Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Potty Jar

Potty training is a lot slower than I thought it would be.  Sabrina's been using the potty for a while now, but she's not consistent about it.  If she's involved in any fun activity like coloring, dancing, or watching the Republican debates on TV and nature calls, into the diaper it goes.  And poop, I think she's done that twice on the pot; most of the time she's off in the corner hiding until she's finished and you begin to smell it.  Not unlike a Labrador retriever I can think of.  If only there was some reward, some sought after item I could tantalize her with to make her want to use the potty every time...

Something like this.

Since the above is not currently an option, we opted to create our own.  Off to Target we went, and returned with a plain glass jar.  To invest her in it, we got out the paints and stickers, and in no time at all, The Potty Jar became a reality.

Easily rivals some dusty gold box, and won't melt your face off.

No one's prouder of The Potty Jar than Sabrina, who is fond of telling people "Look, I painta' dis Potty Jar," whenever you enter the bathroom.  We filled the Jar with the toddler world's gold standard of healthy snacks, Swirly Fruit Roll Ups.  If you haven't seen them, picture taking six colors of fluorescent Play-Dough, mixing them, adding a metric ton of sugar, and then rolling it all flat with a rolling pin.  The resultant "Potty Prize" is relished by toddlers and dentists everywhere.  Now all we had to do is promise a Potty Prize after each successful whizzing, and potty training's a snap.  Not so fast...

While Sabrina loves getting a potty prize for going potty she's still not committed, and some unexpected ground rules have appeared in our little game of potty cat and mouse.  For example, if there are more delicious treats to be had elsewhere, who cares about potty prizes or even going potty at all.  So home made Christmas cookies are like potty training kryptonite.  We also quickly realized that Fruit Roll Ups are not what you want to feed a 2 1/2 year old right before bed.  On more than one occasion we've had to scramble to substitute out a less sugary treat.

Like this unsweetened cat food.

There's also the dreaded sit and wait.  As in, gee I'd love a Potty Prize, but I don't have to pee.  Let's see how long they'll let me sit here until I do something.  So we've had 30 minute waits.  In the end it pays off, but sheesh!  I haven't spent that much time in the bathroom since I was a teenager.

All in all we're making some progress.  When it comes to potty training, eventually everything comes out OK.

5 comments:

Leah said...

Loved this post. :) And yes, those Republican debates ARE quite interesting. Oops. :)

Potty training has been on my mind a lot lately. My son just turned 2 and my daughter is 17 months old, and so far, I'm pretty sure they are not ready, but man, when they are, it's going to be work! Thanks for sharing how your experience has been going.

mindfulness said...

I waited until my daughter was 3 (mostly because I dreaded public toilets with a toddler) and it took about a day. Fully potty trained. I've heard that if you start training them at 18 months, they'll be trained by age 3. If you start at age 2, they'll be trained by 3. And if you start at 3, well.....

Stacey said...

LOL so many kids are different. It took our daughter 3 months to really get it. She could do it but she didn't care to do it. She was 2.75 by the time she was good to go. Our son was a snap. He was able to do it for a long time and didn't care. But then one day he was going at daycare and so we figured he was ready. He wore underwear! The pooping wasn't easy but when we talked about it, he made some comment about it hurting on the potty so we explained that it didn't. He was good after that. He rarely has accidents.

We bought him a toy to really get him to stick with underwear in the beginning. If he wore underwear, he got the toy. And if he continued to wear underwear and use the potty, he got the other toy prize we kept on top of the fridge where he could see it.

One thing that worked for our daughter was naked from the waist down--nothing to catch her accidents. She seemed to clue in more that she couldn't just go and keep on playing. Also, I've heard of using underwear under pull-ups so the kid really feels wet and uncomfy but when you're out, there's no mess.

Good luck!!

Doug and Bill said...

Classic post. I have no experience here, that I cn remember anyway. so you're on your own. But I loved the teenager comment. memories...lol

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'm hoping we're done with diapers before the next little one comes along!