Why do so many modern mums struggle with toilet training their children??
Thrity years ago (and yes we did have disposible nappies then) it was quite normal for children to be potty trained by two but these days many four year olds are starting nursery-school wearing nappies!!! Why do health visitors recommend that parents wait until children 'show interest' in the potty before attempting to train?? Are they on commision from the nappy manufacturers?! Potty training is not rocket science and there are many helpful books to guide parents through the process. I believe that the later it is done the harder it is, as by three years old children are more inhibited about their bodily functions and prefer to stick with the comfort of their nappy. Are parents just too busy these days or do they expect childminders or nursery-schools to do the job for them??
Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.
Potty training
Too late potty training!
MotherGoose85 · 14/07/2011 19:23
Ah, but glasses you had a nanny, and not just any nanny, an African one. 
Do you not think, that her lack of opinion on the matter may have had something to do with the fact that you were paying her wage?
intelligent girls who hade more experience of child-rearing than I did 
. May I ask how old these girls were? Bet you my last £50 they were adult women, and probably older than you were at the time.
Oh, and I know it is common for those working in certain countries to employ nannies. I'm a South African and my and most of my friend's parents had the help of nannies at sometime or other. Some of my fondest memories are of eating 'pap' with my hands sitting on the dusty ground outside out house with Anna. I was potty trained with her help at 22 months and AFAIK had no problems with bed-wetting or school accidents.
I am in no way casting judgement on the fact that you had one (oh, sorry 2) but rather that you would assume that your situation with 2 nannies to run around cleaning up mistakes and spending a huge amount of time helping with training your children, is the same as a mother without help either with the children or domestically.
And here we are at Mommy Wars II....
That is why people objected to the tone of the OP, glassescase. There are ways and ways to discuss why potty-training has become later. The way it has been framed in the OP is very antagonistic, and puts pretty much all "modern mothers" on the "wrong side", which is unnecessary and simplistic (even facile - yes, I am a modern mother With Big Words And An Education - weep for my children! ... see how I have accepted the positioning?).
I am sorry that I assumed you were younger that they were, it was wrong of me to jump to conclusions and I apologise.
However, do you really, really, really believe that having help is irrelevant when it comes to raising small children, and particularly when teaching them a new skill when very young?
The OP's tone is inflammatory and does not take into account changes in attitudes to child-rearing or evidence that things are easier and kinder if left until the child shows signs of readiness (in some children this may very well be before their 2nd birthday - it is not perscriptive, rather intuitive and sensitive). She uses language that antagonises and is obviously aimed at 'getting a rise'.
Anyhoo - personally, I am a live and let live type of gal and if anyone chooses to potty train early, that is their business, and if other's choose to wait until their child shows signs of readiness, that is theirs. No need to get involved really.
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