Potty Training and the Road: Getting Your Little Ones Ready

ImgresMy daughter turned two in April. Well, a few Aprils ago, to be truthful. But that magic day sent me bolt upright in bed, sweating and fearful in the middle of the night: My daughter needed to be potty trained, and I’d failed miserably with my older daughter. 

And of course, in just a few week’s time I would be packing and planning our summer adventure, the last before my oldest started Kindergarten and we’d be tethered to a school calendar. We were planning a summer of luxurious hotels, exotic places, sun dresses and chic sandals. And, I worried, an agenda dictated by diapers. 

It was time to start potty training. I couldn’t bare the idea of putting it off until Fall when school started, or later. I also hated the idea of having to check extra luggage just to bring diapers and wipes with us to Mexico (or risk having to track down diapers at resort town bodegas along the way). Or having to scout out Little Swimmers so she could swim in hotel pools. 

Img 3743If you have to potty train in a car, a hatchback makes a good option: Accessible for you, comfortable for themI also hated the idea of trying to potty train her while we were traveling. The idea of changing her diapers in airports, airplane bathrooms, roadside gas stations, truck stops and fast food joints, — well, ewwww. The only thing worse would be trying to get her to poop on the potty for the first time at one of them. Double ewwwww.

I knew moms who stationed a porta-potty in the back of the car and plopped the kid on it when the child was inspired. But I couldn’t bare to put my baby’s bathroom lessons on display for anyone passing by in the parking lot. And, I wondered, would I be able to check the portable potty in my luggage when we flew? 

Then, just after my daughter’s second birthday, by a brilliant stroke of luck, I picked up the New York Times and read Jane Brody’s column on potty training. Ms. Brody changed my life. You can read her column here.

Ms. Brody championed the advice I wanted to hear: Let my daughter go bare-bottomed until she got it. Put a portable potty someplace that she’d find it convenient, and put one  in the bathroom. Do this before she gets old enough to start to negotiate with you about using the potty. And let her do the rest. 

So this is what we did. We put a toddler potty near the TV, and as she learned to use it, we moved it closer and closer to the bathroom, moving it into the bathroom after a few days. She got the idea: She she had the urge to go, she found the potty and used it. During our travels she learned to tell me when she needed to go, and she learned to go even “when she didn’t need to,” letting us choose where and when to use the potty. And the best part was a summer of travel without diapers, wipes, ointments, swim diapers, diaper bags, porta potties, potty training books and more. Just a fully empowered, ready to travel toddler. 

With road trip season coming up, be inspired: get the potty training out of the way so it– or its much less attractive alternative, the diaper-dependent child–doesn’t become the background for your season of travel. And if you find yourself traveling while toilet training, here are some great tips from TravelingMom.

Scotty Reiss
Scotty Reiss

Journalist, entrepreneur and mom. Expertise includes new cars, family cars, 3-row SUVs, child passenger car seats and automotive careers and culture. A World Car Awards juror and member of the steering committee, Scotty likes to say the automotive business found her, rather than her finding it. But recognizing the opportunity to give voice to powerful female consumers and create a voice to match their spending power, her mission became to empower women as car buyers and owners. A career-long journalist, she has written for the New York Times, Town & Country, Adweek and co-authored the book Stew Leonard, My Story, a biography of the founder of the iconic grocery company Stew Leonard’s. Her love of cars started when her father insisted she learn to change the oil in her MG Midget, but now it mostly plays out in the many road trips taken with her family.

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