95% toilet trained!

After almost 15 months of toilet training, Javier is 95% toilet trained.

Toilet training came with its own headaches and heartaches. At first, Javier did not even want to sit on his potty. We decided not to push him too hard because we do not want him to equate the potty with his parents scolding him. Then eventually, he allowed us to sit him on the potty. There were many hits and misses at this stage and I remember how our floor and furniture would have pee and poo spots...

When he was telling us that he needed to pee, we decided that it was time for him to go diaper-less in school and I remember how his teacher complained about him peeing on the floor. Then, after a while, the teacher stopped complaining and we asked her if Javier had been telling them when he needed to go pee. She told us that he was not telling them anything and it was then I realized my poor boy had been holding his pee because he got so scared of the teacher scolding him.  I didn't know whether I should scream at his teacher out of frustration. What kind of a childcare teacher will scare a 3 year old boy for wetting his pants? Of course they are bound to wet their pants... they're kids who are still learning to pee on the toilet!

I had to drill my son at home to remember to tell his teacher when he needs to go to the toilet. Guess what, he finally learned to speak up when evil-childcare-teacher left and was replaced by nice-childcare-teacher.

For the longest time, we were stuck at the pee-at-the-toilet-and-poo-in-the-undies stage. I don't know why Javier only told us that he pooped afterwards. I got used to cleaning after him and was careful not to spread his poo on the floor. 

At this stage, we never scolded him for making a mess. We need to muster all the patience we had to keep reminding him to tell us if he needed to go to the toilet. I read in most toilet-training books that when a child is ready, he or she will just be ready. It's no use screaming and scaring them because the last thing we want to happen is make toilet-training traumatic for them.

Then this month, he started telling us when he needs to poo. He will even sometimes go on his own to his potty and relieve himself there.

We still have a few challenges to conquer (which is why he is not yet 100% toilet trained...)
- to be able to deal with his issues peeing outside our home (making him pee in public toilets requires a bit of whining and crying but I make him go anyway cause it's going to be hard cleaning up after him)
- to be able to go diaper-less throughout the night (we still put him in diapers at night because he will sometimes forget to pee first thing in the morning)

I don't know what is the usual toilet-training timetable for most parents. I don't want to compare. I am just glad that my son is slowly getting there.