It all started with the flush of an automatic toilet. The terrifying sound marked the beginning of a two-year nightmare for Sarah Teres as she desperately tried to potty train her daughter Molly.
“It was awful” Teres said. “We tried everything including bribery and threats.” Teres, the mother of three from Andover, Massachusetts, hoped her middle child would be toilet trained by the time she was 2½…
At wits end, Teres enrolled Molly in the Toilet Training School at Children’s Hospital Boston.
“By the time the children come in with their families, it has become a power struggle,” explained Dr. Alison Schonwald, a pediatrician who supervises the “poop school,” as it’s affectionately called by staffers. “The kids kind of dig in their heels and put a line in the sand…”
She said most of the kids admit they are afraid to use a toilet. “Oftentimes, the parents come in and they want to know why they’re afraid,” Dunn said. “You could ask the kids until they’re blue in the face and you hardly ever find out why.”
I think kids are born with a denial reflex.
I assume this is accurate and the answer to the “issue”: “as she desperately tried to potty train her daughter Molly” and later there were bribes and threats.
What would have happened if the parents ignored the shit in the pants and just used the toilet themselves without comment?
Kiddies are interesting things–they grow up the way parents bend them. Sadly, we are all kiddies, and we have all been bent. Only in a certain sense, do we choose to be who we are.
One of the most interesting seldom talked about things around actually.
As a proud father of a 3 1/2 year old I read the synopsis and thought “they’re freaking out over a 2 1/2 year old?” Many children (mine included) do not start until closer to 3. These over-involved parents should think about a quote I read once…”Einstein never used flash cards.” I think it may have been a book. All kids advance at different rates and as long as the child isn’t 4 1/2 and still in pull ups the parents should slow down.
Jeeze. If they are afraid if the big noisy toilet, then get them their own little potty to use until they outgrow their fear.
Ridiculous. Normal potty-training ages range from about 2 to 5 years old and it’s almost a normal curve. It’s as unusual to potty-train a 2 year old as a 5 year old. This mom needs to quit trying to control everything and let nature take it’s course. My own son didn’t master the potty until just before his 5th birthday and when I asked a urologist about it a month before that his response was to not start worrying about it for another year and that kids figure it out eventually.
just feed your kids baked beans, stewed prunes, and bran muffins, watch how fast they make a break for the can!!
Not a psychologist or a parent, so my opinion isn’t worth much, but anything that helps kids to feel accepted as normal by their family has to be a good thing.