Completely child-led training?

I basically haven't been doing much about it. (My girls are 25 months.) At daycare, they are put on the potty every few hours -- Amy often pees, Sarah never does anything. At home, Amy asks to go potty during diaper changes (but never any other time). Sarah hardly ever requests it -- when she does, it's just because Amy's on the potty, and again, she never does anything.

Anyway, my question is, if I am pretty hands-off about this, will they just eventually train themselves? I'm in no hurry, and don't want it to become a battle. They are getting exposure to the potty at school, so it's not like they have no clue. Or do I have to be more proactive if I want them to ever get it?

 

I think every child is different so it's not impossible that they might train themselves, but in my experience, they do need some hand holding and coaxing. But, your girls are pretty young so I would just keep as is for a while and maybe try when they are around 2 1/2.

 

Sounds like they are doing great! I think you should just encourage them and remind them, and soon buy them some panties and follow their lead.

 

K&K led me, I honestly blocked the whole concept right out of my mind and would have been fine with them in diapers forever..............they had different ideas and I had to follow...................I am totally not kidding when I say I didn't potty train........all I did was hang on for the ride (which really was painless and almost entirely accident free).

 

I pretty much let mine lead the way. Hannah trained at 27 mos, and Ben has spent this week in training. I had a potty chair available, asked occasionally if they wanted to sit on it, and one day, they each did and were successful. Hannah had one poop and one pee accident. Ben had three poop accidents on two pee accidents. And they almost always tell me when they need to use the potty; I rarely have to ask them.

We have been super lucky that this experience has been so easy and so positive. But I think there is something to be said about letting them lead the way. I don't feel totally comfortable offering advice here because I feel like I was pretty hands off with the training. They trained themselves!