Who would have ever thought that potty training would be this hard? Especially with a 3-year-old boy who if I don’t say so myself seems to be relatively intelligent. Owen has been sleeping throughout the night for months without a diaper on and he has been going without a diaper for a looooong time now, except when it comes to doing #2. Every time he wants to go #2 he heads for the drawer where we keep the pull-ups, pulls one out and asks us to put it on him, or sometimes he will put it on himself (like I said, he is too smart to be still doing this).
So in an effort to get him to go on the potty (and as a parent you just fall in the habit of calling it the “potty” which makes it difficult when telling the same story verbally to friends) we decided to go the ole bribary route.
I took Owen to Toys R Us and let him have his pick of toys not really telling him what I was doing until he finally settled on one. We parked (and he knew right away it was Toys R Us) and we walked in. I showed him every toy.
“Look here Owen, look how cool this is.”
I was prepared on spending a bundle. I figured what ever it would take to get this #2 diaper thing over was worth it. We walked around and came to the MatchBox car isle, and there are things on this isle that are very expensive (like tracks that have dinosaurs and breath fire) and obviously some that aren’t (like the actual cars). While I was pointing out everything, I saw a box of metal planes and showed them to Owen. He was hooked.
“Daddy can we get the BoxMatch airplanes?” (yea he calls them BoxMatch, not sure why)
“Yes Owen we can, but you know what you have to do in order to play with them?”
“Do I have to go poopy on the potty?”
“Yes. (and to make sure he understood the deal I explained) “Owen, I will buy these planes for you to play with, but only if you go on the potty. They will stay in the box until you go on the potty, do you understand?”
“Yes, I will get my BoxMatch cars when I go on the potty.”
I even try to tempt him with other toys on the way out, but he clung hard to those planes, I thought to myself, “What a bargain. If this works it will have only cost me $10.”
We head home and Owen is excited and ready to open his planes. I remind him, not until he poops on the potty.
We get home and go inside and explain to Renea the deal. Owen wants to try right now to go on the potty. This is great! He heads into the bathroom with his planes and Renea sets the planes on the sink as “inspiration.”
I head upstairs thinking, “This is good. He will try a few times then get used to it and we will be in the clear. He certainly won’t pull this off tonight.”
I make it to the top of the stairs and Renea yells for me to come back down. I get to the bathroom and there is Owen with pants around his ankles yelling, “I did it! I pooped in the potty.”
I go make sure before I hand over the loot, and two of the smallest, tiniest, pieces were in the toilet. He surely pulled a muscle trying to push those out but alas it was what we wanted, and in return he got his planes.
We were amazed and shocked. We explained how easy that was, and how he didn’t need a diaper anymore, and we also explained that if he reverted back to his old saggy diaper ways we would take the planes away. Agreed on by all parties. A breakthrough.
Nope. Next day back to diapers, planes are in the hanger and put on top of the hutch to collect dust. I have given up. He has worn me down. I am going to let him move at his own pace, but we have decided on one thing, no new toys until he goes. God I hope it is soon.
