My daughter has recently begun Potty Training and as a lot of parents will attest, the best way to keep them interested in this monumental event, is with incentives. Obviously, the title of the post is misleading because it’s clear that Daddy is not the only one working on the potty training. I am helping though…and that entitles me to a little bit of the credit, lol!
My son, who was brilliant beyond his years, held out for Diecast Cars from the Cars the Movie. That meant we were paying a whopping $5.99 per poop! If this were possible in the real world, we would all be billionaires! Seriously, we spent a lot of money on these cars as it was like an addiction that I couldn’t quit!
Eventually, the balance of power shifted back to us, after we convinced him that stickers were just as cool as cars….which obviously, they are not.
Now it’s my daughter’s turn to lower our diaper bills and we made sure to be prepared this time! We knew she loved two things, stickers and candy. After all, what little kid doesn’t love those things?
The stickers were first and failed miserably. They’d fall in the potty, end up on my socks & we never seemed to have the one sticker she really wanted!
That’s when we introduced her to her first Pez dispenser. It was Belle from Beauty & the Beast, a character she was very familiar with, even as a 2 year old. Little Girls and princesses, you know!
In a move much like her brother had pulled, she quickly conned us into giving her waaaaaay more candy than a 2 year princess should ever eat! We had been giving her a candy every time she said she had to go to the potty. You can probably guess what happened next…..
Every 30 minutes she would scream “Pee Pee Potty!!!”, “Pee Pee Potty!!!” and we’d trip over each other like the ice cream man was outside, to get her on the potty! Only to find out that she was using us for the candy. At one point, she even stopped taking the candy out of the dispenser herself, instead opting for the “Daddy Do It!” approach, which I totally fell for.
We eventually caught on to her little game and adjusted the rules for dispensing candy. She would receive 1 candy for what we deemed to be “legitimate” attempts and she would get 1 more candy upon completion of the transaction.
We are proud to report that it has now been 2 full weeks with only one or two accidents and we couldn’t be prouder of our little monkey! We have saved a ton in diapers and wipes, with our only major expenses being Pull Ups and Pez Refills!!
Way to go Girlie!! We’re so proud of you!
And Thank You Pez!
Did you use incentives to help your kids Potty Train? I’d love to hear what worked/didn’t work for you!
Cheers!
10 Responses to Potty Training With Daddy
A year ago, Little One seemed to pretty much potty train herself. Then we took a big trip and visited her cousins (an 11 hr road trip) and all of a sudden, things reverted back to pre-potty training. She refused to wear panties and wanted to be in diapers. She adamantly refused to use the potty or toilet. It was pretty challenging.
I tried the stickers thing. She was not interested. I guess it’s because she gets to play with stickers often and didn’t really find it an incentive for potty training.
Then I did the unspeakable. I bribed her. It started off with one Smartie for pee and two for poop. It seemed to work.
Then it ended up being one Kinder egg a week if she did a good job with the toilet training.
Over the Christmas holiday, she was completely trained. One week and she had it! I guess when they’re ready, they’re ready
Chocolate helps. Trust me, I am not one who gives my kid tons of junk or treats, but Kinder eggs saved my life. LOL!
My brother’s mother-in-law once told me that “When it comes to potty training, bribery is everything”. LOL!
Great post, by the way!!! Love the PEZ dispenser!
I have just begun to train my son he gets a mini m&m if he sits on the potty he has only gone a couple of times so far. Hopefully I don’t have go with bigger bribes but I think I need to do the same where you give a treat only for legitimate attempts! I am looking forward to no more diapers:)
$5.99 a poop is a bit much! lol.
My aunt used to give a single skittle to her girls when they were potty training. I’m not a fan of giving candy to a child, but this worked for my daughter! She is 100% potty trained and doesnt wet the bed~ but having open door policy and her seeing mommy and daddy going to the bathroom also gave her the push to wanna be like us. Now if only we can get her to start shutting the door now.
ps: we also have the same crock looking potty and she loved it! We kept it in her room… then as she got used to going moved it to the bathroom. (because sometimes kids dont want to stop playing to pee and pooh but if its their room they will take the time to do it. )
also we only rewarded 1 for pee 2 for pooh… rewarding for just sitting on the potty can cause issues which you’ve already found out.
My girls decided at about 2,5years that they don’t need diapers any more……we stayed home for three days, used up a lot of stickers, sat hours on/around the potty reading books, telling storries……Nr. 2 was easy too – just a few weeks later…..
I’d agree that the cars were a bit much! We could never afford it…..
Our 2 oldest kids were not potty trained till almost 3 years old. But once they decided they were ready, we went straight to underwear and they were trained almost immediately. I can count on ONE hand how many accidents they had! And NEVER night-time! So even though we had to buy diapers a bit longer, it seemed worth it to not have to stress about “training” for months!
Good luck to all the trainers! We have 2 in diapers right now! LOL. A 21 month old and a newborn!
The cars were out of control expensive! It was our first time though and seemed like a good idea at the time, lol.
The Pez dispenser has been great and I’m proud to say that my daughter is now going on the potty all the time! I’m so incredibly proud of her!
Thanks to everyone for sharing your input on this. There never seems to be a right/wrong answer.
Way to go!!!
We recently potty trained my daughter. Her incentive was chocolate buttons. If she went pee, she’d get 2 buttons and for a poop, she’d get 3 or 4 buttons. It seemed to work. She was potty trained by day within 2 weeks.
I can’t believe you shelled out $5.99 for diecast cars. Wowee!!! Potty training must have become quite the expense. Hahaha.
To be fair, I bought someone’s entire collection on Kijiji, so it was about $1 per car for the most part. Still waaaaaay more expensive than Pez candies or stickers though, lol!