"My son learned to use the potty at 8 months old": mom faces a storm of critisism
There is a time for everything in life, including learning how to do new things. This is as true for adults as it is for children, and especially when the latter are pushed by their parents to be developmentally advanced at any cost. For example, this English mother, was strongly criticized for having revealed to the world on the web and to her many followers, that she has never liked to use a diaper on her children when it was not really needed. Instead, she has taught them to use the potty from the very young age of only eight months ...
via Daily Mail UK
The mother's name is Katherine Ryan, and she is a 38-year-old woman who is very popular in the UK because she works as a TV comedian. She is also very popular on her Instagram account. And it was on Instagram that some of her posts sparked a heated discussion on the web. Katherine made no secret of a how she raised her two children, and she wrote about this on her IG account. Currently, Katherine has a 12-year-old daughter named Violet and a little son named Fred, both of whom have been trained to use the potty from a very early age, and without having worn hardly any diapers. Maybe this was a little too soon?
On Instagram, the woman said: "I hate writing this because I know I'm going to spark a lot of controversy, but for those who know my potty ethics and the success I have with little Violet, my first daughter, this news won't be be a surprise. Fred was able to use his potty properly within 8 months of having been born and we can count the amount of daipers we used on him on one hand. I didn't know if the potty training would work for Fred, but it turns out that it did. Potty train your kids before they need to wear diapers as a matter of course - they can do it! "
The philosophy behind this approach of Katherine, is the idea that if a very young child (e.g. one who is under the age of 15 months) becomes accustomed to using a diaper every time they relieve themselves, they automatically get used to soiling themselves in this way and they do not learn the "responsibility" of cleaning their own private parts (if one can speak of responsibility for such small children).
Katherine Ryan further added: "People may disagree with me, I don't care, but I do care when I have to share a space with a four-year-old who still has a diaper on. When you put a diaper on your son, you are not only delaying their toilet training, you are training them to do their business in their pants. "
What do you think of the early potty training approach of this English mother? Maybe it is a little too early to educate kids on how to use the potty when they are less than 15 months old?
Pediatricians, in fact, agree that the right age to learn how to use the potty is between 18 and 24 months, but obviously it does happen much earlier!
