The Potty Breakdown Part Two

I called K into the kitchen and showed him the box of cars. His eyes lit up. These cars were good. Oh yes they were. This was clearly the better selection of the two boxes.

Once I had piqued his interest I told him the terms:

He had to poop on the potty. If he pooped on said potty he could pick one car AND he could take it into his (now toyless) room.

He quickly agreed, but I was not done stating my terms.

IF he pooped in his pants OR if he didn’t poop at all (the kid poops multiple times a day in his pants) I would let M pick a car AND she could take any car that he had already earned should he earn one.

Okay Mommy!

Twenty minutes later? A turd in the potty. A car was chosen. The purple one. I praised his choice because if M got to pick a car, she’d have picked the purple one first. I reminded him that she could still get the purple one if he didn’t continue to put the poop in the potty.

I was optimistic, but we’d been there before. We’ve had one poop at a time. I would be more optimistic if I saw a repeat poop.

He tried to get another car without pooping by saying he pooped and flushing quickly. So the terms had an addendum that stated that the poop must be witnessed by Mom or Dad before the car would be issued.

He was not happy that his ploy didn’t work, but we still had poop-free pants.

Saturday came and K wore underwear instead of pull-ups. He’s worn underwear before, and just gone ahead and pooped in them too.

This time we had a repeat poop in the potty. AND he kept the underwear dry all day as well.

It was the same thing on Sunday. Sunday was actually a THREE poop in the potty day. And the last time K was playing with M in her bedroom. I overheard her telling him what she thought should happen next in their little game when suddenly K said Oh wait! I have to go poop! He stood up and ran to the bathroom.

I wanted to cry great, fat, tears of joy.

Sunday night K requested a chance to wear underwear to bed. He woke up Monday morning still wearing clean and dry underwear.

I was hopeful that we had had a major breakthrough. Then he refused to poop at all again all day that Monday.

It turned out, thankfully, to be a minor setback. He’s used the potty without incident since.

So apparently I just needed to empty his room of toys and threaten to let his sister pick a car before him to motivate him to use the potty. If that just doesn’t make me want to pound my skull with a hammer…

And it turns out that K won’t be going off to college still wearing pull-ups. That’s a good thing. I’d have hated sitting with his potential girlfriends making small-talk while he went to change his underwear. It would have been a little awkward.

But phew! Only one kid left to potty train…and I get a little break before I have to start on her.

K has been using the potty since he finally decided to do it. He has not had a single accident. And as with most things, my mind is already forgetting the unpleasantness of just a few weeks ago. I’m beginning to forget the frustration of his refusal to use the potty.

It’s wonderful.