Using potty as a get-out-of-bed-free card

[LeggyBlondeNE]

My 27mo is now pretty reliably dry in the day and sometimes dry at night due to her using the potty just before bed and if she wakes to come in for a cuddle at 5am or so (and yes, that was an unexpected shock to the system, we had no plans for night training her and didn't entirely appreciate having to get up and take her to the bathroom before she cuddled down and went back to sleep!)

However, she has clearly realised that the one thing we will move for is if she needs a wee. Recently she has been requesting the potty after going to bed, only to sit there calmly looking around, enjoying being up and not doing anything in the potty! This is the case even if I keep it as dark as I can.

Bedtimes had been much easier once she got the message that being in bed was non-negotiable and initially she only requested the potty if she did need it and went quietly back to bed afterwards. But she's getting strategic now and will sometimes claim to need a wee after two or three other ploys have failed.

I don't want to ignore potty requests because she's only just trained in the last month and I want her to be confident about going. But neither do I want her using it to draw out bedtime unnecessarily.

Any advice?!

Where is the potty at night? Do you put in in her room so that there is no leaving her room after bedtime? Otherwise I have no idea! I seem to remember similar phases with mine but they passed eventually just like all the other phases!

Does she really need you to be there to use the potty? The less attention and more boring it is the quicker this phase will pass

Hah, Indith, just as you were posting this, my SIL gave me the same advice in person! I don't know whether it was a one-off or what, but I brought the potty into her room last night, she used it straight before bed and then didn't ask for it again.

Will see how tonight goes!

Hilly - yes, she's not so great at pulling things back up yet and tends to try and put the tissue right into the potty (touching the wee!) if she's doing it herself, so does need supervision at least. Anyway, here's hoping the potty in room idea works...

how is it going?

Still working! Maximum one potty request per night, often none, and quickly and easily returned to bed afterwards.

Having some want-potty/no-potty fun in the mornings at times, but I think that's more to do with it being so dark outside that her body clock is a bit slow to switch on even though she's waking up at her normal time.

So many thanks, bedtime problem solved!