We've tried at least ten times over the last two years but failed to find that one thing that would motivate her to keep going. We got her books and dvd's that show characters happily using the potty We even tried bribing her with trips to disneyland and the beach and had jars of candy and temporary tattoos for rewards, but she had zero interest. Finally I made a breakthrough! I know many moms out there aren't going to agree with me on this, but I'm going to tell you anyway and pray for no negative comments! We're rewarding her with iPhone time.
Betsey is a typical three year old who has endless options of educational and fun toys in her room but drops everything when she sees one of our iPhones being unused. She could (and I hate to admit that she actually has) spend hours playing games on our iPhones. Although I don't like seeing her laying down and staring at a 5 inch screen when she could be outside running around with her sister, I am so proud of the fact that she knows more animal names than I do, knows the alphabet and all the letter sounds, and started learning math at two years old! So this morning I thought to myself, 'why not try it? If it works, we will finally have one kid out of diapers and if it doesn't, she'll get less screen time and more time to play (or fight) with her sister.'
So I tried it. Guess what? She's successfully peed on her little pink potty twice this morning with NO accidents! She got to play educational apps on my phone both times and I limited it to about 10 minutes each time. I told her if she wanted to play again later, she can use the potty again! I can't believe how well it's working so far. Of course it's only been a few hours but I can see this working already with her telling me when she wants to go potty and having zero accidents. She's even encouraging her sister (who will be two in two months) to sit on the potty!
What things have you done with your kids to potty train?
I've heard so many stories but I'm trying to remember that because every child is so different, we as parents need to be open to the different ways of teaching them. I already have a feeling that the phone time reward won't work for my other daughter. She's more into treats than electronics..
Erin
