The Straight Truth About American Potty Training
Before parents were able to easily acquire disposable diapers in any warehouse store across the country, the vast majority of children in the United States were potty trained prior to blowing to their first birthday.
But that all started to shift in the late 1950s and 1960s when American parents first started to dance with the idea of putting off potty training until after their child’s first year, the idea being that they would take care of potty training their child prior to age two.
At the time, this was a radical philosophy. The new notion was first introduced by a Dr. Brazelton, the good Dr. arguing that children aren’t really ready to be trained until after they are able to walk by themselves. Since children generally don’t start walking until around one to one and a half years old, the entire American potty training paradigm experienced more than a subtle shift.
Though Dr. Brazelton’s philosophy was considered a substantial delay at that time, jumping through five decades now finds the majority of American parents being advised to postpone the potty training of their child until they have the verbal and motor skills more often associated with a 3 year old toddler.
Is this postponement considered progress?
In the meantime, the rest of the world continues to happily potty train their children without the use of readily available disposables – or pressure, undue punishing, or any other form of psychological damage. When you consider that throughout the history of the world children have been trained far earlier than what is now commonplace in the United States, you have to ask yourself, “Are we doing the right thing in this country?”
Here are a few potty training facts to consider:
- The average age for potty training in this country is steadily rising. In the 1940s, the average was 18 months. Today, it has jumped to 35 months for girls and a staggering 39 months for boys.
- Potty training a child early has no effect on the development of their personality, as clearly demonstrated by countless studies.
- Parents can start the process of potty training at any age.
- Teaching a child to use the potty can be as easy as teaching them to manipulate a stack of blocks.
If you would like more information on the potty training in the US vs. the rest of the world, you can download this free report, “The Truth About Potty Training in America.“
Sean Platt is a ghostwriter and dad. Subscribe (for free) to his feed here.
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Glad to read this! I plan to start potty training my 23-month old daughter very soon, and people think I am crazy for doing so this young. She has the skills and is very regularly asking to use the potty now, so in my opinion, it would be verging on laziness on my part for me to not potty train her now.
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Glad to read this! I plan to start potty training my 23-month old daughter very soon, and people think I am crazy for doing so this young. She has the skills and is very regularly asking to use the potty now, so in my opinion, it would be verging on laziness on my part for me to not potty train her now.
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Missing the potty training as a father was a blessing and a curse. Missed it for all of the wrong reasons.
Now was a grandfather, it was tough watching my daughter-in-law try to manage twins learning to potty train and then a younger sibling as well. She tried all manner of things but ultimately it was there decision. Ha.
So glad we’re passed that stage now.
To your point though, in America we are big on ‘standards’; sadly these aren’t often based on biology or reality.
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Missing the potty training as a father was a blessing and a curse. Missed it for all of the wrong reasons.
Now was a grandfather, it was tough watching my daughter-in-law try to manage twins learning to potty train and then a younger sibling as well. She tried all manner of things but ultimately it was there decision. Ha.
So glad we’re passed that stage now.
To your point though, in America we are big on ‘standards’; sadly these aren’t often based on biology or reality.
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My wife and I have agreed that we will potty train our son Fionn (20 months) when he is ready. Up until recently he has shown no interest in potty training or shown any sign that he knows his diaper is even dirty. Recently, this has started to change, in an alarming way, as the other morning while going to the bathroom I all of a sudden had a tiny hand reaching for the urine stream on its way to the toilet. Since then every time he sees me going into the bathroom he wants to come and watch the process. Yesterday, for the first time, he told me that he had a poo in his diaper before I noticed.
Are we going to start potty training him immediately because of this? No, but as he shows more interest, and if HE wants to give it a try, we will give it a go. But we have no plans of pressuring him or speeding up the process because of any official numbers that are posted by various organizations.
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My wife and I have agreed that we will potty train our son Fionn (20 months) when he is ready. Up until recently he has shown no interest in potty training or shown any sign that he knows his diaper is even dirty. Recently, this has started to change, in an alarming way, as the other morning while going to the bathroom I all of a sudden had a tiny hand reaching for the urine stream on its way to the toilet. Since then every time he sees me going into the bathroom he wants to come and watch the process. Yesterday, for the first time, he told me that he had a poo in his diaper before I noticed.
Are we going to start potty training him immediately because of this? No, but as he shows more interest, and if HE wants to give it a try, we will give it a go. But we have no plans of pressuring him or speeding up the process because of any official numbers that are posted by various organizations.
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