Porta Potty Humour
I thought Elizabeth was still in a crawling stage in 1979, and here she is in today’s For Better or For Worse strip, walking about with a potty on her head that looks like a cooking pot. The unsteady walk says she might be a little over a year old. If that is the case, then she is way too young to begin potty-training.
I remember the potty-training nightmare in our house. My son was in a daycare facility in Texas. You “graduated” from different areas to move to the next class, if you met certain developmental criteria. All during the early stages of parenting, my wife and I got the big message from the parenting books, “Don’t push your child into potty training, or you will traumatize them for life.” So we were determined to let things flow naturally so to speak. Then we got to the 2-year-old classroom, where you couldn’t go to the next level unless you were potty-trained. The teachers of the class started putting pressure on us to get my son potty-trained because they wanted him to move up to the next level, i.e. they were tired of dealing with him. It was a very stressful time, trying to not to pressure my son, and yet getting all this pressure from others.
So, I can’t imagine what Elly must be going through to get this pressure from her mom, when Elizabeth has to be barely one year old. That’s ridiculously early, and yet I know, from hearing and seeing other parents operate, there are parents who really do start toilet-training their children the moment they started walking.
As for walking with their training potty on their head, let me think if my kids were strong enough to hoist that thing up over their head at that age? The answer to that is no.
I remember the potty-training nightmare in our house. My son was in a daycare facility in Texas. You “graduated” from different areas to move to the next class, if you met certain developmental criteria. All during the early stages of parenting, my wife and I got the big message from the parenting books, “Don’t push your child into potty training, or you will traumatize them for life.” So we were determined to let things flow naturally so to speak. Then we got to the 2-year-old classroom, where you couldn’t go to the next level unless you were potty-trained. The teachers of the class started putting pressure on us to get my son potty-trained because they wanted him to move up to the next level, i.e. they were tired of dealing with him. It was a very stressful time, trying to not to pressure my son, and yet getting all this pressure from others.
So, I can’t imagine what Elly must be going through to get this pressure from her mom, when Elizabeth has to be barely one year old. That’s ridiculously early, and yet I know, from hearing and seeing other parents operate, there are parents who really do start toilet-training their children the moment they started walking.
As for walking with their training potty on their head, let me think if my kids were strong enough to hoist that thing up over their head at that age? The answer to that is no.
posted by howard at 11:58 PM
13 Comments:
A one-year-old Lizzie is too early for the potty at that despite how hard Grandma Marian pushed. As for why she has the chamber pot on her head, I can think of how it got there right off. I'd say "How-it-got-there" spent Monday pulling her hair out strand-by-strand because he hated her.
Liz was at the crawling stage when the strip began in 1979, but despite Lynn's current claim that the ages were frozen then, during the first year Liz progressed to toddling and Michael completed kindergarten and began grade one. I would place this strip sometime in 1980. I could not find this strip in the first collection, but found a related one (Elly urging Nizzie to use the "poe") near the end of that 1979-1980 series.
What I want to know is why the potty issue was any of Grandma Marian's business. Where's that patented "Thank you for your concern, but we're going to handle this in our own way" the Patterson women have come to favor?
She was young and insecure back then. It took her until they were in school to finally ignore what her parents said.
aprilp_katje,
I could not find this strip in the first collection, but found a related one (Elly urging Nizzie to use the "poe") near the end of that 1979-1980 series.
Are saying this one is in a later collection, it's probably there but you didn't have time to do a thorough search, or maybe this is a strip the syndicate originally rejected in 1980?
Where's that patented "Thank you for your concern, but we're going to handle this in our own way" the Patterson women have come to favor?
When it came to raising children, I thought that was something only said to Grandma Mira. Lovey Salzman's advice was like gold, no matter how ridiculous it was.
dreadedcandiru2,
As for why she has the chamber pot on her head, I can think of how it got there right off. I'd say "How-it-got-there" spent Monday pulling her hair out strand-by-strand because he hated her.
I can see a "Look at this great hat, Lizzie" coming from Michael at that age.
She was young and insecure back then. It took her until they were in school to finally ignore what her parents said.
Elly having issues with her mom over raising her kids are stories which I frankly do not remember at all, but I haven't read those strips in years. Did they have big fights over it?
Not so much fights as Elly complaining that Marian that of her as being relatively young and this, in her mond, not worth taking seriously. Once she'd convinced herself she could ignore people who said she wasn't older than the hills, she could do whatever she wanted.
At one time I remember it was almost a contest between "upscale professionals" to have their children walk/talk/potty-trained as early as possible as though that was an indicator of the child's intelligence instead of part of a developmental stage.
Thank goodness that attitude is mostly gone. Of course, now I read about parents already selecting universities for their infants!
DebJyn
So, I guess that in addition to being abusive, Lynn's mother was a majorly nosy pain in the ass buttinsky? Or maybe this is normal. I hear stories like this often enough to believe that grandparents do this kind of thing frequently. I guess there was a hidden benefit to Mom's parents being dead and my Dad's parents not caring about us at all. Sheesh. Back off, grandparents. Like, what did Marian think? That Elly was just going to let Lizzie grow up without ever getting trained? Sheesh.
qnjones,
Like, what did Marian think? That Elly was just going to let Lizzie grow up without ever getting trained? Sheesh.
Considering that Elly should already be knowledgeable on the subject with Michael, what it leaves you with is the impression that Elly did such a poor job with Michael, Marian feels the need to correct Elly with Lizzie. I can only imagine what horrifically bad things she did wrong with Michael to warrant this kind of attention.
DebJyn,
At one time I remember it was almost a contest between "upscale professionals" to have their children walk/talk/potty-trained as early as possible as though that was an indicator of the child's intelligence instead of part of a developmental stage.
When I lived in the Dallas area, that was definitely the case. There were 2-3 year waiting lists for the best pre-schools and things like that. Arizona ranks 49 or 50th on the list for education funding, so naturally it’s a less of a concern here.
Howard: what it leaves you with is the impression that Elly did such a poor job with Michael, Marian feels the need to correct Elly with Lizzie. I can only imagine what horrifically bad things she did wrong with Michael to warrant this kind of attention.
Well, I guess that's what you think. But since we've seen no evidence that Mike's got "potty issues," it just makes me think Marian is emotionally abusive/manipulative and enjoys belittling Elly.
The unsteady walk says she might be a little over a year old. If that is the case, then she is way too young to begin potty-training.
Not so--some parents begin toilet training babies! I rolled my eyes when I read this article in the The New York Times.
Anon NYC
Anon NYC,
Interesting article. I stand corrected. If only I had toilet-trained my little ones when they were under a year old.
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