Mum Shares Pictures Of Her Inventive Approach To Daughter's Potty Training

OK, that might seem a bit drastic, but potty training is a difficult time for both parents and kids. Drastic times call for drastic measures, after all.

Thirty-one-year-old Shona McLoughlin was trying to get her first daughter, 26-month-old Erin-Rose, to learn to use the toilet, but wanted to minimise the impact of any 'accidents' that can occur during such a process.

With that in mind, Shona and her husband Edward set about creating an area of their house in Preston that would be protected against such problems.

The intrepid pair gated off their living room and covered the floor and settee with 20 big incontinence pads, thus creating a wee-proof area in which to train their daughter one of the most important lessons that a kid can learn.

She posted a few pics of their unorthodox training zone online and they have since been shared by about 28,000 people.

Shona, who actually works as a photographer, said: "I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect. I just had visions of little accidents absolutely everywhere.

"Honestly, we just thought it was a normal thing to do, covering the floor for the first few days to protect it. We thought it would be easier laying down pads to save me scrubbing the floor all the time.

"I suffer from fibromyalgia so bending down all the time to clean up any accidents would be painful. This was just easier for me.

"Our wood flooring is also still relatively new, and we worked hard to make the house nice. You just want to protect it and reduce any risk of damage. Once I put them all down I was in fits of laughter, it just looked ridiculous.

"I posted the photos onto a parenting group I'm in and they all encouraged me to switch it to public so they could share it.

"I thought the 300 likes on the group was crazy. All the comments just had me in fits. I didn't expect what happened next with my post on my page."

Naturally, people were thrilled with the idea. She's had messages of support from other parents and is happy to have shown the 'real' side of parenting that sometimes doesn't get put across.

She continued: "It's so heartwarming seeing so many parents from all over the world coming together to offer each other help and support.

"I've been messaged by loads of people offering so many great tips. It just shows we are all only human and still learning ourselves."

What's more, at just £7 for the whole lot of pads, it's definitely cost-effective. The process is coming along nicely, too - despite a few unavoidable incidents, Erin is learning quickly.

A good job, too. Soon they'll be able to remove all the incontinence pads from their living room floor.