Friday, November 23, 2007

Get Me to the Loo On Time*

Some of you may remember my attempts to potty-train Lucia during Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge and my search for a patron saint of potty-training. My daughter now uses the potty consistently. The next challenge is getting her to go consistently to the bathroom before it becomes an emergency.

Bede and I were inspired by the Advent calendar as an incentive for Lucia to use the potty even when she's enrapt in a drawing or play scenario. Bede drew up a house with 10 blank windows. Each time Lucia makes it through the whole day without wetting her trousers, Bede draws a little person of Lucia's choice. Once the 10 windows are filled, Lucia gets to choose a place for us to go out to lunch. It's worked! For the second round, Bede drew a houseboat:



The next challenge entails Lucia staying dry through the night. Bede plans to draw a Victorian house with 10 windows for the main part of the house and 10 windows for the turrets (to mark the nighttime efforts).

*You got the My Fair Lady reference, right?

6 comments:

Lone Star Ma said...

Too cool! It isn't always easy to get to the potty on time!

Yorkshire Pudding said...

That is such a creative way of potty training. Brilliant! But here's another way. Why not shout... "LUCIA! YOU HAVE WET YOURSELF AGAIN YOU VARMINT!" then slap her bottom... "AND NO MORE TREATS FOR YOU UNTIL YOU STAY DRY!" This usually does the trick and reduces the amount of drawing required.

Saints and Spinners said...

LSM: True words.

YP: I showed your comment to Bede. He's so relieved there's a less artistic way of going about potty-training!

Andromeda Jazmon said...

This is a fabulous idea! I think we need to try this at our house. Winter break is going to be a potty training push for us too. I like your incentives as a change from stickers/candy.

Noodle said...

Wonderfully clever idea! And congrats to Lucia for making it all those days! :)

Anonymous said...

Very clever idea.