It is an accepted fact around here that the jelly beans were a serious potty motivator. Sure, five months later he is still asking for them at least half the time he goes, but a few jelly bellies a day is a small price to pay for a diaper free life, in my opinion. Plus I figure at some point the jelly bean reward will be his college roommate’s problem, not mine, right.
Bribery worked so well for the potty, I had no problem at all applying it to our next issue, which is that Gatito has been joining us in bed with increasing frequency. The truth is that I quite like having him in our bed, and I like being piled in with him and A and the cats. But I don’t think it’s great for a marriage, and what started out as every once in a while gradually increased in frequency until we got to three nights in a row and I figured it was time to do something about it.
Something turned out to be a chart, with a picture of a car, divided into seven segments. Each night that Gatito stays in his own bed till morning, he gets to color in a segment, and after a week, he gets a car. This is the seventh night, so if all goes well, tomorrow is Car Day. I just don’t know what happens after that. Will he only sleep in his bed with the promise of a car? Do we extend the next challenge from a week to a month? Is it a non-issue, now that he’s gotten used to sleeping alone again?
If you have ever offered rewards your kids for certain behavior, how did you transition away from the rewards without messing up the behavior?
