I have written exhaustively about Dexter’s potty-training struggles. Over the last 6 months I imagine I’ve been single-handedly responsible for keeping Vanish in profit. At one point I even Googled “potty-training camps” and was shocked to discover they don’t exist - I thought there would be tons of sites promising to have your child in pants in 48 hours. Braver women than me might want to franchise this idea - they can have it for free, trust me, my heart sinks at the thought of going through it again with Heidi.

It’s been a long old slog but I’m delighted to see all my hard work finally paying off. We’ve now had a run of two dry days, and have been on our first out-of-the-house nappyless adventure. Dexter finally seems to embracing it and is actually sad at bedtime when the Pampers come out. Right now, he’s laying naked in my bed watching Peppa Pig and I have complete peace of mind that I won’t be washing our sheets in a few hours time.

It started with the potty. We finally found a cheap one on Amazon that appealed to him. He began to use it more and more frequently and reveled in surprising me in the kitchen with its contents. He’d almost rush to sit on it as soon as I left the room as though he was even prouder to produce a quick splash when he hadn’t been asked.

It was just wee at first but I began to notice he had great control of his bladder. I’d heard it said that boys struggle slightly more with training as they’re less aware when they need to go, but Dexter seems to be able pee when he wants to.

Gradually he managed a few number twos. I have to say I wasn’t expecting to get so squeamish at this having wiped thousands of mucky bums in my time, but I did. I’d panic the second he stepped off the potty lest he sit somewhere. It wasn’t long after that I began actively encouraging him to use the toilet and we’ve since had a few successes.

It’s yet another example of Dexter’s perfect timing. He’s due to start nursery in a few weeks and I’ve been dreading taking him still in nappies. At his previous nursery he was the only kid in his class still in nappies, and I actually felt quite ashamed. I tweeted about this, for want of a better word, guilt, a few times and received a fair bit of backlash from parents with disabled children and the like. They felt I shouldn’t be pushing Dexter, nor should I set him a deadline, or be openly condemning mothers who don’t manage to send their children to school fully trained.

But I stand by my comments, unless there’s a very good reason why not, I do believe kids should be trained before entering the school system, and if they’re not, in the vast majority of cases this is the parents fault.

Sending Dexter to preschool potty-trained was my ultimate goal and I’m so chuffed to bits that he’s managed it in time.

What do you think? Aside from children with disabilities, do you frown when you see kids in school uniform in nappies?