Toddler toilet training whilst on holiday!

I’ve always had a laid back approach to potty training my children, but even I wouldn’t plan toddler toilet training whilst on holiday…

… Sometimes, however, despite our best intentions, our tiny tearaways have their own ideas!

Yes… Baby Bear decided that right at the start of our camping trip, last summer, was the perfect time to start toilet training. Talk about potty training on the go! Although I can’t really call it potty training, because Bear went straight from nappy to toilet. He outright refused to use a potty. In his eyes, there is only one place for the potty, and that is on his head, to wear as a helmet!

We rolled up to one of our favourite campsites in Dorset, pitched our tent, built the kitchen, tables, chairs, installed the lighting and heating, blew up the beds (we don’t take camping lightly!). And then as my twins demanded their first trip to the toilet, Baby Bear proudly announced that he wanted to go to the toilet too. So I sat him on the loo, fully expecting nothing at all to happen, when he did it. 

Bear very quickly learnt, from all the clapping and cuddling and telling him what a good boy he was, that he could talk Mummy and Daddy into buying him sweeties for every wee he did on the toilet and a prize for every poo. Our simple camping trip had gone to a full blown toddler toilet training holiday.

We thought it was a fluke. He wouldn’t keep it up. All previous attempts at toilet training and potty training at home, had been futile. We’d decided that we’d wait until he decided for himself, much like we did with the twins. I blogged about the twins’ toddler-led potty training about four years ago. The twins were 3 (almost 4) when they finally learnt to use the toilet. Bear was only just 3 years old when we went on our camping trip.

It wasn’t a fluke though. Every toilet trip – he went too! There were a few accidents on the journey home and in the days following our arrival home, but within the week, he was completely dry every single day. No potty in sight. He would tell us when he needed the toilet and that was that! How easy that was, in comparison with toilet training the twins.

The most exciting part for Bear though, was getting to go shopping and choose himself some “big boy pants”. He wanted boxers like Daddy. Have you ever seen anyone look so excited over a pair of pants?!

For toddler toilet training and potty training resources, check out the other posts below.