'Twas stickers on the “Lilly Went Potty” board in the bathroom that did it for us. Then I couldn’t get her out of the damn bathroom.
“Daddy, I have to go potty.”
“What? Again? You just went 2 minutes ago.”
I’m not sure if I’ve told this story here.
Anyway, my darling daughter is stubborn. And she loves babies. She still wants to be a baby. So at 3 1/2 going on four she wasn’t potty trained.
We tried EVERYTHING. Stickers. Peeing for prizes. Letting her run around naked. Not changing her and making her responsible. Running out of diapers. Everything. (Well, except beating her silly, but that idea was beginning to sound tempting).
I realized I had promised too much when we were driving around one day. My daughter’s favorite color is yellow. And she thinks VW Beetles are the cutest cars. So we are out and about and she says “look, Mommy, a yellow bug car!” and her four year old brother says “You know, if you get potty trained, Mommy will buy you one of those.”
We have changed the basic laws of physics in celebration. She decided that since she now goes on the potty, she is now four. (This was due to her grandmother telling her she couldn’t turn four if she still wore diapers). So, she is now an honorary four. She can turn four again in September.
My take on this after two late Toileteers is that its a parents job to provide encouragement and motivation. But the kid has to be the one to decide that its time. They may take a while from a lot of reasons (not wanting to grow up, not wanting to make mistakes and have accidents, being afraid of the toilet, or just plain ole stubborness), but you can’t decide for them. If you get lucky and your eighteen month old decides its time, your parenting, the stickers, the potty movies were all secondary to your eighteen month olds decision. Likewise, if you have a four year old still in diapers, it isn’t because stickers work for everyone but you.
Well Nate, thinking back to using the facilities at your last fest…Wanna explain why there were rows and rows of smiley face stickers in YOUR bathroom too? Hmm??? 
