The Parents of VICE on What's Helped Them Survive Potty Training

Each week, VICE parents (yes, they exist) share their unfiltered approach to all things child-rearing.

If there’s one thing on the Internet scarier than medical advice that convinces you you’re dying, it’s parenting advice that makes you think you’re killing your kids, or that you’ve failed as a parent before they’re even out of the womb.

“A lot of parenting advice is less about kids than about parents, aimed at a kind of parent who is, on some level, less concerned about their kid than about proving they're a certain kind of parent,” said VICE Features Editorial Director Timothy Marchman. “Practical advice for people who want their kids to be happy is better to me than aspirational advice for people who are intent on raising their kid to be a genius who will colonize Alpha Centauri (or at least want to be seen as being so).”

“It's not about how to be the BEST, but rather how to do the minimum, be yourself, and not screw your kid up too much,” said Kate Lowenstein, editorial director of news and issues. “It's about lowering our standards, questioning societal expectations, and not feeling bad about not loving every minute you're with your kid."

First up: VICE parents share their tips on how to navigate the shitstorm—literally, if you’re unlucky—that is potty training.

Kate Lowenstein, Editorial Director, News and Issues

We just potty trained our 2 year old. Actually, his nanny did the whole thing and we did nothing. She essentially put underwear on him, let him have a few accidents, and taught him that everything is way better if you don't shit your pants.

Now that he's sitting and peeing in a kid potty, I have come to realize that toddler penises (all penises?) point every which way, and if he doesn't make a point of aiming downwards, pee goes all over the bathroom. Someone needs to invent a potty with a working pee-guard for boys. (Ok, it probably exists, but we haven't bothered to look.)

(Editor's note: we may have found something!)

Frog Potty Training Urinal with Aiming Target, $8

Timothy Marchman, Editorial Director, Features

I don't know about doing it right, but we went with cloth diapers not just for environmental reasons but because they don't soak up all the mess, which makes potty training a lot easier. Kids don't like clammy mess in their pants, and if they know it's there they'll do what's necessary to not have it there.

I'm pretty sure that using them was the biggest reason our kids had a relatively easy time of it. The big thing with cloth diapers is getting nice covers so that you can just sort of stuff the diapers into them and don't have to worry so much about elaborate folds and using pins.

Cloth diaper cover, $14

Katie Drummond, SVP, Digital

My daughter is almost two-and-a-half, and the biggest surprise for me is how little urgency I feel around potty training. I'm actually very happy for her to just be in diapers as long as possible, because I find the prospect of potty training so daunting and am so busy that I don't know when or how I'll dedicate the time.

[She] sometimes wears pull-ups to get used to real underwear, and has a little potty I remind her to sit on when she expresses the need to use the bathroom. Other than that...consider me totally clueless.

My Size Potty, $25

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