I’ve been bribing my daughter with chocolate shakes. Every time she poops in the potty I take her to Sonic and get her a chocolate shake as a reward for her not doing it in her pull up. I figure that if it helps her get potty trained quicker it’s o.k. to bribe her a little bit. Any advice on potty training would be much appreciated.
For potty training purposes, that’s good. We used thta method too (although we only used household candies, not shakes). However, bribing is not such as good idea as they get older.
Zev Steinhardt
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=13393
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=19315
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12307
OK, that was an interesting thread title. I wonder what the teeming millions can come up with next?
- Slapping your grandpa;
- Pistol-whipping your mother;
- Robbing your aunt;
- F*cking your uncle?
I think that last one has been covered already 
I’m an uncle.
Let’s leave that last one out of the list.
SouthernStyle
Heheh, she said, “Poops in the potty.” Heheh eheheh hehehe heh
Thanks Demo, I needed that!!!
Pretty cute Demo. 
He sure is.
I’ll never tell.
This does remind me of that Toys R Us commercial though… 
My take on potty learning is that, unlike other skills, there is no real incentive for the child to learn. Learning to talk allows you to communicate more accurately; learning to use a spoon means you can eat in the order and at the pace you desire; learning to walk means you can follow your mother around hanging on her pant leg as she does the housework. But there is no real benefit (as far as the child is concerned) to choosing the potty over the diaper. So I think that small bribes are perfectly acceptable. We used M&Ms.
On the other hand, you don’t want to have to hand out candy forever, so we have always made it clear from the start that this is just a temporary thing. We are very honest with the child, explaining that we are asking him or her to do something difficult and offering the candy as a way of making it more pleasant. Once the training is complete, we announce that “when this jar is finished, we won’t need to have candies anymore.”
Well, my mom didn’t just bribe my younger brother when she was pottying training him. She bribed me and my older brother to police him. She used tootsie rolls - I’m thinking because of the visual connection. Then, one day she came in to find me and the older brother holding younger brother on the potty and telling him he could get up until we got our tootsie rolls.
You know, it’s a wonder he didn’t grow up even stranger than he is.
What I kept telling myself when my 4 and 1/2 year old son would pee his pants in nursery school because he was too engrossed/lazy/uninterested to go to the bathroom:
I don’t know any 15 year olds who piss their pants, I don’t know any 15 year olds who piss their pants. . .
Tootsie Rolls sound like a good idea! I could put them in a container and let her get one out herself after she uses the potty. I can save the chocolate shakes for when she goes 3-4 days without an accident!
When my ferret does his business in his box (instead of the floor) i give him ferretone, which is like a chocolate drink for ferrets.
Chocolate seems to be the universal bribe.
The only downside to this is, as phouka pointed out, is that now he’s used to it. He associates ferretone with spraying urine like hose without a fireman (Simpsons reference). I had to find a different treat to get him to hold still when we clip his nails or clean his ears.
children…