To be appalled that parents need to be supported by government to potty train their child

Nope ive always been busy and managed to do it....as have most of the non-feckless

Can potty training be hard work? Absofuckinglutely. Is it worth it and should it be the parents job? Absofuckinglutely.
I’m currently in the thick of it with potty training a 2.5 year old (DC no4). He’s pretty much got it now and his sense of achievement is massive!
It should not fall on teachers/TA’s to teach toilet training or change nappies. The thought of a poor teacher/TA having to change a 4-5yo is just bloody crazy.

Again, not new though.

I mean 'Monster' is probably new, but in the 80s we had plenty of children coming in, having been given a pack of crisps - or even Monsters Munch' and a panda pop on the way to school, rather than some cereal or even toast and milk at home.

Assuming you’re not hinting at the covid jab, I suspect it’s stress, overwork, lack of time, and lack of pressure due to high-quality disposables removing the cause-and-effect aspect for the potty trainees.

My daughter brushes teeth morning and evening, she is still little so we help her. But do they need to do it lunchtime at school too? Or is it something you’re trying to get them used to brushing? We’re still in nursery and I don’t know much about the school system yet haha

"wait until they're ready" made a lot of sense when more toddlers were being potty trained between the ages of 1-2. If you try it then and it's not working, your child probably isn't ready. At age 3.5, unless there's a medical issue, "now is the time".

Failing to seek out that information and act on it, without it being spoon fed to you is pretty indicative of lazy and poor parenting

Interesting.. I was going to write that I agree with you (I still do!) and say that the NHS advice listed the “signs of readiness” and said children potty trained more quickly and with fewer accidents, the more signs of readiness they showed, and that that probably pushes children back because mine certainly didn’t show those signs so if I’d waited they’d have been much older.
I’m 100% sure that’s what the nhs advice was but I went to look it up to check I had the wording right, and it now says “Almost all children can be potty trained between 18 months and 2-and-a-half years old.
Starting around this age gives your child time to practice these new skills and build confidence without nappies.
The best thing to do is to start the training. You do not need to wait for your child to show signs or ask to use a potty before you start.”

So maybe they realised the “wait until they show all these signs” was not overly helpful.

This is fairly interesting. You took 3 days leave, so a small proportion of your leave for the year and describe yourself as being utterly exhausted by 5 days of potty training. That seems to sum up the issue really. Being 'exhausted' by a normal part of parenting and considering that 3 days off work is what you were prepared to devote to it.

There have been crap parents in all era. So why are there more now? It's almost as if there's a reason.

How on earth were you meant to do it without nursery’s help though? DS had a fair bit of trouble potty training but heaps of support and encouragement from the nursery staff. Each child had their own star chart and the staff expected and were unfazed by accidents.

Maybe it’s where you lived.

I’d consider it a basic fruit. Been eating it since I was a kid. My kids know what a mango is, usually see it in store and like to get the fresh ones when they are on sale. There’s also mango lassi, mango chutney, mango sorbet. I’ve lived in the States and here in England and mangoes have been available.

It drives me mad that whenever some issue comes up in the news, the response is always that schools need to do something about it or it should be part of the curriculum. Parents don't seem to think they have any responsibility to teach their children anything.

How so? If it was just about lazy, feckless parenting then these pilot schemes wouldn't have made a difference would they? And they did - so lack of knowledge and advice was clearly an issue for some parents.

I had that response to phone calls in secondary from 2000-2018. In fact, we had parents who switched off their phones so that they couldn't be contacted.

The government have always sent out health/parenting advice. This isn’t anything new

Prior to 1996 most people managed to potty train their children.

Not asking this as a dig, more out of genuine curiosity and I’m open to hear how others did it whilst working, but how did you potty train your children?

My partner and I work full time and both took three days off to potty train our 2.5 year old (I refused to do it alone). We had kicked the can down the curb a few times though and we were utterly exhausted by the end of the five days (we did it over a long weekend). I also felt so guilty sending him back into nursery not ‘fully’ trained.

So I can see why you have older children in nappies still. Not saying it’s right but I kind of get it. That being said parenting is tough and you have to suck it up sometimes for the benefit of your child.

What does nursery before 1 year old have to do with anything. If anything nursery will help because they see their peers being potty trained.

We had a really tough time potty training DD1, in hindsight we waited too long.

DD2 regularly goes on the potty at 14 months, we have definitely learnt from our mistakes.

No, it's not childcare. In East Germany all children were in full time childcare from a young age and they were potty trained young.

It isn't either or. There are all sorts of reasons people may be crap parents but it doesn't change the fact that they are crap parents

I absolutely agree. In fact I think it is utter madness and I am just wondering when the penny is going to drop how ridiculous it is that the parent is not in charge anymore.

"Most families need two working families just to survive." This is it in a nutshell. Time available to spend helping kids reach important milestones has been slashed and families are absolutely burnt out. Yes, by poverty, and by struggle, by capitalism wringing them out, by shit jobs, by community slipping away, and by the alienation of living online. My kids were potty trained, can read well, could speak and walk at appropriate ages etc. However, we have an above average income, secure housing, good health, family support, and were able to be part time during the early years. We STILL found it incredibly difficult to get through life and retain sanity. I often wonder how the fuck families are getting through without all these advantages. The vast majority really do not deserve judgement and will be working their arses off to give their kids the best they can. Having said that, I also think people in their thirties and younger lack both social and life skills - this is a whole generation of people who have been let down. Social media, screen time and abysmal behaviour from those who should set the standard have seriously eroded our culture and our society.

My friends daughter was only just trained by the start of reception.

The reason was that my friend absolutely believed that her daughter would do it herself when she was ready. This was bollocks.

She was an absolute state about her starting without being toilet trained, but just couldn’t see that it was something she had to initiate and lead as a parent. She did eventually clock on and persisted, and Lo and behold it only took a few weeks.

I think the idea of child led everything is so damaging.