Toilet training issues

[DianaR]

I have noticed that many young parents are having extreme problems with toilet training.  I am a bit old fashioned and have never believed this was something to be child driven, but a requirement for functional human.

Has something changed in how parents are told how to accomplish this civilizing step with their children?

[SWM]

how do parents learn their parenting skills anyway. i always thought parents were left to figure it out for themselves.

[Kpsymom]

wow, I realize this is a really old post, but its pretty relevant to my life right now.
 
im not sitting here going "do you want to use the potty?" and letting him choose.

But I am also not forcing, or even worried about how soon (he is 21 months).  I put it this way: the skills required are: understanding the physical feeling of needing to go to the bathroom, being able to communicate the need to go to the bathroom, and having some amount of patience to sit on the toilet long enough. All of these are skills that my son is either completely lacking in or finding frustration with. I'd rather work on improving these skills with him before expecting him to use them all at once like that. However, if by the age of 3, maybe 3 1/2, I haven’t felt "the time is right" then he's going to be trained regardless of how satisfactory his skills are. I have a few people in my life pressuring me to train him right away, my reply to that is…the way I discipline my child will effect him for the rest of his life, not being potty trained before 2 or even 3, will probably not.