Cereal Filler

A tactic favored by some parents while potty training their kids is to make a game out of using the bathroom by throwing a Cheerio, Fruit Loop or some other piece of cereal in the toilet and encouraging the child, usually a boy, to try to aim for it. A friend of mine recently tried this with his son.

He was impressed by the results. His son, who has been a bit reluctant to give up the joys of soiling himself, could not wait to play the cereal game and enthusiastically grabbed his father when it was time for him to relieve himself. After tossing a Fruit Loop into the commode, my buddy then stepped outside of the bathroom to give his son a little privacy while he tried to sink the morsel. He said that he could barely keep from laughing as he heard the sound of his son’s stream hit the toilet water and the muffled sounds of glee coming from child as he chased the morsel around the bowl. When the din of the game died down, he stepped back into the water closet to congratulate his kid but found himself perplexed by what he found, or rather did NOT find, in the toilet. Though his son managed to put the contents of his bladder into the drain, the Fruit Loop was nowhere to be seen. It was however, heard. It lets off a fairly distinctive crunching noise when crushed beneath the molars of a three-year-old boy that believes it to be his rightful reward for finally using the toilet.

I am going to assume that wasting food is not much of a problem in my friend’s household.