Too Smart for Us

Well, the little guy was more than ready for potty training.  The potty chair wasn't in the house but five minutes before he used it successfully.  He has been diaper free for 6 days now.  Rewards are a very powerful motivator for him.  Almost too powerful, and he is a bit too smart.  He learned almost immediately that he could tinkle just a tiny bit and get a piece of candy.  As soon as that piece of candy was consumed he was on the potty chair tinkling again.  He had no fewer than 30 pieces of candy the first day.  I began to think we would never be able to leave the house.  I was being played.  After a couple days, I took the reward system away.  He would go several hours without needing to go, but then he had several accidents that day.  Like I said, rewards are a powerful motivator.  Yesterday I introduced a sticker chart.  He now needs to use the potty 5 times before getting any candy.  He's back to tinkling every five minutes, but at least the candy consumption has decreased a bit.  He now goes longer periods between dribbles and there have many very few accidents in-between. The stickers are nice, but not as awesome as candy, so he isn't as fixated on the rewards.

If this toddler were to be the easiest about anything, I'm surprised potty training was the thing.  As easy as he has been, potty training is never fun.