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September 26, 2011

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.

7 comments:

Just Another Mom of Twins said...

I think the sparkly stickers is a great idea...I'd be excited! LOL!

Good luck and I look forward to hearing how it all goes...more than I am looking forward to training my 2!

Have a great Monday!

Mama Mama Quite Contrary said...

I've been putting off the potty training thing for so long because I'm overwhelmed by the idea of it. Alas, the girls are forcing the issue by repeatedly taking off their diapers. After a day of cleaning up accidents, I started duct taping them into their diapers. It wasn't pretty but now we are back on the potty training train and I'm rewarding them with candy. My kids only go for the hard stuff although I appreciate your desire not to use food as a reward!

Marcia (123 blog) said...

my rule is,... whatever it takes :)

hopefully A will want those stickers badly.

championm2000 said...

Ditto, Marcia, although I certainly am no expert...I am learning from the trailblazers like you!

Unknown said...

J&S keep trying to encourage/bribe Adam to go on the potty by offering up stickers and other rewards. He tries so hard...sits there and will exclaim "I did it!" but his lil body has no idea what to do when he sits there!!

I'm glad he's at least willing to be near the potty and will sit on the lil one now...but we're still a LOOOOONG ways off from getting out of diapers.

Good luck! Hope the super duper shiny stickers helP!

northsidefour said...

My guys figured this out about five months apart, one had zero interest in this new fangled idea at all, and so we let her move along at her own pace. Five months later, when she jumped aboard, there was no going back. It is so interesting to me how they can be so different and so alike. Oh, and they were older, almost three for the first and well into three for number 2, but it worked for them. Good luck!

Rebecca said...

I get what you're saying about food as a reward...never thought about it before. But, let's face it, candy is so much better than food! (semantics...I know)