Finally Considering a Reward System

So Baby A has been wearing undies just more than five months now. Save those first couple of days, she’s not had one major accident.

But…she continues to have little “leaks”…just enough to wet the seat of her undies, not usually even seeping through to her pants…but…ugh. Some days she might not have any, and then some days, it might happen three or four times.

My gut is that she’s too busy playing to want to bother with going to the potty until it’s almost too late. And several friends have said this is perfectly normal, given her young age. But…ugh.

Yesterday morning, I decided to take a new approach. I never implemented any type of reward system during the potty-training process (other than making a very big deal of getting to flush the potty). I thought maybe it was time.

I told A if she kept her panties nice and clean and dry ALL DAY, she’d get a very special treat at the end of the day.

What’s the treat? you ask. Um, yeah, I don’t know.

The first thing that came to mind was a marshmallow, or some M&Ms…what seem like common rewards for using the potty. And please know that I don’t mean to judge those many families who take such an approach (!!!), but that just didn’t feel right to me. I struggle with the idea of using food as a reward.

Unfortunately [or fortunately, since it bought me a little more time!], I didn’t get to test my system yesterday, as Baby A had an indiscretion mid-afternoon.

My plan is to get some super-duper-extra-shiny-and-cool stickers – sometime before the end of the day – and set up a sticker chart. I just hope that A is as excited about it as I need her to be!

Meanwhile…Baby B heard all the hullabaloo about a very special treat that Sissy was to receive. Although it hurt my heart a little bit, I stuck to my conviction that the very special treat was only for Big Girls With Clean Panties at the End of the Day. I took the opportunity to remind B of the very special celebration we’re going to have when she goes on the potty.

So what did B do? She took off her diaper and asked to wear panties. OK, Sister! Here ya go!

I was hopeful that Baby B would magically train herself, much as her sister had, five months ago. My hopefulness was dashed about three minutes later, though.

B had two major accidents yesterday (messy carpet, messy hardwoods, wringing wet clothes, and not a drop of tee-tee in the potty). I just matter-of-factly put her back in diapers and told her we’d try again another time.

We’ll see what happens tonight when Baby A [HOPEFULLY] gets her super-duper-extra-shiny-and-cool sticker, about which I hope she’ll be super-duper excited.

This mommy gig is hard, y’all.