Going out while potty training

[OrionGrad]

DS1 has been diaper-free since yesterday, and although we've had plenty of accidents, he's trying really hard and it's actually going pretty well. Thinking ahead to the coming week, I realize I have no idea what to do once we leave the house. What should we do about scheduled classes where it's not necessarily easy to get to a bathroom, like music and soccer classes? Do we go diaper free and just hope for the best, or should he wear something like a Pull Up for a while??

[MrsK]

I think with K1, we did a pull up when out for a while, until he was really confident. I wouldn't want an accident to shake his confidence. With K2, I don't know what I'm doing. So far, he's going at home intermittently when I promise to reward success by doing the potty dance or jumping jacks. I'm not going to start doing that in public; his enormous public restroom tantrums are humiliating enough.

[migirl]

I would go diaper-free and just bring a couple of changes of clothes.

[Pollyanna]

We just left a potty chair in the car so they had easy access when they needed to go while out and about and had them wear undies if they were at that point.

[spotty_dog]

I played it by ear, going back and forth from diapers to undies as I saw fit for several months. But with both kids we took a very protracted and organic approach to potty training, we never really got to a "boot camp" or "reward chart" stage. Both were permanently out of diapers before 3 years anyway.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We pottied immediately upon arrival at any activity. And also brought changes of clothes and a towel to throw on the car seat to avoid washing the car seat over and over.

[ladymoreta]

If we were going to be out of the house for more than an hour, I did pull ups until they were more reliable.

[OrionGrad]

Day 3 and we're still going strong. So far the only places we've gone are the park and a few car rides, but tomorrow we have a couple activities outside the house. I'll see how he does the rest of the day, and based on that I'll figure out what to do about tomorrow. I still need to order one of those travel potty seat covers, too.