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Preparing for the Toddler Years
8 Truths About Parenting Multiple Toddlers
By Elizabeth Lyons
Most parents dread the potty training process. In fact, I've known many a mom who has claimed that, in the end, the person who really needed to be potty trained was she, not her child. The reason for this is that when you are in a store and your child announces – just as you are ready to enter the check-out line with an entire cart full of purchases – that he needs to go potty, it's sometimes easier just to say, "It's OK, honey; you have a Pull-Up® on."
Regardless of the training program you use, it's a safe bet that your multiples won't take to using the watering hole at precisely the same moment or in precisely the same manner. Sounds frighteningly familiar to the sleep training routine you went through when they were 6 months old, doesn't it? I can almost guarantee that, for awhile, once you get child No. 1 out of the restroom, having ascertained to the best of your ability that child No. 2 does not have to go (and even possibly after convincing her to try anyway), child No. 2 will announce that she now has to go – right now – or else. And rest assured, it will be the day you decided to try putting them in real underwear, so you won't even be able to rely on the Pull-Ups®. What you will be able to rely on is the fact that a clean-up request will be announced for Lane 6 momentarily.
Patience is the key when potty training multiples. It may not even be worth it to form a strategy for this task because when and where they use the potty is one of the few functions over which children have complete control. It's also a good idea to keep a training potty in your car for emergencies. The answer to "Can you wait three minutes until we get home?" is typically going to be "No."