Reviews - Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right

693 reviews for:

Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right

This book is especially great if you have no idea where to start! I did stray a little from the book, for example there is no way I'm waking my LO up in the middle of the night to pee, but for the most part this was great.

The rest of my opinion on this book is super negative but I still gave 4 stars because it helped me so much with getting started.

Like others have mentioned the tone is kind of annoying, but the worst part is definitely the overuse of "i" and "me" and inserting irrelevant personal experiences. For example in the poop chapter, there is a part where the author talks about her child's amazing daycare, for like 3 paragraphs.

The use of I, me, and my was really distracting. Maybe the intent was a laid back conversation but it came across as a know-it-all telling you all the ways you're failing or will fail if you don't follow her advice.

martha_g's review against another edition

2.25

informative fast-paced

narniaru's review against another edition

2.0

My son had poop-poop potty trained himself at age 18months but by the age of 2 and a bit he was still in nappies for security? mom's anxiety? I don't know but as he's off to big school in September, I thought I better get on it.
In the end, I didn't follow the method because what we and the nursery school were doing seemed to be fine. He was also clearly just ready. And I think that's what this book is missing- the belief in the kid and parents. The author seems to have written this book with the attitude that's she was sick of giving her advice so here it is. But as others have written, it's far too long and quite condescending oh and yes, all those contradictions.

alreadsitall's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

DNFing because as someone else put it, it feels like a blog post that didn't need to be made into a book. I wanted straight up tips and tricks for potty training, and what I got was a pretty weird and judge-y book.

The author doesn't need to go on and on about how kids should be potty trained before 2 (and then make you feel bad if your kid is past that age). There were also weird snippets about how pee is sterile (and you should be rubbing it on your skin?) and if you don't want your kid to go commando outside the house then you're the weird one who should examine your icky feelings about genitals.

It's also pretty sexist. The author makes a lot of assumptions that it's the mom doing the potty training and needing to get the dad on board. They insinuated that your partner is a bad dad if they don't read the book as well. It doesn't use inclusive language either.

I will find a better potty training book and articles online.

erkajank's review against another edition

5.0

informative reflective fast-paced

kellyhook_readsbooks's review against another edition

4.0

Th information was a bit repetitive but overall super helpful! I’d consider bumping up to a 5 star rating if this actually ends up working :)

aharman13's review against another edition

4.0

Straightforward and informative, I picked up a lot of what seems like logical guidance in potty training.

peppermint_kiss's review against another edition

2.25

I really wanted to believe in this book. I found it well-written and entertaining, and I did pick up some good tips and interesting ideas...but after a valiant attempt on my part, the method described within really did not work for our family. I thought back to all of the snarky and dramatic comments the author had made about other families who struggled with her method - the unfalsifiable claims of "lack of commitment" or washing her hands of certain problems that she calls "behavioral", like behavior is unrelated the practice of potty training - and realized that the problem was probably not the families or the kids themselves, as I had assumed. I do think this method is likely to work with certain kids and certain families, but it's not universal, and I really don't appreciate the black-and-white attitude the author takes - the attitude is basically, "This is how normal, good families potty train. If it doesn't work for you, it's because there's either something wrong with you, or something wrong with your kids. And if anyone says they did it a different way, they're lying or misremembering." For that reason, I find this book a little worse than unhelpful - I feel it could be actively damaging to some people.