General discussion - Mom and Dad Esq.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
This is getting kind of stalky.

In the sense that I am tall and thin and wave in even the gentlest of breezes, and that my face is like a beautiful flower?

[robustpuppy]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
In the sense that I am tall and thin and wave in even the gentlest of breezes, and that my face is like a beautiful flower?

Do you like celery with peanut butter? It has never done it for me, but a tart apple with PB rawks.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by robustpuppy
Do you like celery with peanut butter? It has never done it for me, but a tart apple with PB rawks.

I am not a fan of raw celery. I like it as an ingredient in soups and stuffing, though.

[Trepidation_Mom]

Originally posted by baltassoc
Conventional wisdom is that you should start slowly during a time of few interuptions in their lives and great stability.

So I took the baltspawn on a two week vacation without balt[soontobeex]spouse (who had been working on them without success for months), including a week with just the baltgrandparents (their first time longer than 48 hours away from both parents), and brought them back potty trained. No idea how it happened. They were just shy of 3.

My one piece of advice is go with the potty seat on the big potty with a stool, and if he's too little to get up there, or at least stay up there, without being afraid, it's too early. Cleaning out those little potties is for suckers.

It'll happen eventually. There aren't a lot of 16 year olds in diapers. Even Hank was out of them by law school.

I'm finding this whole discussion (disturbingly) fascinating. The CW has changed so much in the last century or so (what with disposables and Goddamn Hippies and all). Sibling and I were both trained before 2 years, which was pretty average in the '70s. Average age now, I understand, is 36 mo for girls, 39 for boys (but is still in the 24 month range for cloth diaper babies).

M-i-L informed me that, when she was growing up, and so far as she knows back a couple generation before her, CW said kids were pottie trained by one year, and, generally, this was successful, despite current CW that kids aren't trainable at all until 18 months. And, it doesn't seem that as many were permanently emotionally scarred by early training as the Goddamn Hippies would have you believe.

Then there's my friend Pete. Pete was a military brat, and, when he and his siblings were all untrained and between 12 and 36 months, his mom got word that they were being moved to Mexico in 2 weeks. She decided she was not dealing with diapers in Mexico, and reportedly looked at all 3 of them and announced "you are all potty trained RIGHT NOW!" And so they were. I can't vouch for the long-term effects of this method, but the younger two are reasonably well socialized computer geeks, while the oldest is a really smart but scary-as-shit special forces guy who gets lots of decorations & commendations for killing people professionally.

I have a distinct suspicion that the "right answer" to this one is just a question of balancing (i) your patience with diapers, (ii) your patience with training, (iii) kid's fastidiousness and (iv) kid's general orneriness. If you feel an urge to try at 18 months, go for it. If you feel like it's just pissing the kid off more than it is worth, just back off and try again later.

[baltassoc]

Originally posted by Trepidation_Mom
I'm finding this whole discussion (disturbingly) fascinating. The CW has changed so much in the last century or so (what with disposables and Goddamn Hippies and all). Sibling and I were both trained before 2 years, which was pretty average in the '70s. Average age now, I understand, is 36 mo for girls, 39 for boys (but is still in the 24 month range for cloth diaper babies).

M-i-L informed me that, when she was growing up, and so far as she knows back a couple generation before her, CW said kids were pottie trained by one year, and, generally, this was successful, despite current CW that kids aren't trainable at all until 18 months. And, it doesn't seem that as many were permanently emotionally scarred by early training as the Goddamn Hippies would have you believe.

Then there's my friend Pete. Pete was a military brat, and, when he and his siblings were all untrained and between 12 and 36 months, his mom got word that they were being moved to Mexico in 2 weeks. She decided she was not dealing with diapers in Mexico, and reportedly looked at all 3 of them and announced "you are all potty trained RIGHT NOW!" And so they were. I can't vouch for the long-term effects of this method, but the younger two are reasonably well socialized computer geeks, while the oldest is a really smart but scary-as-shit special forces guy who gets lots of decorations & commendations for killing people professionally.

I have a distinct suspicion that the "right answer" to this one is just a question of balancing (i) your patience with diapers, (ii) your patience with training, (iii) kid's fastidiousness and (iv) kid's general orneriness. If you feel an urge to try at 18 months, go for it. If you feel like it's just pissing the kid off more than it is worth, just back off and try again later.

Good points. I was surprised at how long it took. I was expecting more like 2 than 3. They just weren't getting it. Then, suddenly, they got it.

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by baltassoc
Good points. I was surprised at how long it took. I was expecting more like 2 than 3. They just weren't getting it. Then, suddenly, they got it.

There's been a bunch of local press lately about a revived interest in early potty training. Like, infant level. Lots of holding the kid over the toilet. Diapers are a pain in the ass, but it sounds like too much work to me.

[tmdiva]

Originally posted by Oliver_Wendell_Ramone
There's been a bunch of local press lately about a revived interest in early potty training. Like, infant level. Lots of holding the kid over the toilet. Diapers are a pain in the ass, but it sounds like too much work to me.

Yeah, I also read that Oregonian article with morbid fascination. But what it comes down to is to join the diaper-free movement requires much much more closeness with your child than I would want. And I'm no anti-AP type, by any stretch.

tm

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
Translation: *I* never was so prole as to have attended a public school at all.

Wrongo wrongo. I went to public school as soon as it was my choice to do so. College and LS. Suck. It.

[Ty@50]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
But there are quite a few lawyers with skidmarked briefs.

2. My mother was always too much the lady to teach me to wipe properly.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Any of you been there, done that?

I did catholic, public and private.

Catholic school (I was thrown out when I was quite little, shockingly), is the biggest waste. But at the time, it was the only decent school nearby. Public was by the far the best in re: actual learning. I loved public school. But private high school has the best parties/social life.

I can't think of any difference between private college and public college except size.

Law school is, of course, a bag of shit no matter what variety you select. Mine was runny, wet and smelled like a superfund site... beer and taco diahrea.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Any of you been there, done that?

I was all public. Based on that experience and my ability to see clearly that the entrenched teachers' unions have destroyed our nation's public school system, my kids will be all-private.

I'd sooner suck Hillary Clinton's dick than send my kids to public school. YMMV.

[viet_mom]

Originally posted by baltassoc
My one piece of advice is go with the potty seat on the big potty with a stool, and if he's too little to get up there, or at least stay up there, without being afraid, it's too early. Cleaning out those little potties is for suckers.

I'll go one further: do without the potty seat. This was the best advice I got. I have a stool (she said stool!) and Vietbabe loves to push it over to the potty and although she is the TEENIEST of babies (with practically no behind at all) she does fine balancing herself with hand/arm clutching each side of the toilet. She's been potty trained since about 18 months but that's probably b/c she is a girl and has been in daycare since potty training age (they really do a great job getting all the kids to "potty down" as they call it). I never appreciated how convenient the no pottyseat/kiddypotty is until I saw a friend's bathroom riddled with pottyseats, cushion things, etc. As far as a children's toilet -- horror!! I would rather them crap in the diaper -- at least you can throw the whole diaper out.

[pony_trekker]

Originally posted by Penske_Account
I was all public. Based on that experience and my ability to see clearly that the entrenched teachers' unions have destroyed our nation's public school system, my kids will be all-private.

I'd sooner suck Hillary Clinton's dick than send my kids to public school. YMMV.

Well, mine is a union-free school district so . . .

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by pony_trekker
Well, mine is a union-free school district so . . .

Are the teachers potty-trained?

[dtb]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
18 mos is way ambitious. I've known one kid who did this at that age. She was a girl and a second child (two factors in the plus column, upon which you cannot capitalize here), but she also had accidents until she turned 4. I regard it as incontrovertible proof of my parenting superiority that our first was trained shortly after 3 and has had precious few accidents.

Wait until the child expresses an interest in Special Underpants. Without this critical leverage, success is not assured.

My oldest was trained by age 3 and has NEVER had an accident. He took a little longer with #2 (he would ask for a diaper and poo, then ask to be changed), but when we told him there were no more diapers, he went on the potty. The youngest is about to turn 3 and has no interest (and shows no signs of developing an interest) in using the toilet. Frankly, I don't know what to do about it.