Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast or is it Potty Training made easy, fast & Simple? I have seen both spellings for this book written by Johanne Cesar. Johanne calls herself “The potty trainer”. She got the title after babysitting a child from the daycare she worked at. During the weekend she potty trained the child without the parents knowing. The parents got a big surprise and the rumor spread about “The potty trainer”.

Johanne says that her book “Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast” is different from other potty training books. Her book is written by a parent for parents, as opposed to most other potty training books, which are written by psychologists (according to her). She thinks this is important because a psychologist will give theoretical advice whereas a parent with experience will give practical advice.

The fact that Johanne is not a psychologist or doesn’t seem interested in child psychology at all, also reflects in her potty training method. Her method is very simple and without any deeper thought about how it will affect the child. I find this method strict, or as Johanne prefers to call it “direct”, it’s repetitive and not very fun.

Who is Johanne Cesar?

Johanne Cesar is “the potty trainer” as she calls herself. She is a mother to 3 boys (which all were successfully potty trained by herself). For 10 years, she worked in different daycares which gave her a lot of experience with small children including potty training. She says she has personally potty trained over 317 children. This gave her a lot of experience and knowledge about different potty training problems children might have.

After changing work to a larger daycare she didn’t enjoy it as much as before. That’s when she decided to package her knowledge and write a book about potty training to help other parents. Apart from her own experience the book is also based on surveys made with over 500 parents about the issues they had while potty training their own child.

What does the book cover?

Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast is what I would call a medium sized book. It covers some of the traditional potty training subjects but also some of her own subjects. Let’s start from the beginning and walk through the different chapters. The book begins with an introduction. This is not your ordinary introduction to potty training. The introduction, which is quite long, introduces the author and explains how the idea about this book was born.

Next follows a chapter called “dealing with emotions“. This chapter covers how to mentally prepare as a parent. In most books this is part of preparations. Then comes something Johanne calls “Four stages of potty training” which basically is how your child will go from completely unaware of bladder control to fully aware. After that is the classic “Is your child ready for potty training” -chapter.

Then comes 3 chapters covering preparations and some more about “is your child ready” or at what age the best time to potty train is. After that is the actual potty training chapter. It’s simply called “Day 1“. This chapter is quite short but the process is simple and the instructions are very basic so it doesn’t have to be much longer.

The following chapters covers how to handle different kinds of problems that can occur like tantrums, fears, regression and constipation to name a few. She has a separate chapter for poo and separate chapters for boys vs girls, how to handle older children, daycare issues and traveling, which are common chapters in other books as well. There’s also a chapter on how to keep your child motivated and what to do when your child finally gets it.

You get the impression that Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast covers a lot of topics, which it does. However, there are a lot of content that’s not really relevant or fully explained. The book often lacks motivations why things are done the way they are.

What do I like about the book?

I’m not very found of Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast and I’ll explain why further down. I do like that this book covers many topics and has much focus on problems that might occur during potty training. The instructions are clear telling you exactly what you should say to your child. Johanne also gives clear instructions on how to introduce the potty and in many other situations as well.

The instructions follows the same pattern throughout the book. Do this and do that. Say this and don’t say that, and so on.

The book isn’t that big so it doesn’t take long to get through it. There’s also an audio version if you prefer. Johannes view on things is often quite different from other potty training books. This gives you a different perspective which I think is good.

What could be better?

There are many different potty training methods to choose from and just because one method works doesn’t make it a good method. This is why I recommend reading more than one book before deciding which method you want to follow. The size of a book also doesn’t say much about how good a method is, but a larger book usually covers more possible obstacles and special situations.

When it comes to Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast, this method pretty much goes against everything I believe in. The author is very clear about her not being a psychiatrist or having any education. This becomes very obvious after reading her book. Johannes method is only based on her own experience, what she has tried and what worked with 300+ children she applied it on. I get the feeling that her method is a result of how she was raised as a child and how she is raising her own children.

Anyone can teach a dog to sit but the method used will have a psychological impact on the dog. Same with humans and that’s why I think it’s important to choose a method wisely. I don’t think Johanne does it on purpose, as I wrote her method is only based on her own experiences. This just shows the importance of education and communication. When working with children which means you have a huge influence on many children, I think it’s very important to have an education to avoid hurting the children unintentionally.

That said, the psychological part is probably what differs this book from other methods the most. Johannes method is not gentle and it uses fear to make the child do what you want. It’s extremely repetitive and not fun at all. She advocates ignoring and shaming your child when she shows her feelings.  If I were I child being potty trained this way, I’m sure it would make me associate the toilet with negative feelings.

On top of all, this book is very poorly written. There are numerous typos and grammatical errors but in my opinon this is nowhere as bad as the content itself.

Does Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast work?

Like I wrote above, anyone can teach a dog to sit but the method used will have a psychological impact on the dog. Johanne herself says she has potty trained over 300 children using this method and I don’t doubt it. If you’re desperate and need results fast without considering what’s best for your child, then yes this method most likely will work.

Sure, I don’t think your child will be traumatized by using this method, but everything adds up. There are so many potty training methods out there that are so much better! By better, I don’t mean just the end result, I mean the way to get there and the psychological impact on your child after potty training.

Let me tell you a story. Sarah 2½ years old is potty training with her parent. She gets upset for some reason and throws a tantrum. Sarah’s parent ignores her and just walks away. When Sarah calms down her parent tells her “I did not appreciate that!”.

The next day Sarah goes to daycare and she plays with her friend Lisa outside at the playground. Someone takes Lisa’s bucket. Lisa gets upset about it and throws a tantrum. Sarah leaves Lisa alone because this is what her parent taught her unconsciously. Wouldn’t it be nicer if Sarah gave Lisa a hug and tried to comfort her? Wouldn’t it be nice if her parent did the same to Sarah? This kind of thing repeats itself over and over again in the book. Johanne probably doesn’t mean anything bad but it’s not very well-thought-out.

Should I purchase this book?

The short answer is No! Save your money for a better book. Even if “Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast” probably works and is a quick method, I find it very harsh and it might have a negative impact on your child. The method used is nothing new, in fact it’s a very old and unmodern method not recommended today.

I advocate a more gentle method like my own or if you want a quick method then I would recommend buying “Potty training in 3 days” by Carol Cline or “Potty train your child by NOON” by Kim McPherson. Both are great but Potty training in 3 days is more complete. If you only intend to buy one book then “Potty training in 3 days” would be my recommendation.

If you still, after reading my review, want to buy “Potty training made easy, simple and fast” that’s fine. There’s a link to the book on Amazon further down. I just want you to make you aware of something. The bounding with our children happens all the time. When you cook, drive your car, go grocery shopping, visit the playground and when you potty train. Keep that in mind and always do what feels right to you. 😊

Avoid scams and buying the wrong book

There are many potty training books out there. Some cheaper and some more expensive. If you decide to purchase “Potty Training made easy, simple & Fast” or perhaps one of the books I recommend above. Be sure to use an official source to avoid being scammed.

If there’s any ongoing promotion or discount you can be sure to always get the best price by using one of the links below.

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you found it useful! You can leave a comment if you want. Please like us on Facebook if you enjoyed reading my article.