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Staggering number of children starting school not toilet trained, study finds
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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It's true. I work in education and we have 1st graders we are potty training. It's usually because both parents are working two jobs and are Gen z. Kids rasing kids in a society were birth rates are plummeting. Each year the drop in numbers of pre school and kindergarten students is alarming. (we had to layoff 2 pre school and 2 kindergarten teachers last year. We only have 2 of each left in a school designed for 8 each.) I live in a state that has its head above water. Imagine what it's like in Alabama or Mississippi. Places with no running water. I'd be shocked if the US even had records of poor rural town births because they don't have any hospitals out there. Probably the first time those states realize a life was born is when that parent tries enrolling their kid.
Edit: wanted to add that the talking birth rate impacts young new parents because the support network that would have helped 30 years ago is gone. On every level. Young parents could at least lean on other parents for advice and help. When you are literally the only parents in your neighborhood it's tough. Baby isles in the grocery store are smaller than ever, with companies that make baby products need to charge more because their customers base is shrinking. (why a profit based economies is a bad idea.) What does a parent do when their local school has zero prep school teachers and kinder because the school can't afford to hire a teacher for just 5 students.
As a parent trying to get a kid potty trained, modern diapers are also a problem. They are too good at their job, so there is less negative consequences and it takes them longer to identify the feelings of needing to go.
Also, it's very difficult to get daycare to stick it out with you and once a child is in the 3-4 range, it becomes exponentially more difficult to modify bathroom habits. They will literally shit themselves just because you ask them to use a toilet at this stage.
When our kid had just turned 3, we had started making really solid progress finally. He was good with pee, starting to (slowly) get the hang of pooping, and would actually request to go to the bathroom before bedtime if he felt he needed to. Then daycare basically said they wouldn't deal with poopy training underwear anymore and bring him back with diapers, and all progress was lost. Now, nearly a year later, it feels like we're still clawing our way back to where we were.
It's because your daycare staff is under paid, under trained, and under supported. We treat child care workers like trash in America. I have teacher friends ready to go to manual labor over teaching another day.
I don't disagree, but doesn't change the fact it makes it even more challenging to potty train. But, yeah, our daycare workers make barely anything and it's still around 40k/yr here for full time daycare at a good but average daycare. It's nuts.
Go back to cloth. Gross but at least you'll save money. I'm 37 and I was in cloth diapers. The disposable diapers revolution was never ment to be the everyday diaper. Great when on the go but if you are going to be home. Plus the environment.
It can be an expensive initial investment these days. To get back to it would likely require a state sponsored program with classes on how it all actually works.
12 years ago, I got a whole set of cloth diapers (20 inserts) and 10 covers for around $100. No doubt its twice as much today..
I didn't even end up using them, I had to move to a new place, it didn't have on site laundry. Wasn't using cloth diapers without a washing machine. Did end up giving them for free to a couple expecting.
My grandmother wanted to pay for a diaper services for me, a thing of her time. It's not a thing anymore, but I guess you could hire a service, they would come and take the dirty ones and give you clean ones weekly back in the day.
Yeah we took away the diapers when it was time to train and our child hated being wet he was trained to pee in the toilet in about a week.
BMs took a bit longer and had a few gross accidents, but we got there in a month or two.
Surely you could just buy worse diapers?
Cloth diapers are definitely still an option.
People in poor rural towns still go to the hospital to give birth. They might have to travel a bit, but generally there's a hospital that services a whole county.
Do they? It cost almost $20k to give birth in America. Do you think rural people have good insurance or can afford that. I know of three kids that were born at home with no medical aid. They couldn't afford it.
Most of those county hospitals are publicly funded and do indigent care.
Maybe the rate of home births is higher in rural areas than urban ones, but having kids at home isn't the norm. People just go into debt instead.
Source: I live in the rural South in an area serviced by a county hospital, know people in the county hospital maternity ward and administration, and my SO is from another rural area and knew people from their county hospital.
I guess both options aren't mutually exclusive.
They are on Medicaid and will absolutely report the births because it's more government assistance, especially before age 5 when they can get WIC.
It's actually easier to raise children if you're poor because of the benefits cliffs but WIC in particular is actually very generous with the income limits. It only takes a couple kids (they don't all have to be under five to count) to hit a cap that exceeeds local median wages.
The same medicaid Trump and Musk cut, and Republican governments refused to extend subsidies for? Those same services?
Yes. But now we're talking about face eating leopards and hypocrisy. People who voted against government benefits still apply for government benefits.
applying is different than receiving.