How a Good Child Care Center Helps With Potty Training

Not all child care centers will help with potty training. It’s hard, and, let’s face it, it’s a lot of work. That’s why many centers will not take your child until he or she is potty trained. That’s not our philosophy here at Alphabet Soup. We are committed to helping families through this milestone.

How we help:

Being around other kids that are also learning to use the potty.

We’ve found that being in child care often helps toddlers get the potty training idea sooner than kids potty trained only at home. Never underestimate the power of “peer pressure” (but only the good kind!). Seeing other kids rewarded for going on the potty is a powerful motivator that can sometimes get even the most reluctant child ready in no time.

At school, we don’t ask, we tell

Sometimes parents will say things like, “How about we go potty now?” Potty training is a new skill, and sometimes new skills take work. So, often, a child’s answer to “How about we go potty now?” is “No.”

At school, we approach it much more systematically. We will say, “Joey, it’s your turn to go potty now.” By fitting it into a consistent routine, we find that kids become much more amenable to the process. Of course, we support them and are always sensitive to needs. But usually, most kids jump at the chance to be a “big girl” or “big boy.”

(You can learn from this tip and adopt this “can do” attitude at home as well. It will go much more smoothly!).

We fit it into a routine

A child care center tends to be more structured than a home environment. We have a predictable routine that kids learn pretty quickly. When a child shows signs of readiness, we incorporate potty training into that routine. This makes it easier for kids to know when it’s coming and even to learn to anticipate it.

It is our commitment to help kids grow and develop at their own pace. So if your child doesn’t seem to be ready yet, don’t stress it! Don’t guide yourself by what your neighbor’s child is doing, or by what your grandma says you should be doing. Trust that your child will do what he needs to do when he’s ready. Like I always like to tell worried parents, I’ve never seen a child go off to college yet not potty trained! Relax and you’ll see it will happen.

Millie Andreu, Director of Alphabet Soup Child Care Center, has been committed to the care and education of young children for 40 years. First as a mother to her two now-grown children, then as a kindergarten teacher’s assistant and later a preschool group teacher, she finally realized her dream of creating her own quality child care center in 1996. Hundreds of families have entrusted the care of their infants, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners and school-aged children to Alphabet Soup since its inception.