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View Full Version : You aren't kiddin' this is hard work...



raynjen
05-09-2004, 03:20 AM
I've been too depressed about our recent lack of success to post, but potty-training is NOT going well in our house. Noelle did great for about 2 weeks and then 'fell off the wagon'. I swear she knows exactly what she is doing. She will sneak off to pee in her bedroom. She's like a cat - when she gets angry at us she will deliberately go to her bedroom and pee on the floor! We took a break for about a week because it was getting so negative around the house and now we are back at it, but it is definitely rough going. Anyone have tricks to get them to work with you?

Here is what we have been doing so far... make a big deal out of it (go into a song and dance routine), she gets a sticker for her hand and one for her 'good job card' everytime she performs, when she gets a certain number of stickers on her card she can trade it in for TV time (very difficult keeping DH on track with this - he forgets and turns on the TV all the time). She has also been told that when she is a 'big girl' all the time that she can have a bike. We have also been talking about which of her friends are 'big girls' and 'big boys' and we talk about the adults, TV characters, and book characters that she likes as being 'big boys' and 'big girls' (look at Elmo - Elmo is a big boy...)

Anything I'm NOT doing? And, NO, there haven't been any big changes around the house to cause her backsliding (no new siblings, no moves, no room changes, nada)

Jen in Okinawa
Mom to Noelle (2 1/2)

luvbeinmama
05-09-2004, 07:37 PM
That sounds about normal. Two weeks is a long time for little kids! And the rewards can lose their influence after a while.

On her "good job" card, try going from instant reward when performing to a daily "no accidents" reward. We had a calendar and put a smiley face for no accidents, a "hmm" face (straight line mouth) for 1 accident, a frowny face for 2+ accidents (and DS insisted on having the frowny faces instead of dots when we were concerned about that). Then, after 1 week of all smiley faces (we allowed only 1 hmm face for this part) he got a special set of undies (these were his first character undies and he picked them out, he had the gerber undies for training). We did that for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks of getting his undies he got a 4th pack of undies and a trip to Legoland. Daily, during training, we gave him a movie at night if he got his smiley face for the day. Of course, if she watches tv during the day, that may not be a great incentive. You have to find what works for your child. My kids don't watch TV regularly, just a very occassional video, so tv was a HUGE incentive for DS.

HTH!