marshmallow for the rest of his life? Certainly not. Now he was really
and consistently the nice kid I had seen in the office, and his parents
were in charge of their own house—as they should have been from the
beginning. In addition, the boy started behaving better in school,
where the teacher was also using the 1-2-3 program.
If you think you are going to have a room wrecker, before starting
1-2-3 Magic, check out two things. If there is anything dangerous or
harmful in the room, or anything valuable that can be broken, take it
out before the first rest period.
Room wrecking is one thing, but what do you do if your
child urinates on the floor during time-out?
Some kids have done it—usually preschoolers. You send them to
time-out, and they are so mad that they pull down their pants and cut
loose. What do you do? You time them out to the bathroom.
I know what you’re thinking: “How naive! Do you really expect
the child to use the facilities appropriately?” The answer is no, but
that’s not the point. The point is this: What’s easier to clean, the
bedroom rug or the bathroom floor? If the child goes on the bedroom
rug, cleaning is an expensive project. If the child goes on the
bathroom floor or the smaller bathroom rug, it’s a different story.
The same advice holds true if you have a child who can get
himself so upset that he throws up. In every workshop I’ve ever done,
a few parents have kids like this. Make sure the bathroom’s safe, then
time him out to the bathroom. And stay cool!
While we’re on the subject, can you use counting for toilet
training?
No. Counting is not especially effective for potty training. One reason
is that if you are trying to count for children messing in their pants,
you don’t always know the exact moment when the “accident” occurs,
so you don’t know just when to count. In addition, most experts agree
that punishing kids for wetting or soiling is not particularly helpful.