Potty training isn’t easy. Ashley Tisdale knows a trick to help parents accomplish the difficult task.
The entrepreneur and mom of two, 39, recently teamed up with CoComelon for the series’ Gotta Go Zone event on Saturday, June 21 in Los Angeles, where families hung out with characters Nina, JJ and Cody and learned how to make potty training fun as part of the CoComelon Can Help campaign.
Tisdale’s partnership is a natural fit, as her 4-year-old daughter Jupiter is a CoComelon fan who loves to sing the show’s helpful songs like “Go Before You Go” and “The Potty Training Song” — when she’s not performing numbers from High School Musical, of course.
Ahead of upcoming Gotta Go Zone events in New York and Nashville throughout the summer, Tisdale caught up with PEOPLE about her potty training experiences, looking forward to the process with her 9-month-old daughter Emerson and whether she’d want to act in the upcoming CoComelon movie.
PEOPLE: As a mom of two, you are no stranger to potty training. What made you want to get involved with CoComelon for the Gotta Go Zone tour?
Ashley Tisdale: CoComelon is such a big show in our house, and it really did help us get through this milestone. It’s one of the milestones, I think, as a parent that is a real stressful one, especially when you’re first-time parents. You put a little bit of pressure on yourself, and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I hope they get it, and I hope we know how to do it.” It’s a little bit scary, but CoComelon really did make it a lot easier for us. The music really helped Jupiter, and I think honestly CoComelon is really good for all of the firsts. The show has all these songs about going to the dentist for the first time and potty training, so I was really excited to partner with them for the CoComelon Gotta Go Zone. It’s just a really fun celebration of music and activities, and it’s there to support parents and the toddlers through that milestone by making it really fun.
PEOPLE: The event lets parents and kids connect with each other. How does talking with other parents make the process of potty training easier?
Tisdale: Support is so helpful for all these milestones because you want to know different tools and how they were able to do it. I know that was one of the first things that I did, too, was ask a mom friend, and they talked about how, “Okay, this is what you do.” You literally check in with them every 30 minutes. You take the diaper off the whole day, and you check in with them to make sure that they have to go potty because at that point they don’t really understand the sensation, but then they start to understand. And by day three they’re fully potty-trained. Having other parents be able to talk about their experience is super helpful for obviously getting through it yourself.
PEOPLE: Now, what did you learn from potty training with Jupiter that will inspire the way you do it differently with Emerson?
Tisdale: No matter what, one of the biggest things as a parent that I’ve always learned is to let them lead in a way. Obviously there are these timeframes with milestones that you need to make sure that they’re hitting, and I do think that puts pressure on people, but I do feel like if you let go of the pressure and just let the child lead you, you’ll know when the best time is to potty-train them. At one point I was just excited to do it, and we had tried and it was a little bit too early for Juju. The best timing is when they are ready.
PEOPLE: There’s a CoComelon movie in the works. I’m curious to know if you would be interested in lending your voice to a role.
Tisdale: Oh my gosh, that’s so cool. I haven’t even heard about the CoComelon movie. It’s hard for me to do much when I have a full-time job running a company, and I make the time for Phineas and Ferb because it’s been something I’ve done for so long. I don’t know if I’d be able to squeeze it into my schedule, but I do love Cocomelon, and I’m excited to see it.
PEOPLE: Are you not really acting other than Phineas and Ferb?
Tisdale: I don’t know where I would find the time, to be honest. I definitely have been offered things. I’ve looked at scripts. I don’t want to say I’m never going to do it again. I love acting. It’s been a part of my life since I was three years old. I’ve done it for so long. But I do really love what I’m doing with my company. It also, scheduling-wise, allows me to be with my kids. I have a nine-month-old, and so maybe when they are older and in school I’ll feel like, “Okay, I can go back to that.” Or when my company is running without me or something, I’m like, “Cool, I could do it.” But right now it is truly hard to find the time. It’s going to have to be something I’m super excited about, I think. I don’t want to close the chapter because I never know, maybe years later I’ll want to do it again. But for me, I just love what I do, and I think it’s really more meaningful what I’m doing because I get to connect with people on a different level and talk about my mental health and do these events for my products. I just don’t want to be taken away from that anytime soon.
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