Womze - Cross Cultural Parenting

I’m writing this post for Children’s Classics Carnival.

My daughter was 2.5 years old, and after several ups and downs with potty training I was at my wits end. I was impatient to be rid of diapers (or pull-ups as they are called) and my impatience may have led to an undesirable consequence - my daughter felt really terrible whenever she had an accident. I did celebrate successful potty visits but I may have pulled one too many long faces while mopping the floor from an accident that my daughter began to think she was better off in pull-ups. Splurging on pretty pants did not help as she pointed out the equally beautiful designs on her ‘big kid diaper’.

Pondering how to fix the situation, I took a trip to Barnes and Noble and browsed through the children’s books section, hoping to find a good potty book. And that’s how “A Potty for Me!: A Lift-the-flap Instruction Manual ” by Karen Katz came into our lives.

My daughter thorougly loved it and soon memorized the entire book. “Mommy, get my book”, she would call as she excitedly ran into the bathroom and plopped herself on the potty. I would turn the pages while she recited the words. However, whenever it got to the point where the character had an accident, my daughter would prompt me to read the part that goes “But mommy says that’s okay”. Hearing that seemed to give her comfort. I could tell that she identified with the characte and together, they learned that it was okay to have an accident. And as she learned that it was okay to have an accident, she had less of it. A lot less and at last, we got rid of the pull-ups.

Whatever mistakes I may have made while potty training, “A potty for me” remedied it and it got my daughter over that last hump to big kids pants. Other than that, the illustrations in the book were delightful and my daughter loved turning the flap. It’s hard cover and the inside pages were durable enough to withstand daily trips to the potty.

I couldn’t hold on to the book for long as it was too good to keep. I passed it on to a former colleague who was also trying to potty train her daughter, and I hope she found similar success with it.