So here is something for laughs: The Peter Potty Toddler Urinal can be purchased for $40. The chronicles of our potty training days were last seen in July on this blog. During that time we have made numerous attempts to get Seth motivated to use the toilet. We have not been above bribery. We started passing out two M&M's for every time he peed and then gave four for a poop. (Why so many? I would never eat one M&M at a time so didn't expect it would be a worthy bribe. Would you?) Now we have moved on to the sticker chart. For every ten stickers Seth earns (one for pee, two for poop) he earns a car from the movie Cars - those little die cast deals that actually cost $3.50 a pop! He has earned four cars and now a set of five Matchbox cars as of the other night. I think I am going to need another job if we keep this up.
On Monday night I had to start a new chart and just made up a quick one myself with some Cars stickers since that seems to be our theme. I pulled out of hiding The King - his next earning toy and placed it in the bathroom drawer with the sticker chart. It was where we kept the last one. Tuesday morning Seth goes in to use the potty and since he has yet to learn how to take his pants off on his own I was called in to participate. He told me some poop was coming which he always wants privacy for. Yes, I actually have to leave the bathroom and the door must be closed. This is very disconcerting as I always expect to come back in to poop smeared all over my child and the walls - potty training phobia revealed! Anyway he got a bit more creative this time, instead of pooping he put all the stickers on his chart thus appearing as if he had in fact earned his new toy. Boy genius, stupid mom!
After explaining that this would not work we cleaned up and got on with our day though stupid mom should have realized that putting the stickers where said child could not reach them would have been a smart idea. After boy genius did it a second time I got wise to his scheming and now the stickers are MINE!
We are still wearing diapers and just trying little reminders and encouraging him to stay dry. We did one day with underwear and after washing eight pears of underwear and just as many pairs of pants I said no way - we would wear underwear until we showed a bit more motivation. Is that wrong? I don't care - my sanity is at stake here too!
Speaking of sanity...Why is it that your child only needs to use the potty when you are in the middle of something else. As in buck naked in the shower with shampoo in your hair or trying to stir the soup to keep dinner from burning or when you are rocking the baby to sleep or...you get the picture. It is like he waits until I have my hands full and then pulls out the attention getter: "I feel my pee/poop coming - let's run!"
So here's the thing. I am in this again now and wonder how I get myself out. How long do we reward? Will he be motivated to do this without rewards? How do you explain that you pee/poop for the sheer reward of not having an embarrassing accident? Now that would be a site. (Adam Sandler just popped into my head - movie memory.) I seriously don't know that he is ready to commit, just as I question my own readiness. So what is potty trained? How do we determine - Yes, he's done it!?
Once again I need your help and advice. What on earth do I do now?
4 comments:
I think you just keep doing the best you can and muddling through and all of a sudden, it will click in. It really will.
I think you just keep doing the best you can and muddling through and all of a sudden, it will click in. It really will.
I honestly don't know. We had it so easy with Allie. I wonder if it's a boy/girl difference (I'll let you know in another year or so when it is Zach's turn to potty train!) But, I definitely agree with you regarding timing. It never fails that Allie has to go at the worst of times!!
I have no advice, not having been there yet. But everyone else's (older moms') advice to me is don't worry about it until they are 3, especially for boys.
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