Rewards

Potty training is frustrating.

Potty training is hard.

Potty training is not fun.

Ryan has his good days, his bad days and sometimes his ugly days when it comes to potty training. On the ugly days, I am at my wits end and I want to give up the fight.

I started Ryan's journey at getting trained when he turned 15 months. I was determined to prove all the nah sayers wrong who insisted boys are harder to train then girls. To our surprise, he enjoyed using the potty and at times left a deposit for us to praise him for and boy did we give him lots of positive praise.

But he was never consistent and didn't show a complete interest in being trained....

After he turned 2 years old and we knew we were expecting Kara the following year, I tried even harder to get him trained. What mom wants two little ones in diapers?

So we stepped up our game plan...

We bought potty seats. We bought books. We bought videos.

We even caved and bought organic lollipops and M&M's.

Did they work? Nope.

Now here we are at almost 3 and 1/2 years old, still playing this tug-a-war potty game.

Here is what I've learned so far...

1. Ryan is stubborn.
2. Ryan is still at the "I don't care if I pee or poop in my pants" stage. sigh
3. Ryan understands how to use the potty but hasn't grasp the concept of just going to the bathroom without being reminded to do so ALL DAY LONG. sigh
4. The more I push, the more he fights me.
5. I have to make potty training seem fun all the time or he won't go...
6. That even with all the daily struggles, we finally feel confident enough to take him out in public with his big boy underwear on. He has not had an accident yet and will go on public toilets. YAY
7. The one thing that has worked 90% of the time is taking away his favorite things to do. Watch cartoons in the morning and playing his games on the computer.
8. I need to take this one day at a time and not get worked up over it.
9. Ryan needs to realize that he should just go potty when he gets the urge or tell someone.
10. That I need to be consistent with him and remain hopeful that he will become trained. sooner rather than later. :)

This past weekend was a rough one and I fully expected today to be the same. Mondays are always hard because he has to adjust to not seeing Chris all day again. But I was pleasantly surprised when Ryan stayed dry the entire day and really didn't fight me when I asked him to use the potty. He not only pooped once but twice on the potty so being true to my word, I allowed him to play his games on the laptop.

Who knew all the bells and whistles and candy wouldn't work? The one reward he loves to receive is a little Playhouse Disney online.

I don't fight this because I will take fun educational rewards over candy any day. Plus, he seems to be a computer genius already at 3 years old. He completely amazes me with how he is able to use the keyboard at such a young age. I decided to video tape him enjoying his reward today for everyone to see...he is just too cute with his dance moves and air guitar!

Ryan and the Imagination Movers...