{"id":2367,"date":"2010-03-09T20:44:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T02:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/?p=2367"},"modified":"2010-03-09T20:44:58","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T02:44:58","slug":"uh-oh-ive-created-a-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/09\/uh-oh-ive-created-a-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Uh Oh, I’ve Created a Monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t really discussed The Littlest Apple’s potty training in detail much here, and perhaps you’re thinking that’s a good thing.\u00c2\u00a0 But I do think it’s worth at least one blog post.\u00c2\u00a0 We started potty training using underwear exclusively during the daytime back in January, and things have been gradually getting better.\u00c2\u00a0 This is where I would tell you that it’s been about 2 weeks since The Littlest Apple’s last accident, except that he had TWO accidents (both on the carpet, naturally) this afternoon alone.<\/p>\n

This boy is just too busy<\/em> to go to the potty.\u00c2\u00a0 If you ask him if he needs to go the potty, his answer is ALWAYS “No.”\u00c2\u00a0 At the beginning, we took him every hour.\u00c2\u00a0 Then we moved to taking him every two hours, and asking occasionally if he needed to go.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re currently focusing on getting him to tell us when he needs to go.<\/p>\n

I’ve read numerous books on potty training over the last year, and not all of them agree on the use of rewards.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, some of those books say that rewards are a bad idea. (FORESHADOWING!)\u00c2\u00a0 For some reason though, I decided that rewards would create the right incentive for my stubborn little guy.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided rewards were just the ticket for our situation!<\/p>\n

I should have KNOWN better when I decided to start a Potty Rewards Chart.\u00c2\u00a0 I started this about a month ago in an effort to reduce the number of accidents (daily, sometimes more) that The Littlest Apple was having.\u00c2\u00a0 The original rules of our system were as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You get a sticker for the Potty Chart at the end of the day for NO ACCIDENTS<\/li>\n
  2. You can also earn stickers by telling us you have to go the potty (and actually going)<\/li>\n
  3. When you earn 5 stickers, you get a REWARD (in this case, it was mostly toys related to his newest obsession, the movie Cars).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I thought I had him all figured out.\u00c2\u00a0 He started doing really well.\u00c2\u00a0 Not having any accidents.\u00c2\u00a0 But still not telling us when he had to go to the potty, and still saying “NO!” anytime you asked if he needed to go.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, last week, The Littlest Apple started asking for stickers EVERY time he went to the potty.\u00c2\u00a0 And there were some BIG tantrums when I refused.\u00c2\u00a0 But that wasn’t the worst of it….<\/p>\n

    The Littlest Apple started asking “What do I GET?” every time he went to the potty.<\/p>\n

    Uh, oh.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve created a monster!\u00c2\u00a0 A little monster who wants MORE MORE MORE when he already has way too many junky toys to begin with!!\u00c2\u00a0 My mom tried to stick up for him by saying that it was a natural question about actions and consequences, as opposed to the questions of a greedy little boy.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe there’s some truth to that.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, I DID create the consequence of a reward, right?<\/p>\n

    I’m still trying to rectify this.\u00c2\u00a0 We still need SOME incentive to encourage The Littlest Apple to tell us when he has to go to the potty, instead of waiting until we make him go.\u00c2\u00a0 For starters, I’m changing the Reward System a bit, requiring The Littlest Apple to earn TEN stickers instead of just FIVE.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m also thinking about making the rewards experiences <\/em>instead of stuff<\/em>, like going to Coldstone with Mommy and Daddy, a trip to a special park or indoor playground, or getting to watch a movie with us.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not sure how well that’s going to be received, as The Littlest Apple is already asking for his next toy-reward.<\/p>\n

    Any suggestions?<\/p>\n

    <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I haven’t really discussed The Littlest Apple’s potty training in detail much here, and perhaps you’re thinking that’s a good thing.\u00c2\u00a0 But I do think it’s worth at least one blog post.\u00c2\u00a0 We started potty training using underwear exclusively during the daytime back in January, and things have been gradually getting better.\u00c2\u00a0 This is where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motherhood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2367"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions\/2381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}