Patty training is not easy, regardless of what country you are living in. Western and Chinese parents approach potty training in different ways. Western parents use diapers, and they gradually train their babies to use a potty with pull-up pants and then eventually to go to the toilet by themselves. "I have a friend in the United States, and his son is four and stilt in diapers. My Chinese friends think this is hilarious," said Kim.
Mrs Zhang used the popular Chinese method of split pants to potty train her daughter. Split pants are Chinese-style cloth trousers with an open crotch. That means it is unnecessary to undress the child when it has to use the toilet. "I used cloth nappies for the first three months, and just a night nappy from then on, but she didn't like them at all. She was very uncomfortable, so we stopped using nappies all together.”So how does Mrs Zhang know when her child wants to use the toilet? "You just watch her very closely, she makes a face. As soon as she starts to go to the toilet, we pick her up and hold her legs apart while squatting down.When her daughter was young, there was not enough time to get her to the toilet But, as most Chinese homes do not have carpet, it was very easy to clean up the mess ”My daughter soon learned to squat down by herself when she needed the toilet, and we cleaned it up. Just after her first birthday she learned to say she needed the toilet, and we would take her,’Mrs Zhang said Many Chinese women also encourage their children to urinate by regularly taking them to the toilet and making a whistling sound, which the child learns to associate with going to the toilet. Was Mrs Zhang disgusted by all the accidents?”Not at all! When it's your own child, you don't care. In your own home, it's not a problem. Of course, it wouldn't be convenient at a friend's house, or in a restaurant. So, we rarely took her out.”Said Kim: "The Chinese just have a very relaxed attitude about bodily functions."
