My 3-year-old is so smart and sweet and funny. He's also perfectly capable of ditching the diapers, but has little to no inclination to do so. Compared with my oldest, who was completely disinterested in potty-training until one day deciding to make the switch to underoos, Eli will be 100% potty-trained for a few days, but will then inexplicably regress and refuse to handle his business the big boy way. Needless to say, this experience is akin to repeatedly dangling a lifetime supply of chocolate just out of my reach and then snatching it away.
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So far, I've tried about every tactic in the book, from rewards to letting him pick out his own undies to heavy praise. Yet, every time he grows tired with one ploy, he changes his mind about the whole debacle, probably deeming it to be too much effort for too little payoff.
A quick scan of the international tool that is the World Wide Web assures me that I'm not alone in my predicament. Here are a few suggestions that I found from parents with similar experiences:
- Ditch the diapers altogether (except at night). I may resort to this, but I fear that I'll have to follow him around with a mop and bucket everywhere he goes.
- Reward with stamps and stickers, but not candy. My kids laugh at stamps and stickers. M&M's have shown the most consistent promise.
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- Set a timer and have the child "try" every time it goes off. Maybe this works for some people, but when I try to force my kids to go when they don't need to it usually backfires, and makes them resent the process.
I know it'll work out eventually, but when you're in the throes of potty training it often feels like there's never an end in sight. What have your experiences been? Were your kids a cinch to train, or did your strong-willed little cuties fight you tooth and nail like mine?
This post was written by Alia Hoyt.
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