My Big Girl Potty

My daughter really liked this book, but I don't love everything about it. My daughter uses a big toilet with a kiddie seat on top, and the fact that this book only focuses on little kiddie potties was confusing to her. It doesn't mention that some kids might go on a big potty instead of using a little one (and dumping it into the big potty as they describe). It also suggests that the little girl only has a couple hours of potty time each day. For those of us that potty trained in one day, it made it confusing that the little girl went and picked out big girl underpants after a long while of just having diaper-less potty time a couple hours a day. I do like how it talks a bit about where the "poop" and "pee" goes after flushing it down the toilet. My daughter caught onto that and always talks about how it goes "in the pipes under the house" like the book does. I think it makes the toilet seem less mystical and scary.All in all, it's a fine book to introduce the idea of potty training, and there will never be any one book that uses the exact same tactics you do to potty train. This one engages the child by asking questions about them while describing the little girl in the book. That really drew my daughter in, as she likes to answer the questions.

My 28 month old loves this book. We have many potty books: Potty by Leslie Patricelli, which we also love, a princess potty book, which is just okay, Big Girls Use The Potty!, which is great for pictures, and Joanna Cole's My Big Girl Potty. I'd say that Potty by Leslie Patricelli was good as a start, to introduce how to use the potty, but the biggest motivator was My Big Girl Potty by Joanna Cole. My daughter says she wants to use the potty like Ashley and does really well during the day if we read this book morning and night. If she has an accident during the day, I'll also read it during nap time. It serves as a good reminder that she can do it just like Ashley. At first I wasn't thrilled that my daughter wants to be like another little girl ("be like this girl!"); I was worried about what message that was sending. However, my daughter loves the book and using the potty like Ashley has been a huge motivator for her. Because of the success we've had with this book, I'd recommend it to any parent of a little girl. (I think there's a boy version, too)

This book does a nice job of illustrating and explaining to kids the very first steps in using a potty - offering encouraging words about sitting on the potty and reassuring comments from the "Mommy" and "Daddy." There are several pages that talk about trying, but not succeeding, in using the potty, and reassuring kids that this is OK - I don't know, but the concept of being anxious about not getting any pee in the potty when trying seemed lost on my kids. For parents it might be frustrating, but my 28-month-old twins have never seemed to be conflicted or stressed when they have tried to use the potty and nothing came out. This book does not really stress the pride and excitement of leaving diapers behind all-together - something that I was really looking for to help my kids WANT to take the final steps in potty training. I will have to purchase additional books to get that message across, and wouldn't recommend this book if your kids are already somewhat familiar with sitting on the potty and trying to go to the bathroom.

When we were potty training we went straight to the big potty. I dislike how this one only talks about using a little potty. And I don’t know why people call them big girl pants when they’re called panties/underwear. I think it’s confusing between regular pants vs. underwear. I’d prefer it be called one of these instead of big girl pants. Maybe I’m just old school.

I like that this book goes through all the steps of potty training that I wanted my daughter to learn very clearly, including washing hands, using diapers at night, not getting underwear wet, not just playing with the potty and putting it on your head like other books show (why would I want her to think thats funny??) and doesn't show that accidents are okay and no problem. When she has an accident, the dad says ' "Don't worry, all children have accidents. Next time you'll remember to go to the potty" and do you know what? She did!' which I like - it doesn't "oh, its okay!" making it seem totally fine to pee on the floor. Lots of potty training books say "it's okay", and thats not the message I want to convey. The focus is on Ashley learning herself with encouragement and feeling proud of herself for learning.

This is one of many books I bought about potty training. I have to say I like this book. Ashley is just adorable. Both parents are involved in the training process (I'm the one who did the training in our family but I like the fact that it says to kids that dads can do it too). I also like that it wasn't instant success for Ashley. She tries twice to sit on the potty with no sucess and does have an accident. When she finally gets the hang of pottying, as a reward, she goes out with her parents and gets to pick out her own big girl underwear. I think this helped my daughter because I told her if potty training went well, I would buy her special underwear too, and not just any underwear--DORA underwear. I think that was a huge incentive for her and this book planted the seed.This is not my daughter's favorite book, but she likes listening to it and I like reading it. I recommend it to any young trainee and their parents.

We read this book several times before I began potty training my daughter, but I had to adapt the book.If you plan on potty training and not going back to diapers or pull-ups, this book does not line up to your technique. In the book the character, Ashley, gets her potty, tries it out and then continues to wear diapers for most of her potty training.With my daughter we threw out the diapers and just went with it, so in order to make the book line up with her training, I simply had to rewrite one a couple of the pages to make them go. All in all the book teaches important aspects of potty training and it was great to have a book to help prepare her for the change.

Another great book by Joanna Cole but I think I started using it a bit too late - we had already started the process of toilet training however it did affirm the messages I was trying to get across and my daughter seemed to really like the pictures.The only reason I haven't given it 5 stars is that the book doesn't mention toilets for chilren and my daughter has the option to use a potty or a trainer seat.

Lovely book which has helped my 3 year old daughter on her way to toilet training, we read this now and again. Gave it 4 stars as it uses diaper in it which I change to nappy when reading it as my child calls them nappies. Would recommend as it's been useful for us

Helped my girl understand going to potty and identify with the girl in the book. She is very good with the potty or toilet now!

Worked a treat, recommend it to anyone having difficulty with potty training

Nice little book. Can't say tat it's helpful yet as my toddler granddaughter hasn't begun potty training yet. I made this purchase ahead of time so I would have it when she does start.