Should I PT before or after vacation?

We are taking a 10-night cruise in January with both sets of grandparents. We are very excited, but I'm worried about PT. We were thinking of PT Thanksgiving weekend, since my dh will be home for 4 days and can help me. I think the girls are ready. I wanted to at least try it and see how they do. I really want dh home with me to help with accidents. I'm wondering if it would be smarter to wait until after vacation to do it. I'm trying to imagine what it will be like trying to find a bathroom when they have to go. The bathrooms on the islands aren't always very clean either. I guess I could bring a travel potty. What do you all think? Would it be easier for them to be in diapers on vacation?

Thanks,
Christie

 

Diapers will be much easier IMO. We have been potty training for 2 months and I still have to get them to a bathroom every 45 minutes or they have an accident.

 

Depends on how ready your girls are I think. If you're sure they are ready and they'll be PT by January, might as well do it now, otherwise I'd wait, as you probably don't want to deal with accidents on a cruise and putting them back in diapers for it might be confusing. Maybe try for a week to see how it goes?

Otherwise I'd say that it would probably be easier in diapers, but again, I'm in no rush to PT here because I'd rather change diapers than dealing with accidents/potty breaks all the time.

 

I think it's up to you and what you want to deal with. Personally, with a cruise, I'd probably wait until after it. That being said, when we went to vacation over the summer, I did continue to PT my DD (my DS was boycotting it at the time, so we didn't push him) but we were at the Jersey Shore and stayed at someone's house and brought her potty. And she was very consistent about using the potty. I would say it can't hurt to try over Thanksgiving weekend and see what happens and if the girls are having more accidents then what you expected, then I would try again after vacation. Good luck with your decision.

 

If they are totally ready and wanting to pt then I would say go for it now. But if there is any chance that they aren't ready then I would wait.
Once they are totally ready it should only take 2-3 days for them to be PT. I went on a cruise in May (without the kids) and depending on where you're going, they usually have a pretty touristy area once you get off the ship. So you shouldn't have too many problems finding a bathroom. Good luck!

 

As an FYI, they can't be in a ship pool in swim diapers. They have to be potty trained. So, specific to a cruise, I'd consider it now.

 

I know. That is a major reason why I wanted to PT before the cruise. I can't say they are 100% ready. How do you know? I feel like Abby was doing great peeing on the potty and the last few days only wants to wash her hands and won't go on the potty. I keep going back and forth. Is it bad to try it that weekend and see how it goes and go back to diapers if they are having a lot of accidents? I don't want to confuse them.

 

I think we started and stopped (trying) maybe 6 times between 2 & 2.5. All I really did was make them aware of the potty and tried to catch them when they had to go. All we ever managed was to catch a pee or two in the morning, but nothing ever stuck.

So the last time we tried, I took it slightly more seriously and decided to step it up a little. I was reserved to deal with the accidents - I figured I could handle it for a couple days. And if there weren't signs of them catching on, we'd go back to diapers and attempt a 7th try down the line. I had no real idea if they were "ready". Actually, I thought my daughter seemed more ready. In the end, my son was the one who took to it right away.

I'd just try it and see what happens. I think you'll be able to tell after a few days if it's worth continuing the training until they're fully trained, or if they're really not ready and it's time to put it on hold again.

 

I was in a similar situation last year debating PT'ing over thanksgiving, but dreading dealing with a cross country christmas trip. I decided to just wait and they actually PT'ing *during* another trip we took right after their 3rd birthday. I wasn't planning on that, but Meara insisted, and Ana followed suit a little while after.

I guess the worst that can happen is you try over t-day, and if it doesn't work out, oh well!

 

We used the 3 day potty training method over our Thanksgiving long weekend (Canada is earlier) and it worked!! We are now 3 weeks into it and have had no accidents at all. They go about every couple hours and I just have them use a normal toilet when we are out and they have no problem with that. I say if you think they are ready I would train them now instead of waiting. I'm a little jealous about your cruise I'm sure it will be fantastic no matter if they are trained or in diapers!!

 

I would go for it if you and you DH have the time together - are you going to try the 3 day method? We did that over labor day weekend and then had to go away for two weeks (a wedding and a whirlwind of visiting relatives up the east coast) at the end of October. I brought pull ups with me just in case and put them on them on top of underpants in the car for the first 12 hour stretch just in case. They were dry EVERY time we stopped at a rest area so we ditched the pull ups and they were fine. If they are doing well after Thanksgiving (give it a few weeks to really judge - a few mistakes are inevitable), my advice would be to try bringing pullups and putting them on OVER their underpants only at the times that would be really inconvenient (like at night so you don't have to worry about changing sheets or if they are wearing dressy clothes or something). For us, having the underwear underneath made them still feel like they were in underpants - the one accident my DD had at a rest area (on the way to the bathroom) she knew about right away because her underpants got wet - it wasn't like the security/super absorbency of a diaper, but it made it so I didn't have to stress about them wetting the car seat. It was different for us because we had access to a washing machine a lot of the time if we needed it, but they really did amazingly well if not BETTER while we were on the road! I just had to make sure I stayed on top of it and didn't forget to take them to a bathroom if we were out for a long time.

For a potty seat, I recommend the potette travel potty. My kids LOVE it and it folds up to fit in my diaper bag. If you let them use that at home or even out on errands for a while at home, they'll probably be fine using that on the ship and you can just keep it in a beach bag or something. GL!!

 

I love the Potette potty like pp said. I even just use grocery bags for refills w/large women's maxi pads in the bottom... you can usually get some good BOGO w/coupon deals and get something for cheap.

anyway, as for PTing... seems to me that for us the kids have taken a bit of time to understand the timing and being able to hold it for longer periods of time. my dd actually holds it much longer than my ds. anyway, we took a cruise this summer and did many of the excursion / tours and I'm really glad we were still doing diapers at the time. I guess it would have stressed me out even more to have that in addition to 2 yo twins that were always melting down on the cruise. personally our cruise was sort of a disaster... trying to keep the kids polite during meals in front of family was very tiring on me. at home we have very few issues with meals etc. it took me almost 2 wks to chill out once we got home, I was very on edge from the long flight we had and the cruise and tours.

as for PTing, I love that we're not doing diapers now, even though we still have accidents sometimes...

anyway, good luck with your decision!