"Potty training" vs "Toilet training"

[HighVoltage]

Does anyone else think these two phrases, despite being synonyms for each other, have different connotations?

Or is it just me?

[Alex Bridges]

The former is a more childish term and is more fun to use when referencing an AB.

[nonny]

It’s an age and place thing too. When I was a kid (Canada, 1960s and 70s) everyone said “toilet training.”

I have lots of associations with those words. When I discovered my secret fascination with diapers, the Pampers boxes I would sneak a look at in the store said “From birth to toilet training” beside a picture of all the sizes. The first thing I read on this subject (over and over) was the “Toilet training” chapter of my parents copy of Dr. Spock. (Everything about diapers too.)

It was always exciting and embarrassing to see diaper commercials on TV, especially when they were honest about what diapers are for. I remember one for a brand called Baby Scott with a separate disposable diaper and reusable plastic pant. A mother looking fondly at her little boy says “I’m toilet training my baby. So I need a diaper that can handle how he wets, when he wets.”

I was at a baseball game as a kid and heard two boys and two girls mock-insulting each other. “You failed kindergarten,” one of the boys said after a few exchanges. “You failed toilet training,” was the comeback. It was accepted as so clever and cutting that the game was over.

[ppdude]

Nope. No difference. Whatever you call it, that's probably what your parents called it. Don't remember what terms were used for me, for my kids, it was "potty" until they got older, then "toilet". Toilet is a goofy word. Where did it come from anyway?

[rusty pins]

Funny if you really start to think of it all.  Parents tend to use childish words for things when talking to their toddlers.  "Potty" for toilet.  Then they want their child to be a "Big Girl" or "Big Boy" and use the toilet.  Kind of cross purpose as far as I'm concerned.  If you want them to start growing up, then stop calling it a "potty" and say, "It's time you started to use the toilet instead of diapers".  Just my take on it. 

[wetatnight]

they mean the same thing to me 

 

[iluvmydiapers]

For me it’s simply means this, potty training means learning when to go potty   ( ie pee  and poop) not where. 

Toilet training means learning to use the toilet when it’s time to go potty. 

For in the house I grew up in , wetting or messing your diaper or pants was referred to as going potty, going potty on the toilet was what the big kids do and you want to be a big kid too don’t you. 

[AbabeBill]

I have always sorta, viewed them as different in one way. A potty, and being potty trained seemed to me, to mean you had a separate “potty” chair, while toilet training, was the actual big people’s seat, and you got trained on it. I know, that’s really not the intention of the two different references, but that’s how I worked it out to be, when I was young, and pondered this same question to myself. Potty, meant a pot, and toilet meant, the one in the bathroom the adults were using. 

[1950potty]

They have always been interchangeable for me.  But now there is a third "toilet Learning".  Which I think is the "new" thought where you  wait until they are 3, 4 ,or 5 and the kid decides.

[rusty pins]

To me toilet training and toilet learning are two different meanings.  Why do some people try for more sophistication by substituting "training" for "learning".  First, you can learn things on your own if you, for example read a text book or observe people around you and see how they do things.  Training means you don't learn it on your own, you actually have someone who trains you, explains and shows you how to do it, is there to answer your questions and is ready to stop you and correct you before you make a mistake.  Second, toilet "learning" makes it sound like you are learning all about toilets.  How they are made, what their function is, how they work, how to fix and repair them, all that stuff.  "What are you doing?"  "I'm learning all about toilets!"

[willnotwill]

[jacob]

I always thought it was a regional thing. Where I live the word potty doesn't get used much, if at all, so toilet training is the term used.