The Stay at Home Mother

I used to believe that it was a myth that boys were harder to toilet train than girls. When I first was told by other parents that my son would take longer to train, I was not only in disbelief, but took it on as my own personal challenge to prove them wrong.

But after my son was two and a half and closing in on three - and still in diapers - (much to my dismay) I was afraid that they might actually be right. And what adds even more credibility to this theory, is that my daughter who is eighteen months old, is completely toilet trained....how can this be?

I spent countless hours with my son, talking about it, taking him in the bathroom, and using encouraging words. But nothing seemed to work until we started the "reward" system with him. Every time he did remember to go to the bathroom, he received a reward (usually a cookie or piece of chocolate).

However my daughter on the other hand did not require any coaxing. She showed an interest in the toilet at around sixteen months old. And by the time she was close to eighteen months, she was already wanting to get on the seat, flush the toilet and wash her hands...and no reward was necessary.

Perhaps it could be the girl/boy theory at play - or perhaps it could be the "second sibling" theory as well. She sees him using the washroom every day. She watches what he does and trys to emulate him. She does it with other things too, so perhaps it was an encouraging way for her to be "just like her big brother".

Either way - I'm thrilled that I'm on my way out of diapers and can finally see the light out of the money pit that I've been using to throw my money in to for years on diapers. And much to my delight and surprise.....it came a lot sooner than I could have ever thought possible.