Is my mother right about potty training?

[PeterRabbitagain]

My son is 2.2 and we are planning to potty train soon. We were going to do it over summer but I was on crutches so we postponed. My mother has had a go at me saying it's pathetic that I couldn't do it already and that he's getting too old to not be potty trained.

Aside from my mothers unkindness which I'm used to, is she correct about his age? I was under the impression that between 2-3 is normal but my mother said that was wrong.

I waited until 3yrs, I'd dreaded it tbh but we had barely any accidents past the first couple of days. There's a better level of understanding and muscle restraint imo.

Just throwing in another thought - disposable nappies are a bit of an environmental disaster, the more so the later children are toilet trained.

They weren't a hassle at all really. I had two in terry nappies at one stage and managed fine as I had a washing machine by then. Disposables are convenient but dreadful for the environment and they make potty training more difficult.

Eldest DD was about 20 months when I trained her. My mum still thought that was late. She insists I was 9 months old (I can't have been). Anyway, all my other children were more like 2 or 3. You can just tell when they're ready and when they're not. As long as they're out of nappies by reception (and they usually are, though I was worried about DS1 and number twos for a while there 😁).

My generation (baby boomers) potty trained our babies around the 2nd birthday, and it took about a fortnight max from start to finish.

Bear in mind all our babies wore folded pinned cotton nappies and plastic pants, so were far more aware of their nappy being heavy and wet and uncomfortable, and therefore very happy to graduate to a pair of light cotton pants giving easy freedom of movement.

It beats me why modern babies are still in nappies by day at 3 and 4. I blame disposables for being too dry and comfortable :-)

We've just toilet drained DS and it took two days. Because we waited until he was ready at 3 years 4 months! I was starting to worry but now I realise waiting until he was ready was so much easier. My older DS’ nursery had a policy to start in pants at 18mo! They lined them up every 15 mins for the loo and did the washing for parents. Crazy now I think about it. But starting so early meant it took absolutely ages (and we were not following nursery protocol at home that’s for sure!)

Same here. Did it around 3 and they were dry overnight and no accidents!
Why would you force your child to do something like this at 2? I think you're just creating bigger issues further down the line.

What nurseries are those?

Both my CM and nursery plus those of my friends are/were all keen to help out and even start toilet training. In fact my DD nursery was surprised she was fully day trained before 3.

I know in my case and some of my friends that peer pressure is a thing in potty training. My DD was interested because another child at her CMs was using the potty. She in turn got another child interested in using the potty. (According to her they had potty wars as they all had their own designated potties.) Same with my friends. The only issue is some poor parents ended up with nappy and pull up refusers who weren't very good at getting to the toilet/potty on time.

When I had my first child I was living in a flat with no outdoor drying space. I didn't use disposables so every day there was a bucket of nappies soaking waiting to be washed, I didn't have a washing machine. Then there was the joy of wet nappies permanently hanging up to dry. The flat was cold and prone to damp.

No idea why getting him out of nappies seemed a good idea.

@RubyRoss but if it's a winter baby and you train at 2.5 then you're doing it over spring/summer? I totally get that it's better to train in warmer weather, but your actual post didn't seem to say that? My second was born in December, I trained him in July, so he was just over 2.5

@satelliteheart yep that's what I meant. My mother would say a winter baby should be trained at 2.5 years and other babies trained at 2. To be fair, she was using cloth nappies without central heating so working with the weather was necessary.