The 3 Best Potty Training Aids Every Parent Needs!

First off- sorry for the lapse.  We've had a run of great winter weather, which meant lots of time spent outside away from the computer.  Had a blast taking the boys ice fishing.  And we spent the last stretch of Autumn's days off doing a project I've been itching for- purging and paring down our kitchen.  I've been on a quest to pare down and simplify our lives, and tackling the kitchen was a big one.  Anyway, those are both topics for future posts.  Today, we talk about potty training.

Ahh, potty training.  One the one hand, parents look forward to it because it means and end to the expense and mess of diapers, and all the associated paraphernalia.  On the other, it’s kind of hard to do.  You’ll find lots of conflicting information and instructions telling you the best way to potty train your little ones.  Some parents favor rewards for using the potty, including stickers, candy (like M&Ms), or some other treat.  Others say no rewards, that will only slow things down.  Instead, you have to make it fun, so invent a potty song, or a potty dance, even a bathroom touchdown dance.  Then there are the methods and systems.  Potty training in 3 days.  No pressure potty training.  Potty training dolls.  Potty training potties.  The list is endless.

I’m here to help you wade through all that crap.  I don’t have a favorite system or method.  Every kid is different, and you’ll need to find your own path to pooping and peeing perfection.  We used cloth diapers, which is supposed to help make potty training easier.  Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t.  The theory behind it sounded nice, but you probably need more reasons than that to do cloth diapers in the disposable age.

What I am going to do is share with you the three absolutely essential, can’t live without, must have next to the toilet tools that every parent needs.  However you decide to approach potty training (and you may need to try several approaches), these tools work with all systems.  Actually, you are going to need these tools no matter what system you use.  Without further ado, the list:

Yes, you are correct.  That is a picture of tongs.

Toilets are fascinating things.  Flushing toilets is even more fascinating.  Once my little heathens figured out that ‘Poop goes bye-bye’ when they pull the handle, it wasn’t long before they wanted to see what else could go bye-bye.

If you’re lucky, most of the items they try and flush will be too big to actually escape the bowl, and you can easily pluck those out with tongs.

Long handled tongs are good.  That way you if you have to fish out something disgusting you can hold it well beyond arms length.

I would spend as little as possible on these tongs.  Cheap price and cheap construction are what’s called for.  This is not something you want to repurpose after potty training goals have been achieved.  With luck, potty training will go quickly and one set will last.  But even if you’re unlucky, buying a cheap replacement won’t break the bank.  Buying a good set may tempt you into washing them and then using them in the kitchen later on (But I spent a lot of money on them!).  That’s just nasty.  Don’t do it.  Avoid temptation by going as cheap as possible.

That is probably the only time you’ll ever here me say buy a cheap tool.

Plungers.

The black one is the kind for toilets.  Make sure you have one.  If you’re buying one for the first time, go ahead and get the red kind too.  The red one is for sinks, and if your heathens are like mine, it won’t be long before they decide to see what fits down that hole…

While the tongs are great for pulling stuff out, plungers do the opposite.  They push stuff in.  Hopefully far enough in that whatever the item is, it gets pushed from the smaller toilet drain pipes, into your main sewer line, where it can float freely.

As the boys have tried to wipe themselves, they have had a blast with toilet paper.  First, unrolling it all, and then shoving it all into the toilet.  Usually this is done as part of a highly scientific experiment to see exactly how much toilet paper can be flushed at one time.

A two-step approach works best here.  First, deploy the tongs.  Pull out as much toilet paper as you can and throw it away.  Next, using a vigorous up and down plunging motion, force whatever did exit the bowl down the pipes.  This can get messy, so the trick is to stand as far away as possible but not so far that you cannot maintain the needed plunging stance.  Your goal is to maximize plunging force and suction while minimizing splashing.  Body English is very important here.

If you don’t get it right on the first clog, don’t worry.  I’m sure you’ll have plenty of chances to practice.

Finally, we have the drain snake.  This is the big gun of potty training tools.  When the tongs and the plunger fail, it’s time to get the drain snake out.

To use, you ‘snake’ it down the drain and then twist the expanded end of the coil into your clog.  This works great for hair and fairly well for wet blobs of toilet paper.  Even clumps of ‘wet wipes’ can be extracted with diligence and care.  Not so well on matchbox cars or die cast Chuggington Trains though.

Again, you need a multi step approach here.  First, use the tongs to remove as much from the bowl as possible.  Then, vigorous plunging.  And if that doesn’t work, try the snake.  I’ve renamed ours.  It’s now the poopy python.

So there you go.  The three most important potty training tools I know of.  You need them, regardless of system or method.  You may also want some accessories, like rubber gloves and safety goggles.  Maybe even one of those full-face mask things they were in the ER for trauma cases.  But at the very least, you need these three things.  

Because toilets, flushing, and toys all seem to go together.

One more tip…

Should an expensive piece of electronic equipment, say a cell phone, somehow get wet, try rice.  Fill a jar with rice, and submerge your gadget.  With luck, the rice will absorb the moisture, drying out your device and resurrecting it.  Now, if you don't want to bother because you're really not interested in putting that thing close to your face- ever again- I'll understand.