This definitely sounds like a discipline issue, not a medical or developmental issue. My one son is autistic and most any normal way of doing things never worked for him. When he was three we spent a week visiting my parents. They are in the country and at that time my son was obsessed with bugs. He was ready for potty training, but had a hard time understanding the concept. I let him run around their property in just a t shirt. I saw an ant on the tree and I asked him if he could pee on it. He did. After a few times of doing this I brought an ant in the house and put it in the toilet and asked him to pee on it. He did, and he was trained from that point on.
Jakk, what a creative way of doing it (though I doubt the ants appreciated it, lol!) Just out of curiosity, could it be a cultural thing? Are they from another country?
I agree 100%! If a child is old/smart enough to laugh and know it is wrong then they are old enough to go to the bathroom. Sidenote even if they are not, the mom is!!!!! It is her fault for letting them do this, she should get a hold of her children and be a parent! There is never an exucse for behavior like this! There is never an excuse to have your child playing with themselves in front of others. I know kids play with themselves, but we have taught ours that is something you do by yourself in your room not in front of others. She needs to step up and be a parent! Teach her children to go to the bathroom, how to wear clothes, have respect for their home and others! If they cannot go she should know the signs of when they need to go and get off her butt and take them to the bathroom! Just my opinion!
I was going to ask the same thing Jackie did: Are they maybe from another culture? I know some people who can be really lax, because sometimes they come from small villages and such, where the kids just run around naked, and are potty trained "naturally"...Not everyone has the same sense of hygiene, and some things are considered fine in one place, and unthinkable in another. Anyone see the movie "Babies", and the totally different approaches to child rearing? The american and Japanese families with their high tech equipment, hospitals, baby yoga, etc, and the Nigerian (I think?) mother, who had her baby on the dirt floor in her hut, and scraping off his poop on her knee with some kind of branch or twig... But if they are not from a place where such things are acceptable, then they are just plain lazy, and actually might even be endagering their children. So many germs floating around...brrrr!
That film annoyed the heck out of my mother (who has dealt with third world communities) due to the idealized view of the baby crawling across the (presumably feces-filled) fields with the cows standing around. She commented on the fact that they didn't show the third world babies getting vaccinated, and she added that she'd like to see these babies in five years and then again in ten and fifteen. Assuming some of the babies even live, and don't end up succumbing to various parasites and diseases. Preventable childhood diseases can cause life-long health issues, and also have been shown to have a statistical impact on the overall IQ of a population. My daughter really liked the film, though! She apparently sat through the entire thing going, "Ohhh... babies!" while her grandma grumbled beside her. :lol:
