You always want those baby-raising milestones to be as fun and effortless as they seem on your favorite mommy blogs, but there’s nothing particularly fun (and certainly not effortless) about potty training. It’s a complicated process that can take months or even years to come to fruition. There are stops and starts, tantrums and successes, battles and the occasional total breakdown. While all is in service to your little one taking another step forward in his growth and development (and of course ridding your life of diapers as quickly as possible), you must roll with the punches and not expect perfection. Yet there are ways to improve your chances of avoiding a trip to the mental health ward. Here are five of the top tips for potty training success.

First of all, you must be consistent. Once the process begins you cannot give up, no matter how frustrating it has been. Create a timeline for trips to the bathroom and stick with it. Even if you are setting your child down on the training toilet every twenty minutes to ‘try’, consistency is key. You’ll have more failures than successes, but it will help your child develop an understanding of when he needs to go. And recognizing the need is just as important as a successful toilet trip.

You also cannot be afraid to tell some white lies. While your child’s toilet deposits aren’t actually feeding the fish or traveling to some magic fairy land where they transform into golden bricks used to build princess castles, there’s no harm in telling your child these things. Whatever gets them excited about the process is a positive, and you’re not a terrible mom for pulling the wool over their eyes, no more than when you share stories about the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. Some day they will go to the toilet on their own, but you have to do whatever is necessary to get them moving in the right direction.
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