pottytrained by september

[Denmark]

I am danish but been living in england from 2003 -2006 (that where i learned about mumsnet). I move to france in october last year with my boyfriend who is french and our 2 children dd3 and ds2. They are going too start in french school in september, which say they MUST BE out of nappies otherwise they cannot go, since it is a school and not a daycare.
DD3 is fully trained, uses big toilet and sleep without nappies at night and have had not accidents since we started in january this year. She was very hard to get out of nappies and I had to try 4 times before she was ready. Now my DS who will be 2 year in may is still in nappies whivh for me is perfectly normal but I am a little nervous that I don't manage to get him pottytrained for september. Is it possible to get boy ready at 28 mth ?????? HELP and should I start now ????

Hi Denmark, I'm in France too. I don't think you can make them toilet train before they are ready. DS missed a year of maternelle because he wasn't toilet trained until well over three. He still needs nappies at night and sometimes wakes up wet from a nap if it is 2 hours long. But at school they only let them nap 45 mins so it's not a problem.
DD is 2.5 and we've just started training, hoping she can start in Sept when she'll be nearly 3.

They like training early here in France and plenty of boys are trained by 28 months so if I was you I'd give it a go now as that gives you a chance to have a break if he's not ready and start again at the end of July.

But is it such a big deal if he doesn't start school in Sept? (Will you need to pay for childcare instead?)I know a few maternelle teachers and they all prefer it when children start at 3 because many think that 2 is too young for school. In some of the villages round here, there are too many children and not enough staff so they don't let them start until they are 3. Also, check with your school, many let children start after the October half term or in January. Try to stay relaxed as if he tunes into your concerns, it's not going to make training any easier.

Whereabouts in France are you?

I am in Drome area, 30 an hours drive from Valance, it is a small town called Grane. We have bought a hotel and a restaurant there. The school only take children in september, we arrived in october last year and was hoping that our daughter could start in january but NO only in september. The reason why we really want our son to go is so I can help out a little more at the hotel, and we have not been able to find any sort of daycare in Grane. But we are thinking about hiring a personal nanny if he is not ready. But i think I will start pottytraining him now and hopefully he will be ready. Where about are you and what do you think about living in france ?

We're in the north (just 30 mins from Calais). We go to the Drome every other year on holiday, near Nyons. It's a long drive but worth it!
There aren't many nurseries in rural france but the childminding is really well subsidised so if you're in the benefits system, it's not very expensive. I've just started back at work so DD is at the childminder's while DS is at school.

At school, all the little ones are taken to the toilets just before class and at break time so if your DS is able to go a couple of hours without wetting but needs reminding to go rather than asking, he should be ok. I couldn't even get mine to sit on the potty or toilet until he was over three. He basically waited until he was tall enough to do it standing up like his Dad!
Also, it's not a problem if they have occasional accidents. You leave a change of clothes on their peg just in case.

Some French mums put their kids in before they are properly trained and hope they'll pick it up by watching the others. There are cases of kids being told not to come any more because of too many accidents, but that's when they have two or three accidents every days for the first week.

As to what I think of living in France, on a day like this when we can make the most of our huge garden, I love it!