Something that I've learned first hand is that all kids are different!
Going off of my first experience I expected training to always go that smoothly so when our 2nd child turned a year old I began working with her. However, she was NOT ready. She didn't care to be dirty and for many months she showed no interest in the potty. Finally she started to catch on better but she was inconsistent for about a year. She'd go months accident free then she'd regress. She'd do this off and on. I swore she'd never fully train ha. This is where patience and grace comes in because what we realized later was that she'd have accidents as a way to get our attention. I felt bad about that. I felt like I had to be neglecting her for her to feel the need to demand my attention in such a way. Honestly looking back though I gave the kids my undivided attention every single day all day long and her personality is just a loud, demanding personality. She's a diva and I love her to death for it. If you have a child that you KNOW understands the concept of using the potty but has accidents and you can't figure out why (you've ruled out any UTIs or medical reasons for the accidents), consider that it's a personality/attention thing. It's not anything that you are doing wrong or anything that is wrong with your kiddo. It's just their way of taking control. Patience, momma. They will get it soon.
OAt this point having had two TOTALLY different experiences I didn't know what to expect with our son. I've always heard that boys were harder to potty train. Even our doctor gave us a heads up about it. When he was around 18 months old I introduced the potty to him. He understood right away what the potty was but he didn't really care about it. Sometimes he'd use it, sometimes he wouldn't but by 2 years old he was 90% potty trained. He'd have night time accidents and accidents when he was distracted in a busy atmosphere and didn't want to leave to go to the bathroom but that was it. I truly think that cloth diapering helped us because he didn't like feeling wet in them. They are much wetter than disposables. When he was in the training process I just started removing the inserts. After all when you spend hundreds of dollars on adorable cloth diapers you might as well use them as long as possible, right? 😉 
Our potty training methods:
It doesn't matter how you raise them or train them! They will train when they are ready. However, the method that I'm going to share with you worked well for us given that a child is mature enough to potty train.
*Signs that a child is ready:
-Hiding to potty in their diaper or showing that they'd like some privacy while they potty
-Disliking to be in a dirty diaper and taking the diaper off immediately after going to the bathroom in it
-Understanding that 'big kids' go potty in the toilet and understanding the concept of the toilet
-Going longer between potty accidents or waking up from naps with a dry diaper
-Asking to go potty or telling you when they need to go potty
Before I get into the advice/training methods part of this post let's do a brief back ground on our potty training experiences:
At my oldests first birthday party my grandma made a comment about how she thought that Charlee was ready to train because she hated being dirty and would remove her diapers after she went potty. The next day I began working with her on training and with in a week she was trained. Yes, it really happened that fast at barely 12 months old. It was a cake walk to train her. She was 110% ready. She's five now and still the cleanest most organized child that I know.
Going off of my first experience I expected training to always go that smoothly so when our 2nd child turned a year old I began working with her. However, she was NOT ready. She didn't care to be dirty and for many months she showed no interest in the potty. Finally she started to catch on better but she was inconsistent for about a year. She'd go months accident free then she'd regress. She'd do this off and on. I swore she'd never fully train ha. This is where patience and grace comes in because what we realized later was that she'd have accidents as a way to get our attention. I felt bad about that. I felt like I had to be neglecting her for her to feel the need to demand my attention in such a way. Honestly looking back though I gave the kids my undivided attention every single day all day long and her personality is just a loud, demanding personality. She's a diva and I love her to death for it. If you have a child that you KNOW understands the concept of using the potty but has accidents and you can't figure out why (you've ruled out any UTIs or medical reasons for the accidents), consider that it's a personality/attention thing. It's not anything that you are doing wrong or anything that is wrong with your kiddo. It's just their way of taking control. Patience, momma. They will get it soon.
OAt this point having had two TOTALLY different experiences I didn't know what to expect with our son. I've always heard that boys were harder to potty train. Even our doctor gave us a heads up about it. When he was around 18 months old I introduced the potty to him. He understood right away what the potty was but he didn't really care about it. Sometimes he'd use it, sometimes he wouldn't but by 2 years old he was 90% potty trained. He'd have night time accidents and accidents when he was distracted in a busy atmosphere and didn't want to leave to go to the bathroom but that was it. I truly think that cloth diapering helped us because he didn't like feeling wet in them. They are much wetter than disposables. When he was in the training process I just started removing the inserts. After all when you spend hundreds of dollars on adorable cloth diapers you might as well use them as long as possible, right? 😉
Our potty training methods:
-I introduced the potty by taking the kids with me when I'd go. I'd tell them that 'mommy is going potty in the toilet like a big girl, yay for mommy' and we'd all clap for me. I did this for a few days before I started actually working with them. I wanted to make sure that they understood what the toilet was.
-After they'd wake up from bedtime and naps we'd go straight to the bathroom. I'd put them on the toilet and if they'd go we'd cheer and make a HUGE deal about it. We'd sing our little potty song and have a dance party. I'm not even kidding. If walls had eyes hahahaha. If they didn't go potty I'd keep taking them back to the bath room every 15 minutes until they did go. Some days this worked great. Some days they'd have accidents. It's all just a process and different with each kid.
-Throughout the day I'd take them every 30 mins or so to the bathroom. Yes, this gets tiring and annoying but it's worth it I promise. It'll eventually get the job done!
-When I felt like they were making an effort without my guidance to train I'd put them in big kid undies/remove the cloth diaper insert. With the girls I took them shopping and let them pick out their own panties. They loved this.
-At this point I'd just continue working with them until they got it. There were times that if they weren't showing progress or interest so I'd take a break for a week and try again later. You'll know when they are ready. If you're doing all of the work and forcing it, they aren't ready. You're wasting your time and effort. I know this because I've been there. Potty training is the shits. Figuratively and literally but hang in there. You've got this and it'll all be worth it when it's over.
*Side note for boy moms: Have your husband hop on the potty training bus. Brian would take Hudson outside (we live in the country) and they'd pee off of the porch together. Hudson ate it up. Anything that makes him like his daddy is a winner in his books. It's precious and it works so definitely try it if you're able to.
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