Toddler

Kids get brand new personalities, it seems, when they trot off to daycare. At his “school,” my four-year-old son, Leo, puts on a snowsuit without protest, washes his hands after being asked once, and cheerily puts away his toys. He’s so not like this at home.

And (surprise, surprise) it was at daycare where he sat on the toilet for the first time, discovered the joy of flushing and learned what it felt like to “go.” Before age three, this wilful, dreamy child was fully trained. Although my husband and I had put him on the toilet from time to time and bought him Thomas underwear, his daycare providers did the real work of making bathroom visits a regular part of his life.

To find out more about the magic skills daycare workers seem to have in the land of diapers, I asked some early childhood educators across the country how they do it. First, they admitted that simply not being a child’s parents has its benefits. “We have a very different relationship with the kids. We’re able to hold the line,” says James Barker, site director of the Front Street location of Kids & Company in Toronto.

Not only do daycare workers tend to be firmer than parents, they also worry less and rarely get riled up in matters of the toilet. “Parents need to relax,” says Vivian Turner, executive director of the Garneau University Childcare Centre in Edmonton. “There are very few adults walking around in diapers.”

Here’s some more bottom-line advice on potty training from the pros.

Originally published in Today's Parent, July 2008