PL ? about using the potty as a bedtime stall tactic

[JessieBird]

Hey everyone - My 20 mo has always been pretty great about bed time. He wants to go to bed around 6:30 and reminds us if we are running late. He is so happy to go "do do" and falls asleep within minutes. It's been like this for about six months now but recently he's started to get goofy and play games around bed time. One of his favourites is to get up and tell us he needs to go pee pee or caca. Then he sits on the potty for ages and nothing happens. This can repeat itself many times over for up to an hour, despite how tired he looks and how happily he goes back to bed after each "attempt". Last night when I fianlly told him that I knew he didn't need to go, he dragged me to the bathroom and pushed me onto the toiled and tried to take my pants off! I totally cracked up laughing, which didn't help the situation!

We are just starting to potty learn in earnest now and I really don't want to say no when he asks to go to the potty. But if it is obviously a stall tactic and I know with 100% certainty he doesn't need to go, should I refuse? Or just go through the motions for the sake of potty learning, even if it means I'm giving in to bed time antics? Other suggestions?

Thanks!

[seagull]

I have been through that with 2 kids now. I always take the bathroom request seriously. They can try to use the bathroom, but we don't go into the living room. I don't make a big deal of it either way, and I don't read anymore stories once we're back into bed. It just lasts a few months and the novelty wears off.

[pacificbliss]

I always took it seriously too. If DS started to play or talk I would just say, " no, time to go potty and go back to bed". It got boring after a while and stopped.