Potty Training, Financial Woes and Other Thoughts by Leah Magid

HOTMOMs will be featuring guest posts from our members on any and all issues facing families with multiples. Our first guest post is from Leah Magid, mom of twin boys and twin girls!

Potty Training, Financial Woes and Other Thoughts 

First let me begin by saying, I PRAYED HARD for the Lord to bless me with children, and the second greatest joy in my life is being a MOM, the first is being my husband’s wife.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being a Mommy, every sweet, amazing, gross and ewwy part of it!

My twin boys, Lukas and Mason turned 2 ½ on July 4^th this year (2013). My twin girls were 10 months old on the 21^st of July. 

Yes, I have TWO SETS (I’m sure you can do the math).  That’s four babies in diapers! Four babies in diapers is roughly $1200, or more spent in diapers a year. Unfortunately, I don’t have stock in diapers and my amazing husband and I provide for our family based solely on his salary and my home-based design business, which is enough to get us by, but not much else, for now. So, I made the courageous decision that I was going to potty train my boys, not for financial reasons (that was a bonus) but based on the fact that I felt they were ready.

A brief back history of my personality would tell you that I am a PLANNER. I research, get all my ducks in a row, and then get all my other ducks lined out if plan “A” should fail. This is NOT my personality anymore, no one tells you, but kids change you.

I planned to start potty training the boys when their school closed for a 3 week break, August 6^th was the big day. August 4^th I started reading “the book” I was planning to follow, a 3 day potty training method. August 5^th I was scrambling to get a second potty chair (I actually have four, but wanted a second of the one we liked best) and make potty charts, gather prizes and rewards. Whew! I almost called the whole thing off. BUT, if nothing else, I would not disappoint my children; we had been marking off the days on the calendar beginning the week before.

August 6^th - NO MORE DIAPERS. We “threw them all away” (NO WAY, I went back and dug them out of the trash and hid them in the closet) but for “the book’s” sake we threw them away. And so began the first day in potty training boot camp HELL.

August 7^th - The second day.  I almost cried, drank a bottle of wine, and seriously considered giving up. BUT the largest accomplishments in life take work, and sometimes almost break you, I’m not an easy quitter, I pressed on; all my hopes in “the book”.

August 8^th - Day 3, I see the light! This day miraculously began with about 75% less anxiety as the second day. Only one accident ALL DAY!

So in review of my potty training: The 3 day method worked great for us, I potty trained the boys (don’t forget I also have two 10 month olds) by myself, with the help of our sweet 18 year-old neighbor who came for 4 hours each day. It was brutal, and I had to make revisions to “the book” to better fit training multiples.

Now we are a month potty trained, accidents are less often but they still happen, I mean they ARE only 2 ½ years old. Mason can take himself to the potty, Lukas still has trouble pulling his pants down and so he needs help. Overall, I can say that I only have TWO in diapers, and that is ROUGHLY an extra $600 a year, that has already found a home, because my car needs some serious work done. Oh well, this is the financial cycle of life.

Potty Training tips:

• Potty chart w/ stickers
• Make sure to have the twins cheer each other on, so they don’t feel bad if one has an accident, and this encourages the other too. Plus it just feels good to cheer!
• Candy treats (With twins, I find bribery works to help my own sanity) We did small ones (Valentines hearts) for tee-tee and suckers (dum-dums) for poo.
• I had a prize bag with stuff like coloring books and Hotwheels for waking up dry and other big accomplishments, staying dry on a car ride, ect.
• One of my boys sleeps AT NIGHT ONLY in a pull-up. The only reason I gave in to this is because he is a restless sleeper, and has night terrors, so he has accidents.
• The other boy asks to be put in a pull-up, but I say, “No, you wake up dry, Lukas is still working on that”.
• You must be as close to your kids as you can during the initial potty training. The times they had accidents were the times I was being pulled away from them. It IS SO IMPORTANT TO DEVOTE YOURSELF TO “X” number of days for this initial process.

After about 6-7 days I felt comfortable to ask them less often if they need to potty. I DID NOT LEAVE the house for 2 ½ weeks! This alone will make you crazy, so be prepared, but know that the joys of this accomplishment last forever! ~ Leah