Help! How to handle a 3 year old who might not be fully potty trained?

[Lmm79]

7 hours ago, pisymbol said:

This seems kinda promising:

 

 

I'm surprised I didn't see in my first search. But yeah, everyone seems to be on the same page that the Kids Camp program is amazing for a potty trained 3 year old.

 

I HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT: Just make sure he poops in the morning, and let him play with the other kids and hope he just gets a little wet here and there in case he isn't fully potty trained yet. And thanks!

As the parent of a near 6 year old who could be hanging out with your 3 year old in aquanots I am super disgusted you would consider dropping off a non potty trained kid in hopes he just gets a little wet. My kid (and all the others) should not  have to slide down the slides your kid is sliding down covered in pee. 

 

Unles you kid is developmentally delayed in someway, there is no reason they can’t be potty trained by 3. But if you can’t get your kid trained don’t be gross and ruin everyone else’s kids vacation. 

[counsdr]

We took my grandchildren on Freedom at 3&5. The little one was potty trained, but would get busy and forget. We told the staff that he needed to be reminded and if there was a problem his sister would help him. They said that no one could go in with him!  'Needless to say he had accidents because he got busy or his sister couldn’t  take him (he is very shy and small for his age). They gave my son in law a phone and they called him to pick my grandson up and on the 3rd time they said don’t bring him back!

The next year he was fine!

Good luck! 

[RSLeesburg]

7 hours ago, pisymbol said:

Can we not make this thread about how to potty train my son or toddlers in general? It's minimally off topic and frankly, somewhat inappropriate when applied to my son. If my son is potty trained by his third birthday, great. If he isn't, he isn't.

 

I'm more interested in hearing testimonials from those who have been on cruises with children about his age who weren't 100%  potty trained to get an idea on its impact.

 

We took the route that several others have already mentioned.  Our son was 3 when we took his first cruise - he was potty trained, but had occasional accidents.  Usually when he was busy having fun, he would wait too long and then have the accident as he rushed to get to bathroom at last minute.  

 

So, on the cruise, we insisted that he “go” right before we took him up to the kids club.  And for first time, we only left him in one hour - just to see how he liked the club. The next time we left him in a little longer, but we never left him for more than 2 hours at a time as we figured there was less chance that he would have an accident   so soon after he already went.  This worked out well for us.  

[Wordell1]

8 hours ago, pisymbol said:

Can we not make this thread about how to potty train my son or toddlers in general? It's minimally off topic and frankly, somewhat inappropriate when applied to my son. If my son is potty trained by his third birthday, great. If he isn't, he isn't.

 

I'm more interested in hearing testimonials from those who have been on cruises with children about his age who weren't 100%  potty trained to get an idea on its impact.

 

If he's not potty trained, then he wont be able to participate in AO or use the pools/splash area.

[waterbug123]

14 hours ago, pisymbol said:

 

Yeah, I got that. But accidents do happen even when a kid is "fully potty trained".

 

True, but there is a big difference between being potty trained and having an occasional (like maybe once a week) accident, and a parent who likes to tell themselves that their kid is potty trained when he/she really isn't.  When a child has 2+ accidents a day they aren't really accidents; they are signs that a kid isn't fully potty trained.  The OP mentioned something about the kid just getting a little wet here and there, which sounds more like the latter to me.  I worked for many years as a preschool director and you wouldn't believe the number of parents who claimed their child was fully potty trained, yet they would send the kid in pull-ups and he/she would go through 2-3 extras each day.  The parents said these were just "accidents" but they were deluding themselves.

 

[brillohead]

How about taking someone along to be a built-in babysitter?  That way you have many more options....

[SuiteLady]

15 hours ago, pisymbol said:

 

Carnival is pretty much out because we live only an hour away from Cape Liberty.

Carnival goes out of Manhattan- just a hop, skip, and jump away from Cape Liberty.....

[SuiteLady]

7 hours ago, Lmm79 said:

Unles you kid is developmentally delayed in someway, there is no reason they can’t be potty trained by 3. But if you can’t get your kid trained don’t be gross and ruin everyone else’s kids vacation. 

Wow.....just wow (Obviously the part about being trained by age 3)

[CruiseBride926]

10 hours ago, pisymbol said:

Can we not make this thread about how to potty train my son or toddlers in general? It's minimally off topic and frankly, somewhat inappropriate when applied to my son. If my son is potty trained by his third birthday, great. If he isn't, he isn't.

 

I'm more interested in hearing testimonials from those who have been on cruises with children about his age who weren't 100%  potty trained to get an idea on its impact.

Like I mentioned our experience was with carnival but same rules about the pool and stuff so hopefully it’s still helpful. We only used the kids club a couple of times but even without that I don’t feel like we missed out on anything because of her not being potty trained. For excursions we did margaritaville (pool) and two beach days. With all that water we really didn’t miss not being able to use the pool on board. I also made sure to do some research as far as indoor facilities where we were heading so that I knew I’d have a place to change her. Other then that I don’t think it really impacted anything else we did. I think you could make it work and still have a great time.

[pisymbol]

1 hour ago, waterbug123 said:

 

True, but there is a big difference between being potty trained and having an occasional (like maybe once a week) accident, and a parent who likes to tell themselves that their kid is potty trained when he/she really isn't.  When a child has 2+ accidents a day they aren't really accidents; they are signs that a kid isn't fully potty trained.  The OP mentioned something about the kid just getting a little wet here and there, which sounds more like the latter to me.  I worked for many years as a preschool director and you wouldn't believe the number of parents who claimed their child was fully potty trained, yet they would send the kid in pull-ups and he/she would go through 2-3 extras each day.  The parents said these were just "accidents" but they were deluding themselves.

 

 

This.

 

So that's why I'm asking because I won't be one of those parents that touts around that my kid is fully potty trained when he isn't. Note: We have a very nice in-ground pool at home. He swims in it all the time. No, he has never and probably will never poop in it (he just simply doesn't seem to like to do that thus far). Does that make him eligible to swim on a cruise? Absolutely not.

 

But I'm trying to gauge for instance how the camp program tolerates say an accident due to him getting over excited! And some folks have chimed in and have been super helpful. To those of you: Thank you!

[pisymbol]

4 minutes ago, CruiseBride926 said:

Like I mentioned our experience was with carnival but same rules about the pool and stuff so hopefully it’s still helpful. We only used the kids club a couple of times but even without that I don’t feel like we missed out on anything because of her not being potty trained. For excursions we did margaritaville (pool) and two beach days. With all that water we really didn’t miss not being able to use the pool on board. I also made sure to do some research as far as indoor facilities where we were heading so that I knew I’d have a place to change her. Other then that I don’t think it really impacted anything else we did. I think you could make it work and still have a great time.

 

Yeah, I have actually come to the conclusion that if he can't use the pools we still have lots to do. So thanks for that.

 

If we do decide to go, I also plan to have him run around naked holding a soggy wet diaper throughout the boat hoping to terrorize some of the folks on this very thread who have said some real dumb things about potty training. Wish me luck!

[CruiseBride926]

27 minutes ago, pisymbol said:

 

Yeah, I have actually come to the conclusion that if he can't use the pools we still have lots to do. So thanks for that.

 

If we do decide to go, I also plan to have him run around naked holding a soggy wet diaper throughout the boat hoping to terrorize some of the folks on this very thread who have said some real dumb things about potty training. Wish me luck!

Haha I think some people forget that toddlers are actual little humans who don’t just auto-train just because you told them to. My daughter was so stubborn and potty training was stressful enough that I sure as heck wasn’t going to add some vacation deadline on top of it. It might not be the ideal situation but I’d rather be changing a diaper while on vacation then home any day 🤷‍♀️😂

[nalatrixie74]

21 hours ago, pisymbol said:

 

How long did you leave him off if you don't mind me asking? I think my idea was 2-4 hours max. Again, even if he wasn't potty trained he'd be OK minus a little wet now and then. Again, this may not be an issue in 6 months.

Long enough for us to have dinner,  a couple of hours