Mom Is Frustrated With Grandma For Putting Pull-Ups On Potty Training 4-Year-Old

No one ever said potty training was easy. It’s one of the great mysteries of parenting. No matter how many times you’ve been through it, it doesn’t get any easier. So when a mom took to Reddit to rant about her own mother not following her potty training rules for her 4-year-old son, people understood her frustration.

The mom in question took to the popular “Am I The A**hole” sub-Reddit forum with an issue she’s been having while living with her mother temporarily. “I have a 4 year old son who showed very little interest in using the bathroom other then [sic] in a pull up. He starts kindergarten next year and won’t be able to attend unless he is fully potty trained, which is understandable,” she explained in her Reddit viral post.

Because of the time constraint here, the mom made the decision to take away her son’s pull-ups, a rule she expected her own mother to follow while she watched her grandson during the day. “She does watch him while I work but anytime she takes him out she puts a pull up on him instead of him telling her he has to go to the bathroom,” she explained, and said she was getting frustrated with buying these expensive items as well as worrying about her son’s backslide.

“I do know this is not her responsibility to potty train him but it has gotten to the point he screams for a pull up. Quite frankly I am tired of buying them as they are extremely expensive, even the cheapest ones I can find,” the mom added.

The original poster specified that she had been trying to potty train her son since he was one year old but nothing appeared to be working. “At 2 was when I started to potty train full time with him wearing pull ups a timer set for every 30 mins and I would have him sit on it, and he hated it, would sit there crying and screaming only actually going in it a few times.”

This mom is understandably frustrated and asked Redditors if she was an “a**hole” for telling her mom “she is part of the reason my son won’t be potty trained.”

Ultimately, Redditors were pretty divided. Some took issue with how she was treating her mother through the process. “If your child has gotten to FOUR years old and still isn’t potty trained/wears pull-ups, it’s your own fault and nobody else’s,” wrote one person, while another added, “Four is very, very late and Grandma is already providing free childcare she shouldn’t have to potty train too. Gently reinforce he is fine without and see how he does.”

Still, one Redditor pointed out, “no it sounds like he is potty trained but the grandmother is confusing him by keeping him in pull ups while she babysits. i’d assume he knows how to use the bathroom but finds it more convenient to go in the pull up. but why agree to babysit if you don’t expect do any teaching or anything? it’s a kid not a plant.”

Another wrote, “Potty training is different with every kid. Consistency is the key. So if she’s ruining your consistency it’s going to ruin potty training.”

Finally, a fellow mom shared, “Ugh, i feel your pain. I had my daughter almost completely trained during summer vacation then I had to go back to work and my husband watched her and put her back in diapers for convenience, setting us back a year. So yeah, mostly NTA.”

Ultimately, everyone in the house will benefit from this 4-year-old being potty trained. Including the grandma, who will be off duty from babysitting when he’s in kindergarten. Fingers crossed all around.