July 20, 2010
I think we’ve done it. Sami and Ali are pretty much potty-trained. Last big step? Wearing underwear to bed. Samantha is begging for this privilege but until we have dry pull-ups in the morning for at least three months and all the boxes from diapers.com are empty, we’re donning Dora for the night.
Other than that, I believe the girls are technically “trained.”
But that’s the funny thing. I use the word “trained” loosely. I didn’t do any “training.”
Most of the advice I received about potty-training twins boiled down to this statement: “They’ll do it when they’re ready. And probably not at the same time.” I wasn’t a believer. I was sure they would need some help, incentives, intervention.
When Eliza turned three I was positive she would wear diapers until she was fifteen unless I helped her along. So we did the potty-watch, M&M rewards, a favorite package of princess underwear, and several days of puddles on the floor. It worked. But not necessarily on her time-frame.
With the girls, however, I’ve been lolly-gagging. I postponed it as long as I could, drew no attention to the idea, offered zero encouragement.
But one day the potty bell tolled just for them. Watching big sister must have finally inspired. They were ready.
Ali was first and the timing was impeccable. I was feeding the boys during her first big moment so… I sent Eliza with her to the bathroom. “Show her the system!” I said. “How to wipe, flush, and wash her hands.” Eliza was a great teacher. And well… Ali never turned back. Pretty darn easy.
Sami took a little longer. But, once she decided she never went back. And to my surprise, she did it on her own too.
I celebrated their success, handed out swedish fish, and wiped up a few rare misses. Not much else. No potty watch (thank goodness! the song on that thing was pitiful). No big nasty messes. No weeks from you know where…
They did it when they were ready. Not at the same time. But they did it – basically trained themselves (with some assistance from big sister).
So what about you? How did you potty-train your twins? Did you train them both at the same time? Did you give them space to do it on their own? Did you want to pull your hair out cleaning up messes?
I’ve got another set of twins to train two years from now. So if there’s a sure-fire method out there, I’m all ears.
likeschocolate
Congratulations!
Handsfullmom
I've potty-trained six now, and I'm still clueless about the best way to do it. A couple of them were so easy they trained themselves and some were so hard they still had accidents at age 6. I did train my twins at the same time.
But congrats to have 3 out of diapers!
Kevin and Kerry
I potty trained my twin boys at the same time, but like you I waited until the last possible moment. They were two months away from being three. We just decided to do it one day and we went all out. Just lots of juice, potty time, and treats. We didn't even bother with Pull-Ups (I didn't need one more expense). They had day time under control within the week and night time within a month. There were lots of messes but it didn't last forever and it was so much easier to only have one in diapers (my little girl) rather than three!!