Not that many years ago we started training kids from about 12 months on using the potty regularly - well sitting on at intervals at least. Basically once they could walk we started. When there was some semblance of success and holding it for half an hour or more we moved from diapers to those waffleweave - used to be twice as thick by the way and we also used plastic pants over them to collect and hold the missess - that is the step that gets forgotten - go ahead and let the kid have underwear to feel the wet but use good quality plastic pants to make them keep their pee inside the pants not on the floor or couch. Most kids were well on their way to potty training by 18 months. Not really sure when kids changed so drastically .....think it was that generation of kids who were taught they didn't have to do anything they didn't want to that had kids and well....

I have one parent that did the just put him in underwear and didn't think having 2-3 accidents a day was a unusual. To me it is a child that is not ready. After a couple weeks I said no more and put him back into a pullup. He continued in underwear at home had accidents in the mall, on buses, in the carseat, etc. and again they just went with the just put him in underwear and it will come mentality. I train kids using pullups and if you do it when they are truly ready takes no more than a couple months. Wearing underwear is an earned privilege not a right. You show me you are not a baby anymore that needs diapers and you can wear big kid underwear simple as that.