Potty training with Mike K

Mike K

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Apr 11, 2008
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Anyone have any tips? We had to bribe our three year old with candy to pee on the potty because apparently he doesn't mind sitting in soiled pull-ups. So the other day he goes and we're all like "yay! have some candy!" and all was well in our world. Everything was coming up Milhouse.

Today I'm out and my wife calls me to tell me he's pee'd like 15 times and is cracked out on all the candy. The adorable little shit gamed the system and is sitting on the potty every time he can squeeze out a few drops. My wife is ready to pull her hair out. It's been one day. I don't want to pull away the incentive yet but I don't know how to tell him that he needs to wait until he actually has to go to the bathroom. How do you explain that to a 3 year old?

On a side note, this kid is going to be a hustler. He's exploiting loopholes like a champ.
 

Mike K

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Apr 11, 2008
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It's not that simple. I've been showing him for a year and he just didn't want to do it. He's not stupid by any stretch of the imagination but he apparently doesn't mind sitting in a piss soaked diaper. Without the candy we couldn't get him to consider doing it himself.

Now with the candy he's gone from not doing it at all to going like 18 times today. So we've definitely made progress. Now we just need to slow it down to going when he actually needs to go.
 

deviantlx

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Apr 20, 2008
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what the fuck are you doing giving candy to a three year old? lol. that's your first mistake. its like crack to them. your kid is going to have an attention span as long as his dick.

lay off the candy altogether and bribe him with something he considers fun.
 

bimmer4life

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Feb 18, 2008
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what the fuck are you doing giving candy to a three year old? lol. that's your first mistake. its like crack to them. your kid is going to have an attention span as long as his dick.

lay off the candy altogether and bribe him with something he considers fun.

X2. The wife and I used to put couple cheerios in the toilet and make my son aim to hit them like a game. He loved it.
 

willizm

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May 13, 2009
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If he doesn't care to sit in a soiled diaper then he probably doesn't connect that when he has to pee he should be at the toilet. This happened with my son. Tried showing him how to go and doing cheerio's as incentive. He didn't have time for that shit. What got him to understand was I had him not wear any diaper, pants, or underwear for a day or two. He had a few accidents in the house which is no big deal to clean up but he got it right away. It clicked in his head when he was standing there just pissing. I ran him to the bathroom and lined him up. Rest is history.
 

ktraver97ss

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Aug 29, 2007
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I know exactly what you are going through. Jack is 3 and 3 months and we started potty training when he was still 2 earlier this year. We started with bribes, and just like you said he just turns it into a game and works the system. It was so frustrating cause you never know if he really has to go, or just wants the reward. He changed once we had an older kid over with his family, he was 6 or so and when he went to the bathroom we told him "Look, Aiden goes to the bathroom in the toilet like a big boy. You dont want to be a baby and go in your pants do you?" etc. He started getting it and started peeing in the toilet almost every time. He would still dip off and drop a duece in his pants if he weren't on top of him when we knew he was due to go. Now he is really good and only occasionally poops a little bit if he is distracted with something new or exciting. He does however, get us up if he has to go in the middle of the night, which is awesome.
 

Mike K

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Apr 11, 2008
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Star stickers or car stickers with a board. 1 pee = sticker, 10 successful full pees = piece of candy

Do you have a child? I feel like you might not if this is the system you're pushing. 10 stickers is FOREVER and that's assuming he remembers the system in the first place. He's 3. :rofl:

what the fuck are you doing giving candy to a three year old? lol. that's your first mistake. its like crack to them. your kid is going to have an attention span as long as his dick.

lay off the candy altogether and bribe him with something he considers fun.

Trust me, if we could we would. The kid doesn't eat any candy at all, ever. Maybe once a week he breaks into a pack of fruit snacks. We've had so much trouble getting him to want to go and this is all we could do that would entice him to have at it. He wants toys, he wants cars, he wants all the things kids do but when we tell him he has to go to the potty to get it he's just like meh. No fucks given.

I know exactly what you are going through. Jack is 3 and 3 months and we started potty training when he was still 2 earlier this year. We started with bribes, and just like you said he just turns it into a game and works the system. It was so frustrating cause you never know if he really has to go, or just wants the reward. He changed once we had an older kid over with his family, he was 6 or so and when he went to the bathroom we told him "Look, Aiden goes to the bathroom in the toilet like a big boy. You dont want to be a baby and go in your pants do you?" etc. He started getting it and started peeing in the toilet almost every time. He would still dip off and drop a duece in his pants if he weren't on top of him when we knew he was due to go. Now he is really good and only occasionally poops a little bit if he is distracted with something new or exciting. He does however, get us up if he has to go in the middle of the night, which is awesome.

Yeah, we keep pushing the big kid side of things and he's walking around telling us how he's a big kid now. I'm hoping that praise and self-pride becomes a bit more of a motivator.

If he doesn't care to sit in a soiled diaper then he probably doesn't connect that when he has to pee he should be at the toilet. This happened with my son. Tried showing him how to go and doing cheerio's as incentive. He didn't have time for that shit. What got him to understand was I had him not wear any diaper, pants, or underwear for a day or two. He had a few accidents in the house which is no big deal to clean up but he got it right away. It clicked in his head when he was standing there just pissing. I ran him to the bathroom and lined him up. Rest is history.

Maybe we'll give that a crack. I'm coming after you if he pinches one off though.
 

willizm

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May 13, 2009
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The Woodlands, TX
Maybe we'll give that a crack. I'm coming after you if he pinches one off though.

I'd rather pick up a turd than wipe up a puddle of pee:rofl:

It sounds like he has the right idea but to de-incentivise it is tricky. He see's the diaper as a familiar option so take that away and he's left with the only other option he knows.

BTW, I had the same issue with our wiener dog. We would give him a treat when he went 1 or 2 outside. He started to game it by peeing just a tiny bit, hold the rest, and running back for a treat. :roflpicard:
 

blakbearddelite

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Jun 28, 2007
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2 and a half is pretty young, he will understand it better soon enough.

I think he might understand what he's supposed to do, but he won't do it. We sit him on the potty all the time, and so does daycare. I'm half tempted to try that 'no diaper' thing for a day and see how it goes. I'll probably just spend the day changing pissy clothes and spraying Febreze on the couch.
 

rz79

TCG Elite Member
Jun 29, 2009
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Mike-
We found that for our son, being around his peers cemented potty training in his mind. Twice a week he would go to a curriculum based day care ( we called it school for him) and while he was there he would see other kids his age/size using the mini sized flushable toilets like it was old hat. He quickly wanted to be like the other kids and with our help at home (AND candy bribes, candy corn was his reward ) pee in the potty was quickly the norm.
Poop took a little longer and can still be a bit of a fight as we close in on 4 years old next week.. He was a hold it in until he was about to burst kid which of course hurts.. So it was hard to get him to go more often when he thought each time was gonna be painful. Constant reasurment and support helped...


Sidenote- I know you live in L.A. And this is gonna make me sound like a hillbilly but I think what helped too is letting him pee outside... I know I know, but it made him laugh and look forward to going. Anything to help him notice the feeling of having to go and then gettig his pants down before it came out.
 
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