November 28th, 2006 - A problem with toilet training

Anti-consumerist parents such as myself who, for instance, don’t allow their toddler to watch TV (and other media), own toys with characters, eat at mass fast food chains, etc., might have a problem with toilet training.

What’s the connection?

The advice I’ve been reading often suggests powerful motivators that depend upon the child having favorite characters! For instance, buying underwear: Having the child choose her own new underwear can be great, especially when she gets to choose one with her favorite character such as Dora or Disney Princesses. Or “those who will be proud of you for going in the potty”: Tell your child that Santa/Superman/Big Bird is proud of him when he finally has a success. (Dr. Phil even recommends that you have a friend call and pretend to be that character!)

I’m stumped. My daughter hasn’t the faintest clue who any of the above are. I’m trying to decide if we can get by with saying that her two dogs are oh so proud of her. (Since family lives so far away and we have no close friends here, the only people whose praise she recognizes are Daddy and Mommy.)

Not that I have a problem with this “problem.” Not at all!

We made it to age 2. Can we make it to age 3?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 2:32 pm EST and is filed under Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “A problem with toilet training”

  1. Rebecca Says:
    December 1st, 2006 at 9:14 am EST

    I am not much of a commenter, especially since I am too lazy to sign in, but this was just too funny! I have never heard of this before, but it is sadly easy to believe.

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