I too do not use pull ups ever...such a waste of time and money and really unnessecairy IMO and experience.

I do not have a set age that I start toilet training as every child is different and I base my judgement on each individuals readiness versus age. I also encourage leaving boys till closer to 2 1/2 but I'm always keeping tabs on all the following signs of readiness too.

They have to be able to do the following...

1. Verbalize their need to go to the toilet
2.Independently pull down and up their pants and underwear
3. bowel movement needs to be at regular times...this is a sign that they are physically able to control their bowel movement better. If their BM is still at random times then toilet training is not right at that time.

Parents have to be 100% committed and I make it very clear that if they are not going to follow the EXACT same methods as me then I will not do it at all. I can't count how many times a child has shown up in a pull up, or a parent tells me that they went on a long car ride so put them in a pull up...I could literally scream at these parents....drives me crazy.

I also make it quite clear that I take the lead on how toilet training is carried out which pretty much all my past parents have been happy with as they felt daunted by the prospect of the whole thing. I explain that I have 5 children to care for, sometimes multiple kids training at the same time and I am with their child sometimes as much as 10 hours a day versus their hour in the morning and couple of hours after work plus weekends.

I have no issue being the one who starts from scratch with the kids, but if a parent is able to take a few days off or start when I am on vacation if it coincides like that, then that's a good start but honestly if I'm the one who puts the initial good start into it, it usually results in more success.