by Lisa Lai

Created on: June 21, 2009   Last Updated: June 22, 2009

Parenting can be like mountain climbing. You can prepare and read all you want, but your perspective changes the minute you are staring over the side of a cliff. Similarly, your perspective can change when staring at the prospect of messing up a human being you brought into the world. Lack of experience finding the best way through each challenge can shatter the confidence you had when planning for your baby. So the prospect of when to begin potty training with so many opinions, and people waiting until their child is 4 and even sometimes 5 can be confusing. But here is one fact I found interesting. Before disposable diapers, potty training was centered around the age of 18 months.

At around 18 months I would be questioning whether my child is ready too. But now parents question it after the age of two years. If your child is older than two, take the advice I was given when my son was 28 months.

"Put him in underwear and let nature take it's course."

I had asked an older experienced mother who had raised 4 happy, well- adjusted boys, and it was the solution I had been looking for. By just putting underwear on my son, I would be taking the pressure off of him. It was no big deal, it was just time to wear underwear. I could also leave a diaper on him at night and if he got sick until he was taking it off to go potty at all times. Something I thought would be way in the future but turned out to be right away as well.

She said "make it is no big deal". Just a new phase in his life. The underwear phase.

The next day, I bought an Elmo potty chair and some underwear. I bought thickish potty training ones to help absorb the mess, and I lined his car-seat with plastic. I also tried those plastic underwear covers, but they were hard to find and not 100% effective.

The next morning when I was helping him dress I told him he was a big boy and he could now wear underwear like daddy. This was very intriguing for him. In fact, he actually loved the idea so much he developed a habit of proudly showing his new underwear to everyone he came upon. I didn't mention the potty, but just put it in his bathroom. When he asked about it, I explained how it worked and that it was for anyone who wanted to use it.

The next few days were rough. He wet his pants many many times, and I found that pee is very hard to contain. I put a diaper on him at night to sleep and every morning felt the same urge to replace the diaper with another, but thankfully, resisted.

Because I was mentally

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