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    Staggering number of children starting school not toilet trained, study finds
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    Staggering number of children starting school not toilet trained, study finds

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    29 Comments

    3. Opposite_Bus1878 on

      Are there any potential correlations in the northeast that could potentially explain this?

    5. Earl0fYork on

      Parenting has gone down the toilet lately.

      Literacy, IQ hell even social skills are getting worse and we all know why

      I pity the next generations

    7. mad_marble_madness on

      “Remember to fill in your C-01 permit before any act that could result in a child.”

      Sarcasm nearly always has a kernel of truth to it.
      …especially so the excellent (imho) sarcasm of Helldivers 2…

    8. QuietGanache on

      >Nearly all parents (94 per cent) said they would like to see national guidance on making sure their child is school ready.

      This is the bit that startles me. I could be underestimating this but it seems like five minutes thinking about what a child would do at school and what they’d need to do it would generate a pretty comprehensive list.

    9. ButterscotchSure6589 on

      I remember reading the same thing 30 yrs ago, also how some children have never seen a book. Nothings changed.

    11. FindTheAdventure on

      UK kids start school at four years old. That’s pretty young. I’m not really surprised.

      In Sweden it’s 6 years old, in France it’s 7. US 5-8 depending on the state.

    14. No-Scholar4854 on

      This survey comes round every year, it’s never been very statistically rigorous. It exists so the charity that commissions it can pitch for funding and to give the newspapers a cheap “parents these days eh?” story.

      “Not toilet trained” means that they had a few accidents. They’re 4, in a new and unfamiliar situation. That happens.

    15. fianthewolf on

      Basically, it’s because parents want to get rid of childcare, so if before we started at age 5, now they start in preschool at age 2. They’re running away from their responsibility.

    17. LittlePurpleHook on

      Parental leave in the UK is atrocious, living on a single income is impossible for most. In some cases (like mine), potty training can take a month of hands-on work. It’s very convenient and easy to dismiss the problem as “lazy parenting” rather than examining the real issue.

    18. Saddest-Sloth on

      next Nvidia CES show: “I present you… AI Parent! The only device and app your child needs to become an adult, for a low, low price of 199.99 euro a month.”

    19. Dd_8630 on

      I’d prefer a headline that used statistics over vaguaries like ‘staggering’. Just say ‘X% of kids go to school not toilet trained, up from X% in 2010″.

    21. nvkylebrown on

      The article mentions staff changing nappies. Seems like being in nappies be an automatic disqualifier for “school ready”.

      The article isn’t very specific about ages. One mention of “4 and 5 year olds”. But… there is a push in many countries to get kids into school earlier and earlier. No mention here of what impact that could be having, or whether some of this is what would used to have been preschool.

    22. CDBoomGun on

      So, just my perspective and there are many: I had to potty train my son at least partially by 3. The preschool that we could afford wouldn’t take students that weren’t partially potty trained, so we started about 6 months before. I think there are many parents that had to stay home because they couldn’t afford childcare, and then they had less to compare to. Also, kids do better with the hard stuff when they are around their peers and see them do it. Even the book I read on potty training explained how hard it can be when a kid hits a more autonomous age. I also think there has been a lot of child-led learning pushed on social media. That doesn’t help for the hard stuff.

    23. Responsible-Act7 on

      Being a parent means you have to think for yourself because you need to think about what’s best for your kids. What YOU THINK not what someone else thinks. 

      You cannot put your kids education into someone else hands.

      I have 2 little terrors and it’s hard, they have to be taught everything, every little thing, that’s on the parents, on me and their mother.

      Do it right from the start. They have to learn hard lessons from parents, toliet training, how to live with others, how to live with themselves, how their bodies work etc. Do the hard work, it does get easier. Put in good foundations for your kids. Talk to your kids it actually not that hard. That’s what the government should be teaching parents.

      I do think we are also missing out on the “It takes a village” supports that were an organic part of kids development that sucks but parents can fill that gap as well if needed.

      Kids are people too.

    25. RelampagoCero on

      My child’s mother said he’ll learn when he’s ready. When I had my child during the summer break, I taught my child in less than 1 week.

    26. WileyCoyote7 on

      And here I thought showing up without at least knowing your ABC’s and 123’s was the lowest, as it was in my day. Sure, here and there a kid would wet their pants but it was because they were shy to ask or couldn’t hold it. But not knowing *how* to go is another level.

    28. Urvuturamus on

      As someone who works in early child education, this is a pattern we’ve been observing and are actively working to combat. We’re actively starting potty training in our work to show parents of toddlers that its something their kids are ready for.
      Average age for being potty trained has been creeping upwards for many years, and it isnt a question of parenting per se.

      Mostly it’s just diapers being too good. Diapers these days are usually too comfortable, so alot of traditional thinking around potty training gets warped. They are crazy absorbent which means kids don’t actually feel any significant feedback in peeing themselves, which makes the whole thing much harder. There doesn’t really come a time where the kids themselves show that they don’t need the diaper anymore, which makes a lot of parents postpone properly potty training for longer.