REALLY hard time with Potty Training - HELP

A week seems like a long time for him to wait for a gift . He can't think that long at that age . I like the little gift idea, but I would make it a daily thing instead of weekly. Buy a little dollar toy , wrap it and set it where he can see it . Tell him if his pants stay dry and clean all day he will get the surprise before bedtime . I also would ask the teachers for advice , maybe they do things differently. You could also ask his doctor about it .. Good luck !

If he can go a week in school with no accidents, then he should be able to go a week at home. He is just being lazy if he asks to go in school. I like meandmy3's idea.

I think you're right, I haven't tried the reward thing yet... Whenever he's successful, I just give him big smiles and high fives and I let him find his daddy and tell him "I went potty like a big boy!" I don't know about going a week though... I think I'll do the daily thing... (SIGH) Dollar store, here I come!!!

Well, I don't know if this makes a difference, but he doesn't ask by himself, but will ask to be included if another boy askes to go.... But at almost 4, I feel that he should be asking for himself... Yeah, I use pull-ups now, I refuse to buy anymore diapers... but I can see his confusion in that the pull-ups do the same thing as the diapers do. He does pull down his own pants and his pull up and gets up there all by himself, and will even wipe himself and get dressed again all by himself. BUT I HAVE TO FORCE him to go in there - he won't initiate the process! I'm going to try the reward thing mentioned earlier and then I think my last resort will be to just put him in regular undies and let him feel how yucky it is and maybe that will kick his little hinney into getting it done! : ) Thanks for your response!

He's been acting kinda funny about the 'big boy' thing... When he does a big boy thing and does it right, he's very proud and loves to tell us all about it... but when he makes a mistake, he gets very upset when I bring up the 'big boy' thing... for example, today, he went on the potty, made a BM and then was all excited and bragged to his daddy about how like a big boy, he went poopie on the potty... Great! But later on, when I asked him to drop 'em and try to go potty like a big boy, he got all upset and said he didn't want to be a big boy.... I'm assuming cuz he recognized that he wet his pull up and I would know about it... He gets SO happy when his (fade when wet) Pandas on his Diego Pull-ups are still there - "All clean, mom!" I love it! (sigh) Will keep trying... will def be getting that poster board and try the star thing with mini-rewards...

Stop buying pull ups take him shopping for big boy underpants, he gets to pick them out. ON the way there, while in the store and on the way keep talking about how he is a big boy now and not a baby, that only babies wear pull ups or diapers and that he is not a baby. Praise him for being such a big boy and tell him how important it is for him to be a big boy. When you get home, help have him help you toss the pull ups, that is right get rid of them, toss them. Put him in underpants. when he has an accident he has to wash out the underpants himself.. (for bm's just toss them, for pee have him rinse them out) so he sees what happens when he wets himself.

Hi Kats, thanks for the response... It's getting better, we're really trying to go all out and show him that it's a good thing and that it's something that he has to do. "It's the rule" is a phrase we use alot, generally, and he never questions me when I say that... so I've been throwing in little ideas to him that 'it's the rule' that boys who can't go potty on the toilet can't...whatever...but I am always honest with him. LIke today, we went to the pool and he wanted to know why he had to wear undies under his bathing suit... So he's working at it and loves to show us when the designs are still there... Hopefully, when he's out of school, it won't backfire on me... I'm hoping that I can schedule about 4 days to do nothing but concentrate on the potty... but his success has mostly been at school... (sigh) We'll see. Thanks again!

Great ideas, but if I have to sing the POTTY song one more time, I'm going to go crazy! My rear end can't take sittin' on the side of the tub any more!!! LOL... We also need to be careful because my little guy tends to not know when to reign it in and if we get too silly in the BR, we have a hard time teaching him 'time and place' concepts... So far, I've sat in there with him, sung songs, read books, even done finger puppets.... If I put him in there, he'll go when he needs too, but he won't seek out the bathroom on his own.... I've gotten some great advice and support, so I thank you very much!

You're right, he does know how... but I'm leaning towards an earlier response: he's being lazy... not wanting to stop playing long enough, afraid he's going to miss something.... Also, I can totally see the confusion he may have; the diapers and the pull ups are NO different from each other. The boy knows he can go in them and not suffer... mom will clean me up and I'll be off again... I've adopted forcing him to stop, drop 'em and try to go... so far, okay. But soon, very soon, he'll be wearing real undies and the feeling of "it's okay, mom will clean me up" will be one of the past! At least when it comes to Nature's Call! Thanks for your response!

Well, it may be because of the reasons you stated. Kids in general like to play, but in school, they tend to go to toilet because everyone do so too. They are scared that they do not conform to the rest's behaviors. While at home, it's only you, the mum that he had to deal with... Well, I don't think forcing him will work either. I like your idea of just putting on the undies for him. I will say, why don't you try now... You can just tell him that you are putting on undies for him from now on, since he knows how to go toilet in school. You can then observe his behavior from then. I believe that at most, he may be going soon without diapers very soon...

Okay, I'll throw a few MAGIC WISHES your way if you throw 'em back!!! I'm sweating summer camp and full-day preschool too!