Is Your Child Ready for Potty Training ... Finally?

If you're looking for an excuse to think really seriously about whether the time for toilet training is now, here's something: according to About.com's guide to Toddlers and Twos, Maureen Ryan, June is Potty Training Awareness Month.

Now, chances are, if you have a child with special needs, your child may be getting to this milestone beyond the toddlers and twos stage, and people are making you aware of that shortcoming on a more or less constant basis. The only opinion that matters, though, is your child's. No toilet-training technique is more effective than waiting until your child is actually ready to deliver.

Awareness months aside, summer is a great time to take on the potty as a project because you can use the "No Pants" Potty Training Method that worked for my son, which involves a long T-shirt, a crib liner, a portable potty, and an effort to increase ... well, your child's potty training awareness. If that doesn't work, you can try the methods suggested by your fellow readers, or console yourself with Ten Good Things About Not Toilet Training Your Child.

Then again, if you've already been there, survived this, share your successful methods on the Readers Respond page. What's your summer project?

_{Photo by Terri Mauro}