Bribery

In the trenches of potty training, nothing seems to work so well as a well-placed bribe (mind you, we don’t use this tactic in any other arena of parenting, but this is one area that is completely up to the child and needs to be a positive experience, or it backfires).  Eva has been resisting wiping her own bottom for months, afraid of getting her hands dirty. I finally told her if she went several days in a row without mommy having to wipe her, she could have an Ariel doll.  That was apparently all she needed to hear.  A few days later we took her to buy the doll and she proudly announced to the check-out clerk, “I’m a big girl now and I wipe my own bottom!”   The clerk looked at me and said, “TMI!”  Yep, there are no secrets with kids.  Now we’re waiting for Amanda to decide that she wants that Snow White doll badly enough to give up the training pants and start using the toilet for both.