Working on potty training and my toddler is starting to get very mad when we try to get him in the potty or prompt him to let us know if he needs to go. Any tips?

It sounds like he might not be ready. Our pediatrician said 3 is the average age—so if you’re not there yet, it might be best to wait a month or two and try again.

One thing that worked great for us was a potty training watch. It was around $10 on Amazon. You set a timer (we did one hour), and it plays a little tune and has fireworks on the screen when the timer is going off. Every time we heard the music we ran to the potty and attempted to go. We started with the watch, and put our son in underwear—spent a long weekend at home and he was 75% trained by the end of the weekend. But, we also waited until he was super interested in the potty and was just over 3 years old.

Good luck!

We had to wait until he was firmly three years old. Those that say do it at 2 are ridiculous and set parents up for a lot of frustrations. We did it Memorial Day weekend two years ago when my beloved son was 3 years and 3 months old

How old is your little one? Going through the same.

We had luck letting him bring one toy with him. We noticed the issue was he didn’t want to stop doing whatever he was doing when it was time to go to the potty

Not sure what method you are doing. Our toddler didn't necessarily get "mad" when we tried to get her on the potty, but definitely seemed anxious/uncomfortable being sat down on the potty before signaling that she had to go. We eventually stopped asking her, and after she had two accidents while pooh bearing it, the potty training started to click for her and she began asking fairly regularly. We eventually started asking her/placing her on the potty before leaving the house in underwear, but the anxiety/discomfort around being put on the potty was gone by that point.

Get the book “Oh Crap” this book is the bible of potty training, my twins were 90% trained at the end of their suggested 3 day weekend. Everyone who has used this book (and followed it) has great success. Good luck!!

Tie potty breaks to routines so it doesn’t feel random. Right now we do after breakfast and before bath time as hard anchors. I still get some rage about it but my son is making peace with that fact that this is a new non negotiable routine now. I’m going to introduce additional post meal, pre nap, and get home potty breaks next when we’d naturally be in the bathroom anyway to wash hands or change diaper.

Keep potty breaks short so they don’t get annoying. Let them see you pee and talk about how quickly you sit down and go and now feel better and can move on with your day.

Finally, use a visual timer. When the timer goes off we try the potty. I have my toddler repeat the timer interval as I set it (“15 minutes”!!) or help me set it. We pre-agree he will play and when timer beeps he will try a quick potty break.

This will change when trying to get him to self initiate but right now I’m just doing slow training, normalizing using the potty and practicing releasing and holding.

Just keep going! They will get it!

Wait and try again in a few weeks. Rinse and repeat. Kiddo with catch on when ready.