When should you potty train your child? 1 year? 2 years....5!!??

American families seem to be quite a bit more lazy in these regards. The thought of their child peeing on the floor does not exactly go over well, but even less so the idea of taking your time as a parent to run to the toilet with your child every time they may be having a bowel movement and then having to sit and teach them what the toilet is for and how mommy and daddy use it too.

In China ALL children are potty-trained before the age of two because that is simply the way of life there. Most families do not have luxurious amenities like carpet to worry about so when it comes time to potty train, they let the child run around with out any bottoms on and thy pee on the floor until the quickly figure out what is happening and use the toilet.


I had a family with four and two year old girls. The four year old was potty trained and did everything in a timely fashion on her own. The two year old was very intelligent and noticed that her big sister was using the big girl toilet so she wanted to learn too. She would tun up to me and point at her diaper and grab me while begging me to taker her to the big girl potty. This little girl was clearly ready to do this all on her own but when I described this to her parents their reaction was that she was still young so why bother dealing with it yet if they didn't have to. They would rather continue paying for diapers than take the time to help their child onto the toilet. There was nothing I could do, I was completely out numbered. Consistency is key and if they were not willing to help then everything we would work so hard for during the day would be completely done at night.

One of my Gymboree teachers told me a story about one of the families they work with. They had a five year-old child who was still wearing diapers! They literally explained the situation as "they didn't feel like it". The teacher literally had to say that if your child is not potty-trained by five then he/she is concidered handicapped. The child was potty-trained within a week! Imagine that!


There are numerous books and articles out there by Ph.D. authors telling you when your child is or isn't ready but it is my personal opinion that your child will only be as ready as you are.

Johnny, I said NO!

Over the past few years I have been constantly engaging with families. No matter what background,ethnicity, religion or social class they all seemed to have one thing in common: Lack of discipline.

In the new millennium it is ill-advised to "discipline" your child. In fact physical discipline is obsolete and anything close to as impacting is considered boarder line improper. Keeping all of this in mind, it still seems very necessary to TEACH discipline to your children so that they respect you, other authorities and maintain over-all composer.

Numerous times I have seen a child run screaming through a grocery store, yell at their parents, throw a tantrum on the floor or some other unwarranted behavior and the response is always the same: "Oh thats just johnny's personality". Give me a break parents! You are cutting slack for your child purely out of your own laziness! Get it together!

Consider the possible substitutes for old-fashioned discipline; Grounding, corner time and loss of privileges. There are plenty of ways to reinforce good behavior. Taking the extra five minutes to correct your child every day could potentially mean the difference in his/her success in school or even in their professional careers.

I want my mommy

I have been watching this 1 year old for about 4 months now. He used to be very content with me and seemed to really enjoy the time that we spent together. Lately, however, the tables have turned. He is discontent all day long, constantly whining and frustrated and continues to be so around his parents. The only way that I can get him to calm down is to take him outside, for a ride in the car or to the store. I have previously stated that I do not think that having a nanny take care of you at such a young age could have an adverse effect, or even be noticed, but something is telling me that I am wrong. Everything about this child's behavior is screaming "I need my mommy" and I don't think he is going to get what he wants.

How am I going to enable this child's social and emotional growth without disconnecting his relationship with his parents while continuing to allow more stability and comfort with me?

To stay at home or not to stay at home...that is the question

I have been going to Gymboree class every week with my current charge and I realized that I am the only nanny. I found myself discussing my child's situation with one of the moms and it occurred to me that it seems very abnormal to people outside of our circle. My charge has 4 care givers, a mom, dad, nanny and adopted Chinese grandmother. He sees me 50 hours a week, the Chinese grandma 20 hours a week and then his biological parents fill in the blanks wherever necessary. The mother I was speaking with was appalled at the thought of leaving her child to be raised by someone else, after all, she brought him into the world. Then today a random thought crossed my mind, this is the most critical time in my charge's life. There should be someone with him all of the time giving him one on one affection and teaching him life's lessons. Pretty soon he will be going to pre-school and then he won't need me anymore. He won't even remember that I was there and not his mommy; it will be mommy greeting him after school every day, not me. So does it really matter who does the dirty work now? As long as he is getting the most love and quality care?

I need someone to hold me...pretty please

Days like today I have to wonder what some people are thinking when they have a child. The Kid I am a nanny for started crying uncontrollably during his nap, all he needed was for me to hold him and love him. He doesn't know that I didn't sleep at all last night because I didn't feel good or that I had just been crying because today is one of those days where I would like someone to hold me. He doesn't have a choice he can't talk yet, all he can do is cry. So what in the world are people doing leaving their kid in his or her crib crying hystarically while they finish there text or dvr'd program?? Why are only stupid people breeding?