Scan barcode
A review by ablotial
Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right by Jamie Glowacki
4.0
Short status first: If you get this book, I recommend reading the whole thing... BUT start at the end. There are a few "cheat sheets" in the back, and FAQs that answer many of the questions. Some of those answers will probably not make sense to you, or even make you angry depending on your beliefs. Then you can read the rest of the book, and focus on the parts that you really need for your particular situation, and to learn why she feels the way she does about the stuff you don't understand or got angry about. I wish I'd known those were there first... especially the 'cheat sheet for dads'... really sums up all the main points.
-----------
As we are expecting a second child in April, I really wanted to get the first one potty trained so that we could only have to deal with one set of diapers at a time. I asked around at work and on the two parenting boards I frequent, and it seemed like everyone was recommending this book. So I immediately sucked it up and purchased it, and started reading immediately.
A little over a week later, my kid is diaperless even for naps (but not bedtime yet), didn't have an accident all weekend, and we've had multiple successful restaurant visits (with potty trips, some more successful than others), a library trip, and a playdate at a friend's house where he used their big toilet and was excited by the little step stool allowing him to get up there all by himself.
Was it easy? No, but it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. My husband was extremely concerned about starting this early (his family tends to potty train late), but he played along and stayed positive (at least in front of the toddler) and it worked out. He admitted last night to having been very concerned the first few days that it wasn't going to work and we were going to have pee and poop all over our house for months, but that now he's confident and happy we did it.
And that's one of the main points this book makes, is about parent expectations. It's extremely rare for a toddler to potty train in 2 days, the way my husband seemed to think it would work. A week is reasonable, and so is 2 weeks. If you think about it, a diaper is all they've known for 2+ years of their life and it's private in its own weird way... and toddlers LOVE routine, and hate when that routine is disrupted. Why would anyone think this should be a quick process? And a week sounds long when there is the potential of poop all over your house, but it's actually pretty short in the grand scheme of things... and again, as the book points out, as long as you are actually paying attention to your child during this process and not on your phone or having your nose in a book, it's pretty easy to tell when they are going to poop (you've probably been able to tell since very early in their lives). So pay attention, and you'll be fine. We only had to clean poop off the floor once, and that's because instead of paying attention I was cleaning up what I thought was poop but turned out to be some cereal that someone had stepped on. Hrmpf.
So, you can probably tell, generally I liked the book. I liked the method, it worked (at least for our kid) and was pretty drama free.
What about the bad, why not 5 stars? Well, firstly I wasn't a big fan of her writing style/tone. It was very informal and stream-of-consciousness and especially in the first few chapters a little bit preachy. But it was so highly recommended that I plowed through and I'm glad I did. I think a lot of that style is because based on how she kept referring to "previous posts" instead of "previous chapters", either this is really just a compilation of blog posts, or she's just so used to writing blogs that she's solidified herself into the blog writing style.
Which brings me to the second point... I lean toward the first, that this is just a collection of compiled blog posts because of the sheer amount of repetition in here. And I don't mean the same concept comes up multiple times, but sometimes I felt like it's word for word identical sentence in multiple chapters. At first, I felt like I was being treated like a toddler! Once I figured out it was probably a bunch of blog posts I understood, but it was still annoying. And I guess for people who just read a particular chapter, it's helpful to have that info there... but I would have had some better editing done before publishing to make it a little less repetitive.
Finally, I really wish the cheat sheets and FAQ were put closer to the beginning of the book. I understand why she put them at the end, because she doesn't want people to just read those and think they are good to go without reading the rest and understanding the rationale behind her method. But honestly for me, I'd prefer to have the main points first, and then read the rest to learn more.
Overall, good book. The method worked for us and we're all happy. And it addressed a lot of questions and concerns I had, some of which never even came to pass but I'm glad she mentioned it. Highly recommend.
-----------
As we are expecting a second child in April, I really wanted to get the first one potty trained so that we could only have to deal with one set of diapers at a time. I asked around at work and on the two parenting boards I frequent, and it seemed like everyone was recommending this book. So I immediately sucked it up and purchased it, and started reading immediately.
A little over a week later, my kid is diaperless even for naps (but not bedtime yet), didn't have an accident all weekend, and we've had multiple successful restaurant visits (with potty trips, some more successful than others), a library trip, and a playdate at a friend's house where he used their big toilet and was excited by the little step stool allowing him to get up there all by himself.
Was it easy? No, but it wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. My husband was extremely concerned about starting this early (his family tends to potty train late), but he played along and stayed positive (at least in front of the toddler) and it worked out. He admitted last night to having been very concerned the first few days that it wasn't going to work and we were going to have pee and poop all over our house for months, but that now he's confident and happy we did it.
And that's one of the main points this book makes, is about parent expectations. It's extremely rare for a toddler to potty train in 2 days, the way my husband seemed to think it would work. A week is reasonable, and so is 2 weeks. If you think about it, a diaper is all they've known for 2+ years of their life and it's private in its own weird way... and toddlers LOVE routine, and hate when that routine is disrupted. Why would anyone think this should be a quick process? And a week sounds long when there is the potential of poop all over your house, but it's actually pretty short in the grand scheme of things... and again, as the book points out, as long as you are actually paying attention to your child during this process and not on your phone or having your nose in a book, it's pretty easy to tell when they are going to poop (you've probably been able to tell since very early in their lives). So pay attention, and you'll be fine. We only had to clean poop off the floor once, and that's because instead of paying attention I was cleaning up what I thought was poop but turned out to be some cereal that someone had stepped on. Hrmpf.
So, you can probably tell, generally I liked the book. I liked the method, it worked (at least for our kid) and was pretty drama free.
What about the bad, why not 5 stars? Well, firstly I wasn't a big fan of her writing style/tone. It was very informal and stream-of-consciousness and especially in the first few chapters a little bit preachy. But it was so highly recommended that I plowed through and I'm glad I did. I think a lot of that style is because based on how she kept referring to "previous posts" instead of "previous chapters", either this is really just a compilation of blog posts, or she's just so used to writing blogs that she's solidified herself into the blog writing style.
Which brings me to the second point... I lean toward the first, that this is just a collection of compiled blog posts because of the sheer amount of repetition in here. And I don't mean the same concept comes up multiple times, but sometimes I felt like it's word for word identical sentence in multiple chapters. At first, I felt like I was being treated like a toddler! Once I figured out it was probably a bunch of blog posts I understood, but it was still annoying. And I guess for people who just read a particular chapter, it's helpful to have that info there... but I would have had some better editing done before publishing to make it a little less repetitive.
Finally, I really wish the cheat sheets and FAQ were put closer to the beginning of the book. I understand why she put them at the end, because she doesn't want people to just read those and think they are good to go without reading the rest and understanding the rationale behind her method. But honestly for me, I'd prefer to have the main points first, and then read the rest to learn more.
Overall, good book. The method worked for us and we're all happy. And it addressed a lot of questions and concerns I had, some of which never even came to pass but I'm glad she mentioned it. Highly recommend.