Jul 20, 2026 · 23 min · 6 segments
In this episode of Robot Unicorn, Jess tackles the often overwhelming topic of potty training. She explores why traditional methods, like the popular three-day approach, often fail and cause…
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The very first thing that I wanna talk about is maybe a little bit controversial, which is the problem with traditional approaches.
Now, we, my team and I, have looked into all the different approaches that are really out there for potty training, but I would say that the most common method that we see in books and courses and all over is the three-day method, okay? So the three-day method is really like we are gonna focus on potty training for three days.
We're gonna focus on getting our child to sit on the potty to go pee and poop.
And hopefully by the end of three days, they're good to go and they are potty trained.
For a lot of children that are highly sensitive, potentially neurodivergent, maybe slow to warm, this method can really backfire.
And what I see out there I think really frustrates me, because people love to pull a statistic out of nowhere to say, "Yeah, this works for 99% of kids," which we saw when we were looking into marketing of this three-day method, or, you know, "This works for X amount of children," or, "It supported all of these kids." And so when we see that, it does create a panic in us because we think to ourselves, "If 99% of kids can go to the potty in three days, what's wrong with me and my child that I followed this program to a T and it didn't work?" And as a therapist, I have heard that story countless times.
And so I am here to tell you that three-day method does not work for every child.
I mean, I wish Scott was here, 'cause I'm sure he'd have some more frank language even for that.
Some kids who are really mild-tempered don't even really need a full potty training approach, right? We just kind of present them with the opportunity, and there they go.
I've had a child like that, where I barely had to do anything, and all of a sudden, there she was, going pee and poop on the potty, no problem.
There's never gonna be a one-size-fits-all approach that works for every kid.
Only one-size-fits-all thing is that every kid needs a good relationship with their parents.
[laughs] But other than that, every child's unique, and so what's gonna work for them is actually gonna be based on that individual child and what they need and how they best learn a new skill.
Another reason it doesn't work is that a lot of sensitive kids, neurodivergent kids, they feel if they are being coerced in any way.
They feel if a parent is trying to force something on them before they're ready, and often that will lead to a lot of pushback.
The very first thing that I wanna talk about is maybe a little bit controversial, which is the problem with traditional approaches.
Now, we, my team and I, have looked into all the different approaches that are really out there for potty training, but I would say that the most common method that we see in books and courses and all over is the three-day method, okay? So the three-day method is really like we are gonna focus on potty training for three days.
We're gonna focus on getting our child to sit on the potty to go pee and poop.
And hopefully by the end of three days, they're good to go and they are potty trained.
For a lot of children that are highly sensitive, potentially neurodivergent, maybe slow to warm, this method can really backfire.
And what I see out there I think really frustrates me, because people love to pull a statistic out of nowhere to say, "Yeah, this works for 99% of kids," which we saw when we were looking into marketing of this three-day method, or, you know, "This works for X amount of children," or, "It supported all of these kids." And so when we see that, it does create a panic in us because we think to ourselves, "If 99% of kids can go to the potty in three days, what's wrong with me and my child that I followed this program to a T and it didn't work?" And as a therapist, I have heard that story countless times.
And so I am here to tell you that three-day method does not work for every child.
I mean, I wish Scott was here, 'cause I'm sure he'd have some more frank language even for that.
Some kids who are really mild-tempered don't even really need a full potty training approach, right? We just kind of present them with the opportunity, and there they go.
I've had a child like that, where I barely had to do anything, and all of a sudden, there she was, going pee and poop on the potty, no problem.
There's never gonna be a one-size-fits-all approach that works for every kid.
Only one-size-fits-all thing is that every kid needs a good relationship with their parents.
[laughs] But other than that, every child's unique, and so what's gonna work for them is actually gonna be based on that individual child and what they need and how they best learn a new skill.
Another reason it doesn't work is that a lot of sensitive kids, neurodivergent kids, they feel if they are being coerced in any way.
They feel if a parent is trying to force something on them before they're ready, and often that will lead to a lot of pushback.
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