I know, it’s not exactly revelatory in the scheme of things. But her older sister was four when she finally hit this milestone, so I’m throwing a party over here! (She’s 18 months.)
Yeah, it’ll be a long time till she really doesn’t use diapers, but damn, it feels good to be on that road this early this time around!
(Yes, I’m aware I need a life.)
Wishing you continued success in this.
Oh frabjous day!
I share your joy, as my 3 year old has started taking himself to the potty and telling me to get out (instead of needing to be reminded and needed to be encouraged) and it seems possible I has rinsed out my last pair of poopy underpants. FOREVER!
Hey Congrats! A milestone to be sure - anyone who has also changed thousands of dipers will understand your excitement!
Congrats. Now lets just hope she isn’t teasing you. “See, Mom, I CAN do it…but I’m going to keep you on the seat of your pants for the next three years on whether I actually WILL do it. Maybe I can put off actually BEING potty trained until college!”
(Really, I swear my daughter was just TRYING to see if she could make me crack.)
We were so thrilled when our youngest finally did we bought him a Nintendo DS! He was 4.
Hearty congratulations.
Trust me, he’ll find a way to get them poopy. I know I did when I was a potty trained kid. 
Enjoy this liberating experience.
Until you are in the car, just commited to the highway and someone announced they have to ‘go’.
Ah, we just hit this milestone with Jacob when he was three (he just turned four this month). It’s so nice to not buy pullups anymore. Those things are expensive!
Problem is, we made such a big deal out of it when he finally started pooping on the potty on his own (high fives, taking pictures of the poop, making sure big brother and mommy got to see it, etc) that now he still expects a “poop wake” before we send it to it’s watery grave. We even have to tell it “goodbye” as it’s twirling on down the bowl, or Jacob gets mad!
Cracks me up, though.
My son is 3+ 3 months and has taken to peeing fairly well and even lets us know when he had to go.
Pooping is another story. He did it once before his third birthday which I thought was a success but he must have been traumatized by it (that came out of me???) since he hasn’t done it since.
Woot! Congratulations. My youngest is thirty, but I remember the feeling of liberation. May the process continue smoothly.
Unauthorized Cinnamon, I share your joy and envy the earliness of this achievement. And I’m so relieved (heh) to hear of others’ untrained four-year-olds. I thought I was just a lazy, permissive parent who didn’t make a big enough deal about it.
I am happy to say my son is 14 now and he always poops in the toilet.
Thank you all!
With older sister, I was very keen not to push her too hard. I took very seriously the advice to make sure the child has the physical capability before trying to get them to use the toilet.
Which turned around and bit me with copious irony. She was four, and she had finally relented and started peeing in the potty when I took away diapers and it was a choice of pissing her pants or using the toilet. But she was sleeping 12+ hours at night, and it didn’t seem sane to expect her to stay dry all night. So we used pull ups at night. And every day, she would hold her bowels until bedtime, then poop in the pull up. Talk about physical control! (We finally took pull ups away and double-made the bed, hoping for the best. She started pooping in the potty, and only a few wet bed incidents.)
I would congratulate you but I’m too jealous. Whatsit the Youngest is 2.5 and showing no real signs of interest in this endeavor. But soon, I tell you, soon we shall be free of the tyranny of diapers!
My three year old uses the potty every time. She’s pretty much never wet in the morning, although we do put a pullup on her at night. It is such a relief not to have a bathroom trashcan overflowing with soiled diapers.
Her older sister still has a hard time staying dry at night. We’re not making a big deal out of it–I thought the prospect of her little sister staying dry all night would cause her to stay dry too, but no. Curses!
Hang in there. My son and my first daughter started staying dry at night right around the same time. He was 8. She was 2. I don’t think it had anything to do with her, he was just ready then. Finally.
Of course, by that time, we had a newborn, so off we went again.
Congratulations, Unauthorized Cinnamon. It is at least a beginning. Good luck to both of you.
Nah, they can’t always control it, unfortunately.
I think we win the late-potty-training award (which is NOT something I’d ever have hoped for, sigh)… Dweezil had zero interest in using the toilet. Finally, when he was 5 years old, we bought a scooter. Surprised it with him one morning. He was thrilled. We told him he had to get dressed. Whoops, darn, we ran out of diapers!! (though we had pullups at night).
A few days and he was using the potty consistently, though there was one “sock-drencher” at school.
Then the encopresis showed up 2 months later and we got so tired of cleaning wads of poo out of his pants we put him back in pulluips 24/7. We finally found out what the problem was and after nearly a year and a half, the encopresis was good enough that we got him back out of pullups. Yeah, he was nearly 7. In our (and his) defense, he is mildly autistic which affected his attitudes toward the whole thing.
I think he was 12+ before he was consistently (or even usually) dry at night, sigh. There’s family history for that, also.
Moon Unit expressed some interest in the whole thing much younger; she was out of diapers during the day by shortly after her 3rd birthday. She still preferred to poop in her pullups though! First she’d wait until we got her ready for bed at night. 15 minutes after bedtime, “Moooooommmmy, I need to be changed”. Then we noticed her running to her room, putting a pullup on by herself, and doing the deed. Then we finally intercepted her on one such mission, suggested that if she needed to poop she should sit on the toilet. Her reaction was like a lightbulb going off, it had NEVER OCCURRED to her. No more pullups.