To think that a potty in any room besides the bathroom is gross?

[concernedforthefuture]

With the exception of the very early days of potty training (i.e the first couple of weeks when you get zero warning that they need it now ), AIBU to think that it's gross and unnecessary to have potties in living rooms / kitchens / bedrooms ?
Surely once your child is trained, they can hold it long enough to walk to the bathroom to use the potty ? It never occurred to me to have one anywhere else in the house besides alongside the loo when my DC trained, but having recently visited several friends and family with toddlers (who have been trained for months), it seems it's now the norm to have your small child do their toilet in the family rooms. Even worse, the parents don't rush to empty it either . (I can see that if you're busy feeding a newborn it might be easier for the toddler to use the potty nearby, but none of these families had small babies).

Each to there own surely? I had a health visitor point out my potty was downstairs does it need to be? Well yes it's the one I take out with me to the grandparents house the other one is upstairs and myob

I used to go to a toddler group where a grandmother would bring her granddaughter's potty with her & whip it out in the middle of the room periodically because they were "letting her try" every half an hour.

If a toddler has time and enough to get to the bathroom then why would you need a potty. Surely you could just use a toddler toilet seat at that stage. I always thought the point of a potty is that it is portable.

We went straight to the loo, missed the potty bit out. Because I didn't think sitting on a potty watching TV in the living room or carrying it about with you was preparation for real life.

If I had put mine upstairs in the toilet, I would've had to accompany my young toddlers up and down the stairs each time.

Or are you assuming everyone has a downstairs toilet?

AGnu that sounds perfectly normal to me for the early stages of toilet training.

If someone else is in the bathroom, what are you going to do? Small children aren't great at waiting.

We have one downstairs, only have a toilet in the upstairs bathroom. Ds is 5 and still in pull ups through the day and nappies at night. She has Autism, it’s bloody hard, she just doesn’t understand toilet training. I have much harder things to deal with than where I put the potty in my house. I get enough judgement from my husband’s family about this as it is.

We keep one in the DC bedroom just in case youngest needs to go in the night. He doesn't like going out to the bathroom on his own in dark it also saves DH and I getting woken up at night

We went straight to the loo, missed the potty bit out. Because I didn't think sitting on a potty watching TV in the living room or carrying it about with you was preparation for real life.

I like this idea! I hope to do the same with DS when it’s time - I really hate the whole potty idea

YANBU. Although I’d go a step further and say it’s gross to change nappies in any room other than the bathroom. Toilet stuff should all happen in the room with the toilet. I can’t count how many times my DC weed or pooed while being changed and squirted up in the air, or grabbed a dirty nappy and threw it on the floor, or tried to escape and dirtied the floor, or dirty clothes touched the floor. Why would you do that in a carpeted room, or even worse on a bed!!

I agree OP.
I only had an upstairs loo but toilet trained both my two without a potty as I couldn't stand the thought of emptying it.
I hate seeing kids sitting on a potty outside of bathrooms. So gross.

I think pottys are gross, full stop.

What's the point of them?

Katey Lol, there physically isn't space in our bathroom to change DD's nappy! Unless I got in the bath and changed here in there. Actually I'm not even sure our bath is long enough to accomodate her laying down flat and me sitting in it too, and she's only 10 months. What would you do if your bathroom was as small as mine, genuine question?

@KateyKube not everyone is lucky enough to have space in a bathroom for a changing table. Or even enough floor space to put a mat on the floor. It's actually quite hard to change a baby on a mat on the floor even if you have no issue getting down on your hands and knees.

Or do you think we should sit on the toilet and change a nappy with baby on our knee. Again not very practical in reality.

@kateykube... Even in the middle of the night? Be kinda cold......

Oh also Katey we don't have carpet anywhere so that's not an issue. But tbh I actually can't think of a single occasion when urine or poo or uriney/pooey clothes have gone on the floor or anywhere else other than the changing table or a changing mat anyway. But I do only have a DD, can appreciate might be different with a DS, pee-wise.

I agree. We only had the potty ‘out out’ during the early weeks, after that it was in the downstairs loo (for poos as DD preferred the potty for poo for several months but would happily pee on the loo).

Dd didn’t really use a potty much at all. A couple of weeks tops. She preferred the loo. In the early days we had the potty around and it stayed in the living room just in case for visiting children. It is far preferable to use in the loo. Some children would struggle I imagine so parents adapt. It’s for such a fleeting moment that I can’t get het up. Although I would rather visiting children didn’t poo in front of me! All good if contained in a nappy.....

I think having it outside the bathroom is fine if only one in the house and may be in use etc, but not emptying it pretty much immediately is gross. Also agree the nappy changing. I don’t know how much room you have in your house but our bathroom is plenty big enough so please don’t change your toddlers dirty nappy in our living room.

When my two were tiny we had no downstairs loo so the potty sat in the lounge where I could keep an eye on both children. Dh and I were both qualified nurses and managed to keep the place hygienic.

Now at 22 and 20 I can confirm that both are fully toilet-trained and adept at using the big toilet.

I was once in the post office queue when a woman in front got one out of the bottom of her pram and got her toddler to sit on it. Nobody batted an eyelid.

I disagree. But i would because i have mine downstairs. As my toilet is upstairs and the toilet step is a bit of a pain id rather my toddler took herself to the toilet independently. Guess if you want to judge then knock yourself out. People are pretty much doing what suits their circumstance.

I get your point. But I only have an upstairs bathroom/toilet and my daughter has mobility issues so for the first few months after being trained DD would often go on the potty downstairs. I emptied straight away and disinfected regularly.

My DD was so used to seeing her 3yr old brother using the potty, that she decided to start using it herself at 18 months old. Easiest toilet training ever and within a month she was also out of night nappies.