Potty Training for the Video Masses

Christine Hall
From Houston Business Journal

Narmin Parpia will be potty-training the American public with a Mother's Day appearance on the "Today Show."

The Pearland mother of two was inspired in 2002 by the "Dr. Phil Show" to launch Potty Training Concepts. A line of boy and girl dolls named Potty Scotty and Potty Patty helps kids become continent with the "Potty Training in One Day" package.

The system uses the drink and wet-on-demand dolls to model "going potty" behavior for a child.

A chemical engineer by trade, Parpia had come home from a particularly bad job interview and happened to click on the TV while Dr. Phil was pontificating about using dolls for potty-training purposes.

Parpia, who had potty-trained her children in a similar manner 10 years earlier, came up with the idea to create her own line of dolls.

"I knew the method with the doll and had already proven that it worked well myself," she says. "I did, however, remember the painful process of gathering up all the supplies."

So she went out and got dolls of her own and then started researching.

"At first you couldn't find the dolls, then I couldn't find anyone who had tried to simulate what we do as humans," Parpia says. "A lot of creativity and spare parts later, we had a doll."

Parpia started her own Web site, www.pottytrainingconcepts.com, and also listed the dolls on eBay. The online method proved the best -- she sold her first product two days after launching the Web site.

In addition to the upcoming "Today Show" gig, Parpia has been featured in Time magazine, and has even attracted interest from the "Dr. Phil Show."