Potty training debate

Once you have children, you realize that there are opposing views on virtually every aspect of childrearing. It begins with breastfeeding vs. bottle, then thumb sucking vs. pacifier, then Family bed vs. Cry-It-Out. When the baby is a little older, the debate is about potty training. My parent's generation trained children early, around 18 months. When my first daughter was trained three years ago, most were in favor of later child-led training so I was within the norm. Now that my son is three, the super-early training promoters have come out (we're talking infant potty training, which I don't even comprehend) so my son seems really behind in his potty learning skills. He has until August to be fully trained before starting pre-school, so we're starting to get serious about it and he does seem to be much more interested lately so that's working in our favor.

I have a friend who doesn't really have a choice in starting to potty train her son because even though he just turned two, he is almost too big for the largest size of diapers. She has jokingly mentioned that she may have to start buying him adult incontinence supplies until he is fully trained. I think they do make pull-up style diapers in a 3T-4T size, but they are very expensive and it would probably be easier just to go ahead and try to train him at an early age.

The key is consistency and right now in my house that is one thing we do not have. Since I am a substitute teacher, I could be called in to work anytime and then my husband has to try to work from home while watching my son as well. Trying to enforce potty training at the same time may be too much for him to take on right now. We'll probably do a "crash course" during Christmas break and if he's not trained after that, we'll aim for summer break.