but ultimately you chicken-out.

10. You create a "special seat" which is a folded up towel your toddler must stay on whenever he sits on your couch.

11. You begin rewarding your older children with M&Ms when they go potty in the hopes it will inspire your toddler to do the same!

12. You begin treating yourself to M&Ms when you go potty!

13. When you go potty and your toddler wildly claps and cheers, "Hooray, Mommy, you went pee-pee in the potty!" it occurs to you that nobody else in the entire world would ever praise you for that accomplishment and you are overwhelmed with love and thankfulness for that little potty-training toddler!

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