We're right in the middle of toilet training--so far so good, and the only bribes we've been using are the underpants themselves, and the shopping for them, and the opening the package, and the special underwear box to put them in, etc. doing the laundry the other day, I suddenly realized there'll be all these fancypants little pants in there for years to come--but anyway, it seems like everything revolves around poo and pee and buttwiping these days.
Then I saw a Japanese toilet training video on bloggingbaby, and suddenly, I realized we're barely scratching the surface. Turns out there's a whole Japanese world of toilet animation out there, and it begins after the jump [sometimes The YouTube's a little slow to load, you know [via bloggingbaby and the japantastic videos of youtube user lucidpink]:
1) "Pantsuman ni Narou!" ["Let's be Pantsman!"] stars Shimajiro the tiger and is published by Benesse [which owns Berlitz, btw]. I can't find the singalong speaker thing at the end, but that Shimajiro toilet seat/handle is on Benesse's site.
2) Pantsu Koin-chan and Pantsu Pankuro is a morning cartoon on NHK, the Japanese public network, about the morning routines of its little underwear-clad characters. This one has an English-speaking toilet.
3) Pankuro has the runs.
4) Koin-chan doesn't make it--but also doesn't change her underwear.
5) The Pantsu gang's at the playground and have to use the public restrooms. All at once.
6) This is my favorite [sic]: Pankuro's talking and acting all old-skool, like he's in a period samurai film. After he uses the traditional Japanese hole-in-ground toilet, he sings, "Ah, the morning poo, it's a good feeling!" Just bizarre.
That is bizarre! Potty training is the worst! What works for one kid doesn't work for the next. We had success with one of Dr. Phil's suggestions: The Potty Party. We put together a small plastic box with party hats, blowers, etc. Whenever our daughter had to go to the bathroom, we would run excitely to the potty for a potty party. We put on our party hats and blowers and sang a silly song about using the potty. When she was done, we put the favors away until the next time. Did this every time she sat on the pot. She was trained in less than a week. Carried the tradition on for a while longer until she had it down. Crazy, but it works!