Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had this great idea when my toddler started talking about the potty that we were going to skip the toddler potty all together. I spent a crazy amount of money on replacing all my toilet seats with those with the built in toddler seat that stores in the lid and step stools. A couple days later, excited to give them a try, I tried to set my toddler on the toilet only to be met with screams of terror. Apparently the big potty is one of the scariest things he's even encountered in his 2 years of life. Not wanting to miss his interest in trying, I started looking at stand alone potties. And, wow!, there's so many options. Potties with padded seats, potties with handles, potties that sing or talk or have fun characters. But I have no desire to clean under the nooks and crannies of seats with weird accessories, and don't want to pay an arm and a leg for some character decals. So I happened across this one, and the price was just right. I went ahead and ordered and it arrived in just a couple days. And then it sat, lonely in the corner, because my kid wasn't ready to sit on the potty. But it made a good seat for his stuffed animals to sit, and he started reading them his potty books (Potty, by Leslie Patricelli is a favorite). Fast forward a couple months and he's started sitting on it in his clothes, then actually sitting on it with no pants, and hallelujah, he happened to pee last week while sitting on it, and suddenly the potty is this amazing new idea! Now he wants to sit on the potty nightly, both because he's excited to try, and because he thinks he can use it as a negotiating tool to get to watch just one more show before bed (well played toddler, well played). I guess it's comfortable, because he'll sit there for 30 min. or more sometimes, and aside from a red tush and the protest of turning off the TV, he's had no complaints. The bowl is plenty wide, and so far no splashing. So all of that was a really long way of saying, you don't need all those bells and whistles, because you're kid isn't going to go potty because Mickey's face is staring at him. They'll go potty when they're ready. In the meantime, arm yourself with a well-made, stable, and affordable potty, and save the other money for the carpet cleaner you'll need when your excited toddler jumps up to tell you they went..as they are still peeing on your floor.