Ah, the joys of being a stay-at-home dad! If your kids are of potty-training age, it’ll fall on you to help them with the process.
Let’s take a look at some great advice for stay-at-home dads and potty training. Take a deep breath and read on!
There isn’t a specific potty training age. As a stay-at-home dad, you may be surprised to know that the age range for kids to be fully potty trained is anywhere from 18 months to as late as 4 years. While most kids fall somewhere in the middle of that range, it’s helpful to know that there’s no exact age.
Knowing this, as a stay-at-home dad you will feel less pressured if your kid isn’t learning the potty training lessons as fast as you’d like him to with.
Your child will show you when he’s ready. When you’re a stay-at-home dad, you want to try to control as much as you can on the home front. However, not stay-at-home dad can force his child to become potty trained.
Watch your child, he will start signaling to you when he is interested in taking the next step. Some of the signs: They want to try wearing underwear and they want to have their dirty diapers changed quickly. Other signs are that they’ll let you know when they have to go, and an interest in the bathroom in general.
Consider rewarding positive potty behavior. Other stay-at-home parents recommend reward systems (pennies or candies) for getting to the bathroom on time, wiping correctly, and washing their hands. This positive reinforcement can make potty training a little less stressful.
Verbal reinforcement can work like a charm as well. If you don’t have a reward system as part of your stay-at-home-dad practices, simply telling your child each time he does a potty session correctly can also work well. However, keep in mind that as the stay-at-home dad, you’ll be giving the majority of the positive verbal reinforcement during the week so make sure that your spouse reinforces this when she is home.
Don’t creative negative associations with potty training. Many of us stay-at-home dads are guys who want to fix what’s broken quickly. However, scare tactics, (such as screaming,) definitely won’t help in potty training. If anything, your child will be frightened and may take even longer to learn what to do.
Have your child watch potty training videos. There are a lot of great videos out there that are specifically geared towards teaching your child how to go to the potty. A simple Internet search will show you the top rated videos.
Since you’re the stay-at-home dad, you will probably be the parent who sits and watch these videos with your child. Most of the videos are fun with singing and lots of positive reinforcement. Ideally, your child may eventually want to watch the video on their own. However, you may need to do a couple of sessions with them. My recommendation is to grin and bear it!
Hopefully, by successfully potty training your child, you’ll have at least a few funny stay-at-home dad stories that you’ll be able to tell in the future. Just try not to embarrass you kid too much, O.K.?
Reference: http://BusinessTM.com/about/erik-cornella/
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