I Think This Is Too Young To Potty Train

As many of you know from a previous thread, my fiance's mom...a major sweetheart...is a control freak. The latest really bothers me. She is forcing my fiance's uncle and his wife to potty train their youngest girl! She JUST turned two in June! (Their other daughter is almost 7) I think that is too young. His mom threatens to get DCF involved so basically they are doing what she wants. I think two is WAY too young for this.

 

Dcf?

 

For one. that mom is a nut job. For two, my oldest daughter potty learned right after her 2nd birthday. I don't see potty learning to be too young at any age. Have you ever heard of Elimination Communication? It's basically diaper free baby/toddler hood. It's how they do it in parts of the world where diapers are not an option for one reason or another. That's a bit OT, but fairly relevant anyway.

As long as it's not "pushed" on the child or the child is being "punished" for having accidents, it's never too young. My 19 mo old pees on the pot from time to time, has since she was 12 months old

 

DCF=dept of child and family services.

They will laugh at her on the phone if she calls simply because they won;t teach their 2 yo how to use the pot.

 

yeah, seriously, that's just stupid, to FORCE potty training. it won't work anyway. the kid will do it naturally when she's ready. though i did like presenting the option and getting her used to her potty seat long before she was ready for it. i kept her potty seat in the bathroom for a really long time, and she'd come in and sit on it when i was on the pot myself. so there wasn't any fear of it.

 

Keep any future children you have away from her. Seriously. Will she threaten to take your kids from you if you choose to breastfeed, raise them vegan, etc?!?


The kid will just rebel if forced to use the potty.

 

I really don't think 2 is too young for most kids. My daughter was not wearing diapers during the day before she was 1 and not at all by about 15 months. The problem comes with forcing a child to into potty teaching. I had a baby potty right beside the toilet from the time Meleah was tiny and she was interested in using it. She basically trained herself. Of course, she was already walking and talking, but I think potty teaching gets harder and harder the older kids get, especially if they have not been exposed to real underwear and potties at all. I really think the pull-ups are a bad idea. Cloth diapers really help because the child can easily tell when they need to be changed. Anyway, that's my tirade. Forcing is not going to work, but gentle teaching is ok.

 

i'd have to differ on the statement that it's harder to train them when they're older. just about everything i have to teach my daughter is getting easier with age and mental maturity.

 

I think there's a serious problem between your fiancee's mom & uncle if she is 'forcing' them and threatening to call child services about something like this, however I also disagree two is necessarily too young. I recently read quite a lot about infant potty training & raising kids without diapers and was *very* impressed with that (liked it both for the method, natural & easy-going, as well as for environmental reasons, far less diapers and/or laundry to deal with!); so you can definitely potty-train before two! However, everything I found for both methods -infant potty training and later at 2-3, says that forcing things doesn't work. I can't help but worry that if the parents are pressured into doing this, they'll put that pressure on their kid too and that'll likely only work against them all.

 

I posted not too long ago about my son and my woes. After reading all the comments and whatnot, it made me realize that I need to just chill about it. I don't know why it was stressing me anyway. I am currently reading up on different methods, because I do feel like my son could do it, but I am not going to force it on him. I am soooooooo sick of diapers, though..... :/

But yeah... That lady needs a whap in the head with a frying pan...

 

I wonder what age pediatricians and child psychologists say is appropriate? I am one of those people who always goes by what the experts say. I should look it up. Oh well, today I am lazy.

I mean, she lets her wear diapers and isn't really "forcing" her, but I don't like the way she controls everything around her. But then again she can be so sweet!

 

Last time I checked the "experts" were saying age 3 (I think)...
they're always changing their minds but I haven't seen it lower than 2 or higher than 4 in the last decade.

 

I refuse to force potty training. I tried a bit more aggresively with my oldest son (first time mama, holding onto every shred of what the so-called experts claimed and what everyone else claimed that so-and-so was doing) only to have him rebel, so when I sat back, let him take the reigns, he in turn did it on his own, and was completely trained by 3 years old. Not by me, but by his own self and readiness to do so. It was like, one day out of the blue, he decided he was going to use the potty, and that was that.

With my twins, I'm super laid back about it. They're 2 years old, and are showing signs of readiness, and I'm just following their lead. You don't know how many times I get asked by people "are they potty-trained yet?" and how "so-and so who is younger is already fully trained, yadda, yadda, yadda" to which I respond with a "nope, I'm letting them decide, I refuse to force them before THEY are ready merely for MY conveinence and I'm not worried, it's not like they'll be in diapers until they're 18 or anything". That usually shuts people up.

 

Maybe it is just the stubborn kids in my family. My niece is 2, knows when she needs to use the potty, but refuses. She says, "I pee in my pants! No potty!" and laughs. With my daughter, the main thing for her was that wearing a diaper made her "dirty." She knew from very early on that having pee and poo next to your skin was yucky and she didn't like it. My niece just thinks it's funny. Go figure.