Saturday, February 19, 2011

Trying Bribery


I might be at the point of waving the white flag concerning Mary's second attempt at potty training. She is so fully capable and so smart and she is utterly, willfully refusing to cooperate except when she feels like it. I would list out many examples of her willful behavior to prove my point but it is probably indelicate talk for a public forum such as a blog. You'll just have to trust me.


Anyway, I'm taking a shot at bribery with a sticker chart and prizes to earn. Honestly, I don't have much faith that this will work. I do not think this kind of cheap trick will motivate Mary. I'm pretty sure she just wants to be in charge. When she was 18 months old, "being in charge" meant that she self-initiated potty training and was dry day and night within a month. But then I suspect she saw that it was important to me that she use toilets instead of diapers, so then "being in charge" switched to eliminating in her clothing, in diapers, or on the floor. Frankly, I think that until she wants to be independent of diapers, she isn't going to be.


But I'll take one more shot at the bribery route and see what happens.

4 comments:

  1. Theo has a similar independent/stubborn streak to how you describe Mary's, and stickers have actually worked very well with him, so I will cross my fingers that you have luck! I'm not above bribery with stickers, myself....

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  2. Cathleen: Just to clarify, I'm not above bribery either. I used the sticker-and-prize method with John at 2-1/2 and it worked great with him. I just think Mary will not go for it. We shall see!

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  3. Ugh, I have no advice or anything, but I do hope stickers help. They sure do look pretty! :-)

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  4. Sounds SOOO much like Emma, and it took resorting to bribery to get her fully trained as well.

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