Potty training 60 seconds at a time
Post written by: beagooddad
Pookie is still undecided about the benefits of potty training. We have a series of pictures above the toilet that explain each step and now he will happily go through the steps, but only sits on the toilet for a couple of seconds before saying that he is done and moving onto the next step.
I decided that he needs to start sitting on the toilet for at least 60 seconds to get any benefit out of the potty training. If we can keep him there that long, he will eventually accidentally go and maybe start to get the whole thing.
But, how do you keep a fidgety little boy on the toilet for 60 seconds without him screaming at you and going limp to slide to the floor.
I started counting from 1 to 60. Pookie likes counting. He sits mesmerized through the entire count. He joins along for a lot of the counting and is even starting to learn most of the transition numbers (20, 30, 40, 50, 60).
In one little minute, we are learning to count big numbers and working on potty training. All without any fighting at all.
Once we get used to a minute, we can start working on learning all the numbers from 1 to 100.

November 19th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
super idea……You could also mix in a few one minute stories. I think I have seen such books. MOM
November 20th, 2006 at 5:35 am
Maybe you just need to add a page to the book that includes sitting on the pot to read the newspaper?
It seems to work for my husband.
November 20th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Kate,
Your husband can read a newspaper in 60 seconds? That’s amazing!
November 26th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
[...] Mike presents Potty training 60 seconds at a time posted at Be A Good Dad [...]
November 28th, 2006 at 7:21 am
[...] I sat Pookie on the toilet tonight before bed and used the new, fancy, potty training technique that we have been using to keep him on the toilet for at least 60 seconds. [...]
November 29th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
We had some potty books that we would read to our daughter. Even though we had about 3 different books, I grew so tired of them!!! I thought I would go insane if I had to read another one again! I was able to talk my daughter into picking out some other books from her collection to keep in the bathroom. I quickly hid the potty books! We just had them there to get her into the habit anyway.
November 30th, 2006 at 8:30 am
[...] Potty Training 60 Seconds at a Time - (actually from a dad) Pookie is still undecided about the benefits of potty training. We have a series of pictures above the toilet that explain each step and now he will happily go through the steps, but only sits on the toilet for a couple of seconds before saying that he is done and moving onto the next step. [...]
December 5th, 2006 at 7:04 am
[...] With my new counting to 60 seconds potty training trick, Pookie loves sitting there. He is a counter and just loves to hear the numbers and help me when I forget the next number. It has been so successful that we had to up it to 100. His smile gets bigger and bigger as around 70 all the way up to 100. [...]