I was speaking to a friend yesterday who has a child the same age as my eldest (2 years) and who has also recently gone through potty training. She asked me how I coped with potty training and road trips. She’d recently done a 5 hour road trip with her 2 year old from Dubai to Muscat (Oman) and as you can imagine, decent toilet stops along the way are few and far between. She said there was no way she could’ve managed the trip without trainer pants. I did have an answer for this one – I keep a small potty or portable potette in the trunk of my car.
In the initial months of potty training, holding on is definitely a learned skill and sometimes the need for relief can arise when your toddler is out and about in the car. A toilet may not always be nearby. A distressed toddler trying to hold on is stressful for everyone – particularly when you need to keep an eye on the road (and in Dubai – you need at least two!). Dubai has some of the most lovely bathrooms imaginable, with golden taps and marble floors, but it also has some that you may wish to avoid. Sometimes, there don’t seem to be any around at all!
To ensure an enjoyable car ride that is “accident-free”, I keep a small portable potty in a large plastic bag in the boot/trunk together with baby wipes, antiseptic wipes, nappy bags and a bottle of water for cleaning (just make sure you dispose of the waste appropriately). I can’t mention the number of times this has come in handy for us, particularly on long road trips. We couldn’t have done without our spare potty in the trunk in this region, but I imagine it would be a handy car accessory wherever we were based around the world.
Thank you for reading!
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2 Comments
I did the same with our daughter… great advice! 🙂
Mothercare had good traveling potty with hygienic dispoable liners (Potty can be taken apart to allow for a more compact fold making it ideal for travel and easy to clean).
Happy those potty training days are over – was not so bad though… 🙂
Emily, I think we’re safely through to the otherside as well! And you’re right, it’s definitely not as bad as we anticipated. We also have a potette from Mothercare, they are fab and so portable. Fantastic for travel!