shocked teacher expressed her amazement at how many parents still send their children to kindergarten in diapers.
Brenda Capone Kingston, who goes by the handle @Ms3rdGrade on TikTok, is a popular teacher who boasts 43.7K followers on the social media platform.
Last week, Kingston posted a video that she has since removed, expressing her surprise that some kids are still in diapers when they start kindergarten.
“Talking about diapers in kindergarten has been a hot topic among my teacher friends lately,” she mentioned. “I was really surprised by how many kids are still in diapers at this age. The more I chat with my kindergarten colleagues, the more I learn about how many kids they have in diapers.”
The confused teacher, who recorded the video in her classroom, explained that she wasn’t referring to kids with special needs.
She talked about her experience raising her kids, saying, “I remember when my children started school…you had to make sure they were potty-trained before they could go to kindergarten.” She also mentioned that her daughter is turning 24 in November and her son will be 22 next month.
“I don’t think I pictured it that way,” the teacher went on. “Right now, I’m in Arkansas, and I found out last night that there’s no requirement for that here, and I’m just wondering, ‘Why is that?’”
Ms3rdGrade kept thinking, “Why are there so many five- and six-year-olds still wearing diapers?” She looked at the kindergarten teachers and said, “You guys are amazing for handling this because I don’t think I could do it!” while shaking her head.
The TikToker’s eyes got really big when she exclaimed, “If you have two or three kids in diapers…wow,” and then she asked if other teachers had gone through something like that too.
“Is it just me, or do you have a ton of diapers at your school too?” she asked.
The teacher questioned why so many children were still wearing diapers in kindergarten. Credit: Mrs / Getty
Kingston took down the video from her page because she received a lot of negative comments from people online. Instead, she posted another video to thank all the supporters who stood by her.
She started the video by saying, “We need to talk about the big issue here. First off, I want to thank all the amazing people, especially the teachers, who have contacted me.”
It was really upsetting that someone took something pure and made it into something bad. It didn’t have to happen like that, she said. “If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I never meant for that to occur. I always aim to keep my page happy and positive, and I want to share joy with everyone.”
“Why do we have so many five-and six-year-olds still in diapers?” Brenda questioned. Credit: SolStock / Getty
In March, Utah approved a new law that says kids must be potty trained to enroll in kindergarten.
Rep. Douglas Welton, who is behind the bill, mentioned that it was created because more and more kids are beginning school without being completely potty-trained, according to the Daily Mail.
Ms3rdGrade is a teacher in Arkansas, where they haven’t made any laws about that yet.
The Mayo Clinic says that many kids start to show they are ready for potty training when they are between 18 and 24 months old, but some might take a bit longer, up to about three years old.