# Bribing your child
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 2, 2000, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206 "2000-06-02T14:15:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/1 "2000-06-02T14:15:11Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/2 "2000-06-02T14:19:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> 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
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### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/3 "2000-06-02T14:23:51Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=13393](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=19315)
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12307](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=12307)
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/4 "2000-06-02T14:26:53Z")
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 😉
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### Author:  [@SouthernStyle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SouthernStyle)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/5 "2000-06-02T15:06:01Z")
I’m an uncle.
Let’s leave that last one out of the list. 😉
SouthernStyle
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### Author:  [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/6 "2000-06-02T15:26:38Z")
Heheh, she said, “Poops in the potty.” Heheh eheheh hehehe heh
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### Author:  [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/7 "2000-06-02T15:57:31Z")
Thanks Demo, I needed that!!!
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### Author:  [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/8 "2000-06-02T16:00:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> Heheh, she said, “Poops in the potty.” Heheh eheheh hehehe heh
> \*\*
Pretty cute Demo. 🙂
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### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/9 "2000-06-02T16:06:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Pretty cute Demo
He sure is.
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/10 "2000-06-02T16:24:13Z")
> [@](#):
>
> F\*cking your uncle?
I’ll never tell.
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### Author:  [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/11 "2000-06-02T16:36:45Z")
This _does_ remind me of that Toys R Us commercial though… 😃
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### Author:  [@robinh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robinh)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/12 "2000-06-02T17:15:52Z")
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.”
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### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/13 "2000-06-02T18:23:33Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/14 "2000-06-02T18:32:38Z")
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. . .
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### Author:  [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/15 "2000-06-02T18:42:30Z")
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!
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### Author:  [@CommonSenseMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CommonSenseMan)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2000, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bribing-your-child/21206/16 "2000-06-02T18:49:14Z")
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…