Phasing Out Bribery

Benjamin has been "potty-trained" for a little over week now. We still have accidents, but he does know how to use the potty and he can hold his bladder until it's time to sit on the potty and go. The problem is that he won't do it without some sort of reward- and the reward he wants is a cookie or a piece of candy (curse you Halloween- Benjamin's too smart to be tricked into believing the candy is all gone.)

So here's my idea on how to phase out the bribery. I made this potty chart last night and these stickers (oh how I love Photoshop, but that's a post for another day...) I put his name on the top because A. he loves to see his name and 2. I'm hoping it gives him a sense of ownership and therefore responsibility. (Who knows if that's even going to work, you'll need to ask my psychologist husband and his brainy theological friends. I say it can't hurt)

In case you want to make your own- I printed the chart and the stickers on 81/2 x 11 photo paper and put the chart in a sheet protector thing. I cut off the white strip with the 3 hole punches in it because I liked the way it looked better. But I'm weird like that. Then I mounted the stickers on cardstock, cut them out, and ran them through my Xyron machine and turned them into REPOSITIONAL stickers. That way we can use them again and again. We stuck the stickers to another sheet protector and hung it up next to the potty chart on the fridge.

Starting today every time Benjamin uses the potty he gets to pick a sticker and put it on a square. When he gets four stickers in a row (or I guess on his potty chart it's a column) he gets to put a star sticker on his chart and pick out a treat. A. Small. Treat.

I'm hoping that after awhile he'll start to forget about putting a sticker on his chart since the instant reward of a treat has been taken away. If he doesn't start to forget on his own, I'm hoping some well-placed distractions may help. ("Let's go put a sticker on your chart, but first let's go tell daddy that you used the potty. Oh, look! Daniel's playing with the train set. Do you want to help him set up the track?)

So, that's my idea. I really hope it works. I came up with this idea myself so be nice if you need to tell me that I'm being too optimistic that it's going to work. Really, I'm not a child psychologist. I'm just a mama trying to stop feeding my kid crap all day just so he'll use a potty.

By the way, don't tell your kid that he can't eat crap all day because he MAY just start walking around the house singing "crap all day" to himself for the rest of the day. Just sayin'