Day 1 potty training — keep going?

Hi mamas — would love some advice during these trying times of potty training my toddler, which those who have been through it, know it 😅

My son is 2 (specifically 27 months) and, as stated, today was our first day of potty training, and here is the recap:

5 potties (4 pees, 1 poo 🥳)

9 accidents (8 pees, 1 poo 🫠)

Signs that made me think he was ready to start:

-showed an increase interest in the potty

-copied what his older sibling would do, like ask to sit on the toilet by pulling his pants and pull up down, making a toot, ask for paper to wipe, then flush

-would often pat his diaper or hand me a diaper when he had a full diaper

-when changing he would say, poo poo potty!

Overall recap:

We started off on not the best foot as he was throwing a tantrum over every little thing, nothing related to the potty. But when I mentioned going to the potty, he got super mad and refused. But after breakfast and calming down a bit, he was in a much better mood.

First accident in the kitchen. He wore his little briefs all day.

But then we were in their room playing and I had a 20 minute timer and in that time, every time he heard it he immediately went to the little potty I took with us everywhere, pulled his briefs down and peed! This happened 3 times while we were there! Then we had a little outside play to have a little breather. Then we went back in and that’s when things took a turn.

It was noon and I put a little tv while I made lunch. He wanted to constantly be on the potty this time. He found it fun when I took the toilet bowl attachment piece to the toilet to dump out his pee and rinse it with water. He would sit, do a drop or two of pee, say mama potty! And would take it to the bathroom to rinse. It happened back to back to back. I had to take it away for a bit because I didn’t want him to treat it like a toy. So in that he had a few accidents.

Naptime and woke up with a dry pull up.

Oh man this is where it gets more fun. Accident, after accident, after accident. When the timer went off and he sat to potty, he did nothing. But once I told him okay we will try again next time and I would step away to start on dinner, THATS when he would pee on the floor. Most of the time he would wobble back to me with his wet briefs saying mama potty! But a few times he didn’t. At one point he went behind our recliner and both my husband and I look at each other suspiciously because that’s where he would usually hide to poop. We told him to go potty and he ran away to hide in the living room. But then he ran to the kitchen and pooped on the floor 🫠

I took him a shower and then my daughter was crying for me in her room and I had to go check on her really quick and suddenly I see my son running around naked. I go after him and he immediately pees on the floor and guys…I almost slip on it since I was running after him. I was overwhelmed. Frustrated. Got upset and wondered if I should quit.

But then we continued to do the 20 minute timer as I was getting them ready for bed. I see he was holding his butt and he was farting so I knew he had to poop again. This time I sit next to him while he’s on the potty and read him a book when he suddenly gets up to look at the toilet and he pooped in his potty! So we ended on a good note there. Went to sleep with a pull up.

What kept going through my head is wondering if he’s TRULY ready or if I’m making it harder by training him if he’s not fully. How do you know for sure? How do you know the difference of, this is really really hard but I KNOW my child is ready and on the right path; to realizing this is really hard and I’m realizing he is definitely not ready?

I know potty training is no walk in the park and every child is different and I know that it can take months for him to really get it. I also realized that I should have done a 15 minute timer instead of 20 because he’s had so many accidents right when or a few seconds before the timer went off. (If you have read this far - wow thank you. I just need to get it off my chest a little 😮‍💨)