Saturday, September 23, 2006

Potty training deja vu

It's been a year and half and I'm back on potty duty again. Needless to say, Patty Potty and I did not turn out to be the best of friends last time we worked together on a 6-month long project named Abby. We're back again, but this time with a new archrival: Sarah Super Soaker. Expecting that things would go more smoothly and more quickly the second time around (and also hoping that Sarah would just simply follow her sister's lead), I took a relaxed approach. With Sarah at 2 1/2 now and my growing intolerance of the morning trash drop, I've decided to get serious. I'm pulling out the big guns: stickers, jelly beans, chocolate, whatever it takes to motivate this girl. Even Abby gets an incentive if she can get her sister to go in the potty and not in her pants. Initially there was a lot of excitement over all the cool stickers and the large jar of jelly beans. The excitement has grown stale.

Last week I decided to get creative. A friend of mine told me how her son loves Cars the movie and how she made a race track with movable cars that moved forward 1 step each time he peed/had an accident. With each successful potty attempt, Lightning McQueen would advance along the racetrack, and with each accident, the opposing car would move ahead. I made a similar diagram, but modified it to Sarah's passion: Dora. If she goes pee in the potty, Dora gets to climb one step up the mountain. If she has an accident, Swiper moves up. If Dora makes it to the top of the tallest mountain before Swiper, she gets a prize. Sounds like a great concept, doesn't it? This is a great tool for a child who is interested in long-term goals, can deal with delayed gratification and is competitive. Anyone have any potty training techniques for children who can sit in poop and pee all day, have no concept of long-term goals and are not very competitive? If she ever does get motivated to pee, she will get stickers, jelly beans, big girl panties and the privilege of moving Dora (which I took great care in making) up the mountain. Open your eyes, girl! You're sitting on a goldmine! And Abby, she has now assumed the role of Swiper and revels in moving Swiper up the mountain every time Sarah wets her diaper.

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