3 Year Old REFUSES to Potty Train!!!!!

Forcing the issue can have a negative affect...forever! Don't push him, but what worked for me was putting them in 'big boy/girl pants'. I stopped using diapers & pullups & put them in underwear. Yes, there were a few accidents, but it took only a few days to train them - well worth the aggrevation of the accidents! But I also offered M & M's for a treat - something they never got, otherwise! Good luck!

This may sound crazy but - you've tried everything else. I'd just get out of the battle - drop it! Have a talk with him, using a sweet voice. Tell him that when he decides he's ready, you are sure he will use the potty then. I'd let him feel some peer pressure on this when he's with other kiddies - does he go to Sunday School or preschool or a mom-tot group or something? You have to put on your "game face" with adults who are critical of you. It's become a power struggle, and kids his age (especially boys) just love those, and they usually win. You're the adult - call the game! Be sweet. Show him/tell him in other areas that you're so proud of how he's growing up and learning to take care of his own business. Let him help you cook, garden, clean house. Take a walk to see how things in the neighborhood are blooming. Have more quality time with him that doesn't become a fight over pottying. Show him that you enjoy being with him and he's a great kid and you're proud of him. Give it some time. He WILL choose to do this and it'll be before too long. If you keep pushing, it will take lots longer. He sounds smart and - well - stubborn, but kids like that are often very successful in life. They just like to call the shots.

You are all right; it's okay. Children learn at their own pace, and they DO eventually learn to use the toilet without using their clothes first. My first two boys were 3 before they would stay dry, my next, a girl, is 4 and still only staying dry when she wants to (in public but wets her clothes at home), and my 4th is only 18 months and will occasionally use his potty. Of course, at 18 months he can take off his own diaper, and does when it gets wet. All the others could by his age too, and by about 2 or so we just give up on the diapers and put them in regular clothes and let them change their clothes themselves when they get wet. I just do the laundry :) Our daughter has been changing her own diapers since she was 2, and it is mostly just a choice for them to make. Some days she prefers to have dry clothes, so she keeps them dry and uses the toilet. Others, well... it's her choice. But, she is beginning to understand, after repeated explaining, that her diaper rashes only come when she won't either change her clothes or keep them dry in the first place. I simply tell her to stay dry and go wash when they get to be too uncomfortable. She is learning much, and it isn't because I am being lazy. Sometimes, experience is the best teacher. Eventually, through experience, they realize that staying clean and dry is just a LOT more convenient than the other choices they could make.

Good luck! :)

He will do it when he wants to. I have learn with my daughter that if they are not ready they are not ready and you can't push it. My daughter was 3 years and 3 months old when one day (after we had been pushing it for awhile) that she was done wearing diapers and that was it she has been in underwear since. At that age they want to have control over the situation and don't want to be told they have to do something. He will got the hang of it at his own pace. Just be patient and do everything you can to not be scare of using the potty.

You are not lazy, and I doubt people really think that. Everyone who has children understands, and we really need to just relax about it. A child will do it on his own terms. Have you ever seen a kindergartener in diapers? The more we push, they more they resist. Also, boys take longer than girls (I have both). I know that it is frustrating for you right now, but you will look back on this time and barely remember it.

Out of 3 kids, 2 of them didn't train until they were 4, and the other one late 3. It sounds like he is just not ready, for wahtever reason, even though you are. I also suggest you drop it for now, and then pick it up again in a few months.