Milo Isn't Interested

Interesting comments in reaction to this NYT blog post about a kid who is almost 4 and still in diapers. It's funny to me how this sort of made-up notion about "readiness", which wasn't actually based on any research, ended up becoming the mantra of potty training. So now kids train about a year later than they did a couple of generations ago. If there was something truly biological about this readiness stuff, then you'd probably see kids training at about the same age across history and cultures. That's not the case, however, and kids these days are potty training later than ever before. My guess is that disposable diapers and pull ups might have something to do with that.

At the same time, Milo and Nora aren't potty trained yet. They're sort of behind in comparison to their peers around the neighborhood. They play with a number of different friends their age who are now potty trained. A couple of their friends trained before 2. But at 2.5, Milo and Nora aren't even close. It bothers me a little bit to know that they're behind, especially because it would be nice to stop washing diapers. But, they've never exactly been at the top of the curve when it comes to physical developments like sitting, crawling, or walking. So I suppose potty training late sort of fits in with that trend. They weigh as much as babies 1 year younger than them, so sometimes I wonder if their size is related to being on a slightly slower-paced curve.

And I can kind of see why parents don't push it because man, what a pain. I haven't done anything to try to train them yet. We've been sitting them on the potty since they were much younger, but that's about as far as we've taken it. We haven't done that classic "ditch the diapers and potty train in a weekend" thing or anything like that. Because why? To be honest, I'm lazy, I guess, and procrastinating it. Also, it's weather related. I figure I want to do it when it's hot, so that means summer. So that they can be in as little clothing as possible, or naked.

I guess I'll probably do something about it later this summer, and give it a try in August before school starts. If they take to it, great, if not, then we'll wait. I don't think that encouraging kids to use the potty is "pushing". Pushing isn't the same as encouraging, and frankly I can understand the draw of diapers from a toddler's point of view. Milo especially does not want to stop his playing and have to think about the potty. But training will be good for their little bottoms, which still occasionally get sore and red. And I do not believe in waiting until a toddler necessarily decides that he or she is ready and eager to do something new. If I followed that philosophy, then the kids would still be using bottles and still be eating baby food. So obviously they need a little structure and guidance from us.

Anyway, today I was in Target and I bought some training pants for the kids for later this summer if we decide to give the whole thing a good old college try. Jake was putting them away and he remarked to Milo "Oh, it looks like Mommy got some training pants." Milo immediately said "I don't want those. I want diapers." Okay then! Hard to get a clearer message than that!