Potty Training Using a Chiming Clock

I'd been told by other veteran moms that potty training a boy is harder than training a girl. Considering my daughter was a breeze and my son was not, I'd have to concur. As a stay-at-home mom, I had time on my hands and felt that I could have him consistently using the toilet and eschewing diapers in no time flat. This, sadly, was not the case.

Matchbox cars, Cheerios in the toilet, reading time on the potty and a host of other potty training tips and tricks didn't work with my son. I was getting desperate since I needed to have him potty trained before I could send him to a pre-school. After brainstorming, I finally hit on the idea that he could benefit from an auditory cue to remind him to go to the potty. Pavlov's dogs salivated at the sound of bells. Would my son use the potty at the sound of a chiming clock? That was the day that my son became my own Pavlovian experiment.

How I used a chiming clock to potty train my son

The only steadfast rule that we had for using the chiming clock to potty train was that he had to stop what he was doing and at least make an effort to go. If he was successful, we congratulated him on a job well done and if he tried and didn't go, we simply said, "Oh well. Maybe next time!" After a few days of using this method, it was a routine for him. When the clock chimed, I'd hear the pitter patter of little feet running for the bathroom. After several weeks, he began to ask to skip a chime, telling us that he didn't have to go, which we allowed him to do since he seemed to have a sense of what it felt like to need to go.

We used the chimes from the time he got up until he went to bed. Since our clock would chime every hour on the hour without an option to turn them off during the night time hours, we just removed the batteries until the next day. On average, the bell tolled for him 10-11 times per day.

The audio cue of chimes was just what he needed to focus. Being one to want to play and not want to stop what he was doing to make a potty attempt, the chimes were a reminder that he needed to go into the bathroom to try at very regular intervals. Using chimes to potty train him dramatically cut down on accidents and clean up since if he did have an accident, it was not usually a full bladder one.

In about six weeks, he was potty trained during the daytime hours. Potty training success at last! The only drawback of this method was that our church used the same Westminster chime as a call to Mass, so having a toddler call out, "It's potty time!" in a quiet church was a little awkward.