Revenge Pee
Say your child has done something wrong and you’ve put her in the
time-out chair. Once there, she has an accident (but whether it was
really an “accident” is unclear). If she’s in hysterics, chances are the
pee came with the emotion. You might want to attempt to get a pee
before the actual time-out (I wish you luck with that). If you get the
distinct feeling that the “accident” was more of an “eff you,” you can
do a couple of things. One, wait until the end of the time-out and
then clean it up. I am not a fan of making a child “sit in it,” and I
never recommend it. However, at this age, a time-out shouldn’t be
more than one or two minutes in any event, so it’s not a big deal. You
have to have some leverage here; you can’t rush to get her out of
time-out just because she pees. If you do, you will have accomplished
nothing other than to teach her that if she pees herself, she will get
out of the discipline. I do advise considering consequences other than
time-outs while potty training. To be clear, this is all assuming that
the original “crime” is something like, say, hitting—not potty
training related. If you think you are experiencing bad behavior
related to potty training, head over to chapter 13, “Behavior vs. Potty
Training.”
“The Inner ‘F**k It’ ”
If you have been going at potty training for a few weeks and you are
still getting one or more accidents a day on a consistent basis, it’s
time to go back and do Block One over again. A child having that