Bribes don't only work on politicians

Here's my recent parenting challenge: I have been trying to convince Renee to go poop on the potty. She is otherwise potty trained, but for some reason she only wants to poop in her diaper. I offered to bake her a cake as soon as she uses the potty for #2, but nothing changed. Finally I got so tired of "trying" that I just stopped worrying about it at all, hoping eventually she would just change her mind. Talking with my sister in law Stephanie last weekend about my situation, she mentioned using M+M's as a reward for one of her kids. Maybe that would work better, like instant gratification...?

Yes, I did bribe my child with candy. We went to the store this week and I let her choose whichever bag of M+M's she wanted, and we talked about them as a reward, that she could eat them as soon as she pooped on the potty. Of course she asked to eat them all the time, breakfast, after nap snack, anytime was a good time for M+M's, but I always said to her: "What does Mom say? Only after you..." And Renee would finish my sentence: "go poop on the potty". The first day she tried desperately to poop on the potty, crying about wanting the M+M's! But it didn't quite work out, so she used the diaper. The next day she tried again, begging to poop on the potty so she could have M+M's...



And it finally worked!! Here is my little queen of the throne!



Essential tools for bribery: easily visable, brightly colored candy. Yummy peanut M+M's!



And the victorious child, with a handful of M+M's! I texted this picture to her daddy that afternoon while he was at work, "Look what Renee did today!" So far we haven't used a diaper in 3 days! The other thing Daddy promised Renee after she went poop on the potty is that Mommy and Daddy would make Renee a baby sister or brother... We'll just have to see about that :)