The potty battle

I think I mentioned in a previous post that while potty training Jake at home over Christmas vacation was pretty simple (actually, it was probably one of the easiest parenting things I've had to do so far-he was totally ready for it), getting him to go on the potty at school has been a huge challenge. It's not that he has a fear of going in public, he has no problem at all letting us know when he has to go at a restaurant, the mall, etc... It's literally ONLY at school where he just refused to go. And I do mean refuse; it wasn't that he was having accidents, he would just hold it all.day.long. It was actually quite amazing that he had that kind of control, even through a 2 hour nap everyday!

At first, we thought it was because he was trying to delay the inevitable; in his school, once they're 3 AND potty trained, they move up to the preschool room out of their toddler 3 room. He LOVED his teacher in toddler 3 and often expressed to us that he had no desire to go to the preschool room. But, that transition came & went, it had been weeks and he was still not going (other than 2 or 3 random times).

I spoke with the pediatrician about it at his 3 year check up; the pediatrician told me not to worry, that eventually he would decide to go on his own & as long as he wasn't in pain or holding back from playing or anything, there was no need to worry. But as the weeks have gone on & on with no signs of him caving in & just going, I did begin to worry. A lot. I mean, he was going 10 HOURS without going to the bathroom-that could not be good!

So, after he went on his own last week at school, I felt like he really needed a push in the right direction to keep going. As we were leaving school that day, he said he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese (we had been there for a party a few months ago and we pass by it on our way home every day); because I'm not above using bribery tactics, I immediately offered him a deal. He would get a sticker on a chart at home every time he went to the potty at school. When he got to 5 stickers, we would go to Chuck E Cheese. (I came up with 5 randomly-I didn't want to overwhelm him and it seemed like going the equivalent of once a day for a school week was fair). Jake was aaaaaaaaaallll about it.

That was last Thursday, so he got a sticker that night when we got home. No success on Friday at school. We reminded him about the stickers yesterday morning, and he practically ran me over when I picked him up last night, he was so excited to tell me that he went on the potty & would get a sticker at home. That's 2 stickers!!! 3 more to go....I never thought I'd say this, but I have my fingers crossed that we'll be spending our Friday night this week at Chuck E Cheese.