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From: ajs@hpfcla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: How do I get my kid off the bottle?!
Message-ID: <32700038@hpfcla.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 23-Jan-86 12:18:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hpfcla.32700038
Posted: Thu Jan 23 12:18:00 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Feb-86 20:46:55 EST
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Organization: 23 Jan 86 10:18:00 MST
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> "Say, I just turned three, perhaps I should give the bottle the ol'heave
> ho!"  This is similar to potty training.  A child does not wake up one
> morning and say "Perhaps I shall try the toilet for a change".  He has
> to be trained.

While I agree in general, I must take exception to your example.  Our
daughter, now 2 years, 9 months old, is toilet training herself nicely
with very little effort.  She DID, one day, just sort of say "perhaps
I'll start to use it most of the time".

Why is it going so easily?

1.  Mommy and Daddy got used to changing diapers, and aren't in as much
    of a rush as we thought we would be to get her out of them.

2.  Therefore we have been pretty low-key about it, compared to many
    things.  It's just too much work to "train" her, and besides we are
    quite sensitive to the fact that much of a child's personality
    derives from how they were toilet trained (ask your local child
    psychologist).

3.  Her potty has been in place and known to her for over a year, with
    occasional gentle suggestions, nothing more.  She even experimented
    once when it appeared, but decided she didn't want it yet.

Some things are not so hard...
Alan Silverstein