Apparently, there are an increasing number of kids, with no physical or cognitive disabilities whatsoever, who are entering kindergarten without being potty-trained.  This is hard to fathom.  In the past, the vast majority of children were fully potty-trained around three years old, give or take a couple of months.

However, today, kindergarten teachers often report to We Are Teachers that 15–20% of their classroom is not potty-trained and that even a few first-graders are still in pull-ups.  (Again, this does not include kids with medical issues, or physical or cognitive disabilities.)  Sadly, there is a growing trend of children reaching the age of five without being potty-trained.

Many teachers have taken to online sites such as Reddit to opine and vent their frustration with yet another unpleasant issue with which they must deal.  Some blame the lack of training on the new phenomenon called "gentle parenting," wherein parents hope to foster a healthy relationship with their children by validating their emotions instead of coaxing and punishing.  These parents purport to respect their children's individuality and feelings — and often believe that it is harmful to force children to learn how to use a toilet before they express that they are ready. 

One Reddit user noted: "Some parents believe that they are supposed to protect their child from every kind of discomfort, so the minute their child protests they take it as a sign their kid isn't ready."

"@maren.theteacher," an educator on TikTok, took to the platform to reveal that she had noticed a "skill discrepancy" among her students, and not just when it comes to potty-training.  Maren, who teaches third grade, claimed that during the previous school year, she had many students without disabilities or developmental delays who still did not know how to tie their shoes or zip their coats. 

Let's cut the crap.  "Gentle parenting" is b-------.  Those who wish to "protect their child from every kind of discomfort" are setting them up to be miserable failures, emphasis on "miserable."  The pain kids raised like this will experience later in life will be all too real…and there will likely be no one there to hold their hands, wipe their noses, make them hot chocolate, and tell them that everything will be okay.  Children need to be taught that life can be tough but that it can be marvelously rewarding, much the more so with hard work, faith, and a good attitude.

If parents abdicate their responsibilities and wait for their kids to tell them what gender they are, when they are ready to use the toilet, and when they wish to learn to read, write, go to bed, eat well, exercise, etc., etc., their kids will almost certainly be spoiled rotten and utterly incapable of dealing with the real world.  Or of having deep and meaningful relationships…and a deep and meaningful life.

This trend, too, is part of the continuing infantilization of America.  Fewer and fewer people ever truly grow up to be well adjusted, generally content, high-functioning adults who do more for society than they expect society government to do for them.

And it's not just kids who need diapers.  It often seems adults — like President Biden and Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) for instance — could use some as well.  They, too, are literally and/or figuratively crapping on America.

Image: Picryl.