When did you potty train?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: OP, your child is still 2-not yet 3-well within the normal range to not be potty trained yet.

I'd back off (especially since you said you are at the point of tantrums about sitting on the pottty) and just keep the potty available (in the bathroom or wherever you have it). Keep encouraging-but not forcing or causing tantrums. My guess is that your dc is going to be ready in the not distant future. Also keep in mind that sometimes, parents brag that their young child is 'potty trained' when in reality, they have managed to put a few pees in the potty, but still poop in the diaper.

My oldest was nearly 3 before he trained-I was frustrated. But it all clicked one day and he fully trained in a few days. He's an electrical engineer now so I guess he's smart enough lol.

Op here - this is good to hear we l. I felt guilty for tantrums , i knew she was trying but we needed to re-energize DH was keeping patient but I was getting frustrated. With all her development and a growth spurt I do need to be reminded she's not 3 until Feb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:18 mo but it's never too late

[Anonymous]

This kid is going to be 3 in two months. Going to preschool, big girls don't wet themselves. She is ready momma is just going to have to get consistent and tough

[Anonymous]

With my eldest, I started at 2.5 and it was a disaster. Then we tried again close to 3 and it wasn't easy but it worked. I had #2 right before he turned 2 years old so I didn't want to take on potty training at that time.

For #2 and #3, I started right before 2 years old and it went pretty smoothly. But I barely remember now.

A lot of people start at 2, and I would say most are there by 3. So maybe your DD is on the later side at the moment, but I promise eventually you will get there and it won't matter at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right when they turn 3. It will take a couple of days

I agree. People who start 18 months spend months trying to train a baby not physically ready.

Disposable diapers made waiting so long a thing. For centuries and in most parts of the world, no one is waiting until 3. This is a relatively new thing based on capitalism/waste. The better the diapers get, the longer people think it takes for their kids to be ready to use a toilet.

For centuries most/many people didn't even have toilets and plenty of kids just peed on themselves until they could control it. They learned to poop in a trough somewhere. Some cultures used to toilet train by simply carrying their children around all the time everywhere (in slings or baskets) and then noticing they were peeing and pulling them away to pee on the ground. In lots of cultures children ran around naked or close to naked until puberty started. It's actually a very recent phenomenon to have indoor plumbing and the kind of culture/environment where "toilet training" is even a thing, and the idea of it being something a parent teaches their child alone in a house without other adults reinforcing or helping is even more recent. People also used to beat kids regularly, which is incredibly cruel and caused all kinds of mental health issues but also was a very effective way to get kids to stop certain behaviors we didn't like, like peeing on the floor. Please stop acting like the last 80 years are the entirety of human history.

In 2025 in the United States, a child toilet training at 3 is perfectly normal and will in no way inhibit their development or make it hard for them to function in society.

Tell your kid that when they are embarrassed to be pooping in a swim diaper in the pool when the other kids are using the bathroom.

3 year olds don't care, so you won't have to explain this to them. Only judgmental middle aged women who think toilet training is the epitome of parenting care, and 3 year olds rarely care what people like that think.

You sure about that? Personally, I was reading, swimming, going to my little preschool, riding my little bike, and doing all kinds of stuff at age 3 that did not include peeing/pooping in a diaper in front of other people. I am glad my mom did not think I was a blob with no sense of what others were doing at that age.

Wearing a pull up on a long car ride, on an airplane, or overnight is one thing. Just not even using a bathroom until the age of 3 is not necessarily something your kid won't notice/care about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right when they turn 3. It will take a couple of days

I agree. People who start 18 months spend months trying to train a baby not physically ready.

My 18 month old boy was super easy. It took no time at all. He was walking at 11 months so maybe that had something to do with it. None of this is an accomplishment on my part. He was just easy.

My second child- not easy at a much later age. Not easy at all.

My youngest girl walked at 9 months old ran and climbed stairs a couple of weeks later. She toilet trained a 3.5 years old. There’s no correlation. Babies work hard on rolling over, crawling, walking, but for some reason so many of them are fine having a load in their diaper.

[Anonymous]

All of mine were fully potty trained right around 3, and it was very quick and painless. For months leading up to 3, probably from 2 on…I did a lot of talking about the potty and putting them on it while the bathtub filled at night- just for exposure and to normalize it, then at 3, diapers went away and that was that. They took right to it.

With my oldest, I tried really hard to potty trained at 2. It was a disaster. I think I used the 3 day method where you are supposed to basically stay home 72 hrs with your naked kid and shuttle them to the potty chair every hour. After the third time scrubbing poop out of carpet I gave up.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. Geez. Seems like forever ago, but when we found out we were having child 2, we really wanted child 1 to be potty trained. So, we started working on it with our DS when he just over 2. He figured it all out by the time he was 3. (DS and sibling, DD are 2.5 years apart).

DD was pretty easy - she saw other kids going on the potty at daycare and wanted to do the same thing. So, we had things squared away with her was before her 3rd birthday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right when they turn 3. It will take a couple of days

I agree. People who start 18 months spend months trying to train a baby not physically ready.

My 18 month old boy was super easy. It took no time at all. He was walking at 11 months so maybe that had something to do with it. None of this is an accomplishment on my part. He was just easy.

My second child- not easy at a much later age. Not easy at all.

My youngest girl walked at 9 months old ran and climbed stairs a couple of weeks later. She toilet trained a 3.5 years old. There’s no correlation. Babies work hard on rolling over, crawling, walking, but for some reason so many of them are fine having a load in their diaper.

A 3.5 year old is not a baby or even a toddler, but yeah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest was 3 years 8 months. Youngest was 3 years 2 months. I didn’t push it, and they trained in a day. Parenting is hard enough without creating your own battles. They are now both normal teenagers.

Does this mean they did not attend preschool?

They attended a daycare/preschool from the time they were infants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I trained both my boys before age 2. About 20-21 months.

We used o crap but your daughter might be a bit old for that method. That method is intended for 20-30 months of age. Girls are often trained at 18-24 months and many people wait later for boys.

The closer you get to age 3 the harder it gets. You want to train when they are still in the pleasing stage. 3 is notoriously hard.

3 is mostly hard if you powerstruggled earlier and failed. If you wait till 3 it’s usually a breeze.

Or you could wait til middle school and tell them you're going to take their phone away if they don't use the toilet.

Except the vast majority of kids are trained before they start school, and training at 3 has no long term impact on a kid's life. Kids who aren't trained by the time school starts usually have other issues.

I honestly feel bad for people who think potty training 6-12 months earlier than other kids is some parenting badge of honor. Seriously, who cares?

My kids went to preschool a few mornings a week when they were 2 and they had to be potty trained. I don't think I knew any moms who waited to send their kids to any sort of program until kindergarten. Do people with late trained kids opt out of preschool or just wait until later because of potty training?

Preschool starts at 3 years old. Two year olds are at daycare.

I think it depends on other things too. Kids at daycare are easier because they have a set routine and are pretty much in the same rooms or yard all day.

Mine didn’t go to daycare. Preschool was at 3 years old so we trained at 3 years 4 months and it was easy. Another reason I had was that we were in and out all day so we would sometimes have to depend on public bathrooms. She was so tiny and I couldn’t stomach having her on one of those toilets. There are a thousand different reasons people choose a particular time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right when they turn 3. It will take a couple of days

I agree. People who start 18 months spend months trying to train a baby not physically ready.

Disposable diapers made waiting so long a thing. For centuries and in most parts of the world, no one is waiting until 3. This is a relatively new thing based on capitalism/waste. The better the diapers get, the longer people think it takes for their kids to be ready to use a toilet.

For centuries most/many people didn't even have toilets and plenty of kids just peed on themselves until they could control it. They learned to poop in a trough somewhere. Some cultures used to toilet train by simply carrying their children around all the time everywhere (in slings or baskets) and then noticing they were peeing and pulling them away to pee on the ground. In lots of cultures children ran around naked or close to naked until puberty started. It's actually a very recent phenomenon to have indoor plumbing and the kind of culture/environment where "toilet training" is even a thing, and the idea of it being something a parent teaches their child alone in a house without other adults reinforcing or helping is even more recent. People also used to beat kids regularly, which is incredibly cruel and caused all kinds of mental health issues but also was a very effective way to get kids to stop certain behaviors we didn't like, like peeing on the floor. Please stop acting like the last 80 years are the entirety of human history.

In 2025 in the United States, a child toilet training at 3 is perfectly normal and will in no way inhibit their development or make it hard for them to function in society.

Tell your kid that when they are embarrassed to be pooping in a swim diaper in the pool when the other kids are using the bathroom.

3 year olds don't care, so you won't have to explain this to them. Only judgmental middle aged women who think toilet training is the epitome of parenting care, and 3 year olds rarely care what people like that think.

You sure about that? Personally, I was reading, swimming, going to my little preschool, riding my little bike, and doing all kinds of stuff at age 3 that did not include peeing/pooping in a diaper in front of other people. I am glad my mom did not think I was a blob with no sense of what others were doing at that age.

Wearing a pull up on a long car ride, on an airplane, or overnight is one thing. Just not even using a bathroom until the age of 3 is not necessarily something your kid won't notice/care about.

Lady, we get it, you were a very advanced toddler. I’m sorry that’s all you have to cling to at this point in your life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right when they turn 3. It will take a couple of days

I agree. People who start 18 months spend months trying to train a baby not physically ready.

Disposable diapers made waiting so long a thing. For centuries and in most parts of the world, no one is waiting until 3. This is a relatively new thing based on capitalism/waste. The better the diapers get, the longer people think it takes for their kids to be ready to use a toilet.

For centuries most/many people didn't even have toilets and plenty of kids just peed on themselves until they could control it. They learned to poop in a trough somewhere. Some cultures used to toilet train by simply carrying their children around all the time everywhere (in slings or baskets) and then noticing they were peeing and pulling them away to pee on the ground. In lots of cultures children ran around naked or close to naked until puberty started. It's actually a very recent phenomenon to have indoor plumbing and the kind of culture/environment where "toilet training" is even a thing, and the idea of it being something a parent teaches their child alone in a house without other adults reinforcing or helping is even more recent. People also used to beat kids regularly, which is incredibly cruel and caused all kinds of mental health issues but also was a very effective way to get kids to stop certain behaviors we didn't like, like peeing on the floor. Please stop acting like the last 80 years are the entirety of human history.

In 2025 in the United States, a child toilet training at 3 is perfectly normal and will in no way inhibit their development or make it hard for them to function in society.

Tell your kid that when they are embarrassed to be pooping in a swim diaper in the pool when the other kids are using the bathroom.

3 year olds don't care, so you won't have to explain this to them. Only judgmental middle aged women who think toilet training is the epitome of parenting care, and 3 year olds rarely care what people like that think.

You sure about that? Personally, I was reading, swimming, going to my little preschool, riding my little bike, and doing all kinds of stuff at age 3 that did not include peeing/pooping in a diaper in front of other people. I am glad my mom did not think I was a blob with no sense of what others were doing at that age.

Wearing a pull up on a long car ride, on an airplane, or overnight is one thing. Just not even using a bathroom until the age of 3 is not necessarily something your kid won't notice/care about.

Lady, we get it, you were a very advanced toddler. I’m sorry that’s all you have to cling to at this point in your life.

Yeah PP peaked at age 3 and now she has to sit around making fun of children for wearing diapers an extra 3-4 months. Sad.

[Anonymous]

I trained my oldest boy at 22 months and youngest at 20 months.

Start again now don’t wait. 3 is a very hard and defiant age to start training. You have to catch them when they are in the mommy pleasing stage!

[Anonymous]

By three, if there are no special needs you need to force it and not stop. Some kids get it quickly, others don't. No more diapers. Get pull ups for a few weeks then the lined underwear. Take her upon wake up, bed and every hour or less all day every day until she gets it.