An Arkansas teacher has spoken out in a TikTok video against parents who send their children to preschool in diapers and criticized the decline in toilet training.
In the clip, posted Thursday, Ms3rdGrade said: “Diapers in kindergarten – this is something that fellow teachers have been talking about for the past few weeks.”
“The number of children in diapers in kindergarten – I had no idea. The more I talk to some of my kindergarten friends, the more they tell me how many they have,” the female teacher continued, before stopping.
“I know I can’t be alone,” the TikToker said, her shock clearly visible. “I remember when my kids started school… you had to potty train your kid before you could send them to preschool.”
An Arkansas teacher has attacked parents who still send their children to preschool in diapers and criticized the demise of potty training in a TikTok video
“The number of children in diapers in kindergarten – I had no idea. The more I talk to some kindergarten friends, and they tell me how many they have,” the female educator continued, before stopping to talk
She said her daughter would turn 24 in November and her son would turn 22 next month.
“I don’t feel like I imagined that,” the teacher continued, behind whom the classroom whiteboard was visible.
“I’m in the state of Arkansas and I heard last night that it’s not mandatory in the state of Arkansas.”
“Why?” she asked, not knowing the reason. “Has that changed?”
The bewildered teacher continued to wonder how many toddlers were walking around in diapers.
The bewildered teacher continued to ponder the large number of toddlers in diapers
“Why do we have so many five and six year olds still in diapers,” Ms3rdGrade said in the video, which has been viewed nearly 628,000 times
“Why do we have so many five and six year olds still in diapers,” Ms3rdGrade said in the video, which has been viewed nearly 628,000 times.
At another point in the video, the teacher waved her finger and said, “I’m not talking about children with special needs. [kids].
“Your preschool teachers who have to deal with this should be praised, because I don’t think I could do that,” she said, shaking her head.
“I was complaining about the breath yesterday… when you have two or three kids in diapers, wooooh,” the wide-eyed TikToker said.
The teacher then returned to her main message: to find out if other people have experienced something similar.
“Am I the only one with this? Do you have a lot of diapers at school right now?”
In March, Utah passed a law making toilet training a required “condition” of kindergarten enrollment.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Douglas Welton, said it was in response to the increasing number of children entering kindergarten without being fully toilet trained.
In New York and New Jersey, on the other hand, there are laws that prohibit schools from expelling children from class for not being toilet trained.
According to the Hechinger Report, in the 1940s, toilet training was traditionally started before the child was 18 months old.
About 60 years later, in the mid-2000s, a child typically began toilet training when they were 21 to 36 months old.