A lot depends on the group you have too. At what point do you withdraw the treats and what do you do about a 4 year old that has been trained for almost 2 years that announces flat out if the current potty training kid is getting treats then she is too or she will pee on the floor - and means it. I tend to take a laid back approach and do whatever is easier for me in the long run - hey we dont' get paid enough for this job as it is. No way is a kid having an "accident" on my carpet. With my own kids I expected it and they can do it for their parents but when there are things such as pullups that the parents by the way pay and provide to me I see no reason to deal with the messes. There will come a point where the child will train themselves because they want to - like reminding them once registered for JK that if they don't start using the potty they won't be allowed to go to school. That is what it took for the 3 year old stubborn boy I have now. He has been "training" for over a year with mom giving smarties and dad giving pez - one candy for sitting on the potty and two if they pee and three if they poop or he could trade in for a pigger prize. Never pooped at my house for an entire year - can you say he had a lot more control than he was given credit for. He could hold out for hours when he put his mind to it. Was easy changing for me.

What I do wish is parents wouldn't jump into the pullups too soon and would treat them like underwear which was the intention. We dont' pee in our pullup and if we aren't ready to train then they need to go back into diapers. The whole idea of the pullup is to replace the thick training pants and plastic pants. They are used just in case the child doesn't get to the potty in time. But parents switch over too soon and too long without success so there is no wonder kids thing they are diapers. Ignore the commercials that say switchign back and forth is confusing. It is the other way around. We pee in our diapers because our bladder muscles are not fully matured. We get a chance to try potty training with our pullups just in case. One of the things I have so noticed over the years and it has gotten worse in the last few years is parents negotiating with their kids, using bribes where necessary to get them to do almost anything. When these kids get older and realize the world doesn't really care if they succede or fail they are at a loss because they have not learned the intrinsic value of anything. I think one of the downsides to treats for potty is that a child that is being trained too early which they are if they are not automatically producing on their own is that the child can put a lot of unneccesary pressure on themselves to perform just to get the treat. So they learn to pee for the smartie not because their body told them they had to pee.