My younger daughter fought the potty tooth and nail until she awoke on the morning of her third birthday and announced "I wear panties now". Almost two months and only a handful of accidents later, we're rolling right along. Of course, one of those accidents occurred this morning on a practice run at the preschool she'll be attending this fall ("I was too busy", she confided on the way home).
Part of the problem, according to potty training guru Teri Crane, could be that we recently moved into a new home (although frankly, I think the change was part of the solution: new house, new rules). Among other reasons to step back from the training process include recent family upheavals such as death and divorce, or major changes in the caregiving situation. On the other hand, if your child is highly verbal, clearly understands the expectations, and is staying dry for significant periods of time, there's a good chance you can be successful here.
Teri Crane's famous for her Potty Train Your Child In Just One Day method, which...I tried. But unlike Teri the self-proclaimed Potty Pro, I'm just a potty amateur. Maybe Teri could have figured out exactly why my chatty, physically advanced in every other way, independent child, whose friends are all proud potty-goers, just wasn't having it until she could have it on her terms. I'm personally just glad she turned out to have terms at all (those terms included jelly beans, I'm not ashamed to admit).
