Adventist Mothers Potty-Training Video Goes Viral

Stacia Wright says the experience has given her a new understanding of God.

Posted September 9, 2016

Seventh-day Adventist parent Stacia Wright was on a mission.

A big one.

One that parents from her home in the U.S. state of Maryland to the other side of the world and back can relate to.

It was time for Stacia Wright’s 2 ½-year-old daughter, Ginneh, to be potty trained.

For all parents, grandparents, guardians, aunts, uncles, and babysitters, this is one mission not to be taken lightly. Yet the approach Wright ended up taking did exactly that — setting the basic rules of potty training to a song that has gone viral with more than 6.2 million views on YouTube, Facebook, and elsewhere in less than a month.

“I just basically said, ‘Little girl, we are going to try and make this potty training thing fun,’” Wright said.

So “Ginneh’s Potty Song” was born.

Wright — a life-long Adventist, radio show host, media producer, and business owner, as well as full-time mommy of two — had employed the “three-day method” of potty training with Jonathan, now 5, to success. In the method, parents are encouraged to constantly repeat the phrase “tell mommy when you need to pee” rather than ask if the child needs to go. But Wright grew weary of constantly repeating the phrase to Ginneh and so decided to use something her little girl already loved — music.

As suspected, Ginneh loved the catchy song, which says: “You need to tell mommy when you need to pee.”

Ginneh really got into singing along, asking her mother to repeat it. That got a bit tedious, so about a month ago, Wright decided to film “Ginneh’s Potty Song” on her cell phone so Ginneh could watch it whenever she wanted. After doing that, Wright thought the video might be helpful to a few private mommy groups she belonged to on Facebook and posted the video there.

Watch “Ginneh’s Potty Song” by Stacia Wright.

Soon Wright’s Facebook friends started in-boxing her to ask about sharing the video with their own contacts. So Wright made the video public and posted it to her own page as well, and it took off from there. Then she added the video to her YouTube channel. Within a few days, hundreds of people had interacted with it through shares and likes. As the video gained traction, news outlets such as NBC’s national “Today Show,” the Fox television affiliate in Washington, The Huffington Post, and Essence.com picked it up. Between social media and the news media, the video has been viewed more than 6.2 million times, Wright said.

“In a day, I get messages from people, all positive, saying, ‘We love the video,’ or ‘I’m going to try this with my child,’” she said. “People have given testimonials about how they have been trying to potty train their child and let them listen to the song and within the next 30 minutes the child tells them they need to use the potty.”

Wright is careful to point out the song isn’t magic nor is she a potty-training expert. Rather, she said, sharing the video is a fun way to help toddlers understand potty training in a way that is appropriate for them.

So what’s next? Ginneh is still soldiering on with the potty training. All parents know when it clicks for a little one, it sticks. It just may take a while. Ginneh herself is still learning.

“Ultimately we are grateful to God for this small little platform,” Wright said. “I’m not a potty-training guru, but I love helping people and think this is a gift God dropped in our laps.”

Wright also said the experience has given her a new understanding of God.

“It’s a huge responsibility and a blessing and a gift that God gives us to be able to have an influence on another life, and I don’t take it for granted,” she said. “God has explained to us that He is love. For children, their love language is spending time with them. So me singing that song for Ginneh and getting her excited about potties didn’t cost me anything. But it made her smile and dance and jump around and apparently now, forever in time, will be a moment that many others will enjoy with us and that’s kind of cool.”