Would you pay someone $2K to teach your child use the toilet? This family did.

Here’s a question for you:  Would you pay someone $1750 to toilet train your toddler?

Now before you immediately answer ‘Hell no!’ – consider this:

This expert would come to your home. And what if they could get the job done in ONE day. ONE DAY, PEOPLE. No more pottys. No more following your toddler around the house  saying, ‘Need to do a poo-poo, Sebastian?’ No more feet squealching into poo bombs hidden behind the couch.

Would you do it?  Are you even just a little bit tempted?

I know what some of you are thinking.  You’re thinking, ‘Oh my God the world has gone mad’. (While others thinking, ‘I’m in. Do they take EFTPOS?’)

But consider this: we already outsource so much more of our parenting than our own parents did. Babysitting, self-settling, breastfeeding advice, maths tutoring. We now have the luxury to access help. So is it so ridiculous that we’d pay an expert good money if they could guarantee to have our child toilet trained within a day or two?

I have to admit there is a part of me that wants every parent to have to go through this torture process, that this should be a parental rite of passage

Out of my three of my children, two were relatively easy to toilet-train. They were ‘day’ trained within a couple of weeks and dry at night within six. One though, the third boy, just DID NOT GET IT.  Or couldn’t be bothered. Either way, we tried everything. Lollipop bribes, interpretive happy dances, the taking away of the lollipop bribes. Nothing seemed to work and we made the decision to give up for a while. He simply was just not ready. He did get there, I mean I’m yet to hear of a 12 year old who still needs a day nappy but at one stage, that was what I was seriously envisaging.

But in truth, had this toilet-training service been around back then, I think I may very well have seriously considered it.

And apparently, according to this ABC News article so to are thousands and thousands of American parents.

“NYC Potty Training Inc., believed to be the city’s first professional potty-training service, just launched late last month. And according to Samantha Allen, its founder, the phone has been “ringing off the hook.”

And it’s no wonder. With everything from books to videos to the ipotty to sticker charts and rewards systems, there’s no shortage of so-called experts weighing in on the best way to get this messy job done. But Allen said much of achieving this milestone really just boils down to behaviour.”

In other words, these guys are the ‘Poo Supernannys.’ Which hey, I have absolutely no issue with. Also, when we need help, where is the shame in calling on an expert?

And an expert she is.  According to the article, Allen has “spent more than a decade as an applied behavioral analysis teacher for children with special needs, and potty training was one of her specialties … – she said the process can be completed in as little as one day.”

ONE day to train your mini child to use the potty? Can that be made into a song because that is music to a parent’s ears! The price, not so much. A two-day training session (which most children probably need) costs $1,750.

Of course the whole concept of outsourcing toilet-training has its detractors with one parent leaving the following comment on the site:

“Outsourcing the parenting of your kids. What’s next “it’s too difficult for me to get Johnny to eat; I better hire a feeder.???

If you aren’t imaginative enough and patient enough to handle a doggone toddler, I feel badly for you when he or she reaches puberty and the teen years.”

Look, I’m not saying that the minute your child turns two that the ‘Potty Whisperer’ should be the first person you call. If though, like me, you get to the point where you no longer know what to do, then this service can only be a good thing. Right?

And really, what price do you put on your sanity?

What do you think? Has the world gone mad or, if given the chance, would you engage the services of a ‘Potty Whisperer’?