He is still wearing diaper.
"You are old enough. You have to quit diapers."
Can I say quit as stop using the diapers?
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3I think “stop using diapers” or “quit using diapers” would be natural and well-understood.– G Tony JacobsSep 28, 2017 at 1:34
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It implies that they're an addiction. It's fine.– StrawberrySep 28, 2017 at 11:46
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@Strawberry in the same sense as "I Wish I Knew How to Quit You" from Brokeback Mountain.– stanniusSep 28, 2017 at 15:30
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3 Answers
"You are old enough. You have to quit diapers."
Can I say quit as stop using the diapers?
Grammatically it's fine, however in the US it would be odd to state this way. It's more common to instead focus on what's next, and use the word "instead":
You are old enough to start using the bathroom instead of diapers.
or
You are old enough to use underwear instead of diapers.
Without getting too much into parenting, the concept is to focus on the next step or new activity (bathroom, underwear) rather than focusing on what's lost.
It makes sense, but it sounds a little unfamiliar to me.
Two alternative phrases that came to my mind were:
- You need to get out of diapers.
- You need to grow out of diapers.
That said, I looked up all three phrases in Google searches, and found hits for all three:
Are you on your way with your 4 or even 5 year old to a psychologist since he won’t quit diapers? (from a blog)
Kids do grow out of things. They grow out of diapers, crawling, preschool, training wheels, and Barney. (from a blog)
Keep the mood light and airy and refrain from any harsh words when your child does have an accident in the middle of the night. They will get out of diapers someday. (from a blog)
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I would never use a construct like "need to get out of" or "need to grow out of". I would say something like "You've outgrown diapers", "You need to stop/quit using diapers", etc. Might be a regional thing. Sep 28, 2017 at 5:44
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@Roddy - I think all your options are viable, too. I don’t think there’s really a set phrase for this.– J.R. ♦Sep 28, 2017 at 11:14
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I also think "need to get out of diapers" or "need to grow out of diapers", while understandable, seems odd, or awkward and I'd use something like "You need to stop/quit using diapers". Saying "You need to get out of diapers" has no permanence as they are already getting out of their diapers many times a day. And, for clothes, when you "grow out of something", you don't usually stop wearing that type of item, you just switch to a bigger size. "Quit" or "Stop using" just seems more clear (less vague) to me. Sep 28, 2017 at 16:57
Usage here might well vary regionally. I guess you're asking about US usage (in the UK we call them "nappies"). In the UK, "stop" is used much more frequently than "quit", with a few exceptions like "quit smoking".
You can stop or quit an activity (quit smoking), and you can stop a moving object (stop the bus), and you can quit a place (quit the campsite) but "diapers" doesn't really fit into any of these categories. I would say "stop using".
(As for the psychology, I strongly suspect that addressing a small child in this way is unlikely to achieve the desired effect, but that's a question for a different forum.)
