How can you tell that baby is "ready"?

When my daycare teachers declared that my 21-month old daughter was not “ready”, at first I was angry and disappointed. As I thought about it later, I realized that the question of readiness is debatable depending on who you talk to, what book you read, the culture you’re from and a parent’s personal preferences. I also started to question whether “readiness” is really about the child or the adult. As a parent, when do you decide to teach your child to speak? eat? sing? say the alphabet? Do you have a checklist to let you know if your child is ready? What do we mean by “ready”?

When I started toilet training my older daughter, I waited impatiently for her to be “ready”. Based on the “readiness Signs” I was watching for, I determined that she was ready at 2 years, 7 months in October 2010. By then our second born was 1 month old. My daughter was confused about the arrival of her little sister, she was at the height of a toddler’s search for independence – her favorite word was “No” and favorite phrase was “Me do it”. Additionally, it was the starting to get cold. In the months prior to starting formal toilet training, we read books, watched videos and talked about the potty. Once we felt she was ready, we followed the “Cold Turkey” method. We said “Bye-bye” to diapers, pull-ups day and night. The 5 months that followed were the most stressful part of parenting (someone told me to hold that thought because this is nothing compared to what’s coming in the teenage years!). 

For my second daughter, since I will not move her to a different daycare, "Ready" she scores 10/10 on the daycare provider's questionnaire. If this is the goal I've set, then I have to start preparing her early..Give her practice, make the experience fun and positive. She will remain diaper free at home and continue to ear diapers to daycare. I will teach her to dress/undress herself; giver her opportunities to ask for potty...

I think she'll do fine :-)