I cringe as I write this that I may jinx myself, but here it is.

I think Ben is mostly potty trained.

I’m starting to think that the deadline to potty train is more a factor than if your kid is ready. I know I only had the will power NOT to use diapers because we were merely weeks from school starting. There was no going back.

At first I tried candy rewards. Which I thought made me a bad mom, 2 peanut M & Ms for a pee and 4 for a poop. He didn’t seemed motivated by them. So I became a worse mom and started to lose my patience. That didn’t seem to work well either. Finally I tried another tactic from my bad mommy arsenal, negative reinforcement.

“Ben, you know those juice boxes you love so much that you get diarrhea? Well, you can’t have one until you poop on the potty. I’m not cleaning that kind of poop off the floor anymore. Especially not the carpet!” I exclaimed in a not so soft voice.

Adam piped in with his own deal. “You can have those superhero monster trucks you want from Costco if you poop three times consecutively on the potty”.

Well, not only did Ben start pooping on the potty, but he learned a big word – consecutive.

Every time he went pee he sat on that potty grunting like his favorite superhero, The Hulk, until he produced a poop. He was able to get those monster trucks within one day!

Best $20 Adam Ever Spent