[Girlene]

Currently parents toilet train kids a lot later than they did a couple of generations ago, just an observation.

It may be parents toilet train children later now vs. a couple of generations ago....but what's "a lot later"? Toilet training a child after 2, 2 and 1/2 years? Beginning the training at an earlier age, yet they remain in diapers during the training at 2, 2 and 1/2?

I don't think having a child in diapers at 2 to 2 1/2 years is anywhere out of the realm of possibilities in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90, 2000's or anytime.

If I trust any memory of Mary, it will be the diaper phase. That's an event/phase that she is more likely to remember versus her daughter's age of when that occurred, some 45 years later. It's not very helpful as far as defining a specific time that she babysat obama, but it is what it is.

[Fred Nerks]

I think there’s a certain amount of confusion here, it wasn’t Mary who talked about diapers, certainly not that I recall.

IT WAS SUSAN BLAKE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=advfrQEeIBY

A short snip is all that remains of the original interview.

[little jeremiah]

I had kids in the early 70s and did a lot of babysitting through my teen years and later. A child still in diapers at two and over was considered laziness by the parents at that time, IMO. A child in diapers at 2 1/2 would have been very unusual.

It’s certainly not a big deal, but remember in those days it was all cloth diapers, no throw aways.