Think Like a Tot, Parent Like a Pro — Play-Based Potty Training with Tot on the Pot

Potty training is one of those milestones that sounds simple until you are in the middle of it. Parents get conflicting advice. Teachers get put on the spot. Children get confused. And somehow, a process that every human being eventually masters has become one of the most stressful chapters of early childhood for everyone involved.In this episode of Early Childhood Chats, Andy Roszak sits down with Jackie, the founder and Chief Potty Officer of Tot on the Pot, a play-based potty training system she created nearly twenty-five years ago after potty training her own children. What started as a set of rhymes and activities for her nonverbal eighteen-month-old son became a full product line: an anatomically correct training doll, a toy potty, a children’s book, a parent guide, and twenty activity reward cards designed to keep parents and children connected throughout the process.Jackie and Andy talk about why thinking like a toddler is the key to this whole thing. They walk through the fifteen steps a child has to master, the sensory overload of a bathroom from a toddler’s perspective, and why the diaper is actually one of a child’s closest companions. Jackie explains why reward cards that foster connection outperform candy and screen time, how parent anxiety and frustration transfer directly to children and can introduce shame into the process, and why the timeline for potty training has shifted later in recent years — not because children changed, but because culture did.For the early childhood professionals in the audience, Jackie delivers a message worth hearing: you are doing some of the most important work there is in this process, and you are the bridge between home and school that families desperately need. She walks through what consistency between settings looks like, how to handle the parent who shows up asking for advice, and why body awareness conversations should start long before anyone is thinking about a potty.Whether you are a parent in the thick of it, an early childhood educator fielding daily questions, or a new professional who has never potty trained a child in your life, this conversation will give you something practical to take with you. Give it a listen and share it with your team.Learn more about Jackie and Tot on the Pot:https://www.totonthepot.com/----------------------------Early Childhood Chats is hosted by Andrew Roszak - JD, MPA, EMT-PExecutive Director at the Institute for Childhood Preparedness. The Institute for Childhood Preparedness is proud to use its decades of experience to offer comprehensive and expert disaster and emergency preparedness trainings live in-person, via webinar, and on-demand online. // Visit: https://www.childhoodpreparedness.org/ to find out more // Schedule your training today https://www.childhoodpreparedness.org/trainingFOLLOW UShttps://www.instagram.com/childhoodpreparedness/ https://www.facebook.com/ChildPreparedhttps://twitter.com/ChildPreparedhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/institute-for-childhood-preparedness© Institute for Childhood Preparedness 2026 all rights reserved