If you have a toddler in the house, then you must have heard other parents talk about potty training by now. You must have heard them mention that it is a bit harder to potty train boys than it is to potty train girls, too. Or maybe you have looked at some of the other kids in your child’s daycare center or play group and seen that a lot of the girls are starting to potty train months before the boys are.
Now, although a lot of parents tend to dismiss this issue as a piece of folklore, studies actually show that there is a relationship between a child’s gender and not just their age when they start potty training, but the amount of time that they need to potty train, as well.
These studies showed that both girls and boys showed the first signs of readiness to potty train at the same age, including the ability to go to the restroom, uniformity in peeing and bowel movement moments, and the ability to listen to and follow verbal instructions.
So, why do boys usually start later and take much longer to get the job done? Well, there are a lot of theories on this so far and none of them have actually been proven with statistics yet.
For starters, little girls tend to go through their developmental milestones much faster, in general. Their cognitive reasoning and language abilities, for example, advance much faster compared to boys, so this might have something to do with it.
Several authorities also say that physiology plays an important part int his event. Girls usually urinate and have their bowel movements while sitting, while boys have to stand while urinating and sit while having bowel movements. Because of this, several specialists suggest training boys to sit for both incidents in the beginning so as to limit their levels of confusion and stress.
Some parents, on the other hand, think that the frustration rates in boys might be the reason behind longer potty training sessions when it comes down to it. In general, boys tend to get frustrated easier compared to girls, after all, and they have less patience and a shorter attention span than girls do, too. This might result in a loss of affinity for potty training every now and then, thus leading to a longer process in the long run.
Again, all of these are just hypotheses without real scientific basis, though. So, if the process is indeed becoming too hard and too long for your son, you should know that it is common and completely normal, and there might be various reasons behind it. All you need is a little patience and to remind yourself that there really is nothing to worry about.
About the author: Pia Cammeron currently works as an editor for a small publishing house and has experience editing special magazines, food recipes, and other interesting stories for an expat community blog that provides internet phone card and calling cards to India from Germany for international travelers. Take an additional 10% off with coupon code “acc10″.