keep trying or wait a bit

DS is 31 months old and he's been sitting on the potty for a few months sporadically and has only peed twice. This morning he agreed to wear his fire truck underwear since he was wearing fire truck pajamas. After breakfast I put him on the potty for a few minutes. When it became obvious that he wasn't going to do anything (after he announced "I'm finished!") he went to go play in the living room. Less than five minutes later, he came into the kitchen and asked me to change his clothes since he peed. Flash forward two hours. Snack, potty time, pee in his pants. I knew that he needed to go since it was almost two hours that he peed. He kept trying to get up from the potty so I sat and read him two books.

I can't force him to remain on the potty since it will only frustrate him and delay the inevitable. Do I keep trying with him, or do I wait a bit and try in a week or two?

For us, it was a process of getting DS to notice - which took about a month! - and then really potty training.

Getting him to notice was a process of leaving off pants altogether, and/or using HA trainers, and when he went in his underwear, getting him into the bathroom and having him clean himself up (or at least participate heavily in the cleaning proces).

It takes a while, so hang in there!

In my opinion starting and stopping isnt a good thing. With all 3 of mine I commited to doing it and stuck with it. I found naked or bottomless worked MUCH better than training pants. They seem ( or at least my boys did) to remember better naked. I would keep trying but naked. Like the pp said make sure he goes in the bathroom to get cleaned up. Give him a wipe and have him wipe the pee off himself but be positive and say "next time we can make the pee go in the potty and not on your undies"

IMO, if they haven't gained they awareness or muscle control to go when they are on the potty, then they really aren't ready. Part of potty-training is learning to relax and empty when the opportunity is there, not just when you are ready to burst. We did lots of pre-work with DS2 of having him go before baths or at bedtime when we were getting changed. Once he could reliably empty when he tried we went to no diapers and he was trained almost overnight.