Potty Training Stinks!

Seriously. This is hard. Samnatha decided for us that we would start the potty training process. At about 18 months. I was not ready to begin, but she was, so we did. And we had quite a bit of success with her going pee-pee in the potty. Then she had one of her bainful BMs...while she was sitting on the potty. And she wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with the potty any more.

We started her on Miralax, and that worked wonders for her. But she still wouldn't have anything to do with the potty. So here we are a year and a half later. And she is even further from being potty trained than she was when we started working on it. How is that possible? Well, when we started, she WANTED to sit on the potty and got excited about going potty like a big girl. Now? Well, she refuses to even sit on the potty. She will even throw fits about it sometimes.

We tried giving her a reward. She wanted her nails painted, so I told her that if she kept her panties dry and used the potty, I would paint her fingernails and toenails that afternoon. She stayed dry all morning that day. But as soon as she had her nails painted, she refused to get on the potty again and only wanted a diaper back on.

I tried setting a timer and having her go to the potty every 20 minutes (30 was too long, she had wet panties at 30 minutes each time.) She screamed about sitting on the potty and when I tried to make her sit there, she arched her back and threw a fit...and as she was throwing her fit, she began to pee and it went all over the bathroom.

We talk about big kids using the potty. She has an Elmo potty book that she loves to read. She tells me that she wants star underpants like Elmo has. I told her that as soon as she goes one day without getting her diaper or panties wet that I will get a pair of star panties for her. She says never mind, she just wants to wear a diaper.

She complained about driving to Waco to buy diapers last week. I told her that if she would use the potty all the time, we wouldn't have to buy diapers as often. She said OK, we will just go to Waco and buy diapers.

A friend told me that I need to find her currency. She said that with her grandaughter, they gave her a Chucky Cheese token each time she went potty, and when she got to a certain number of tokens, she got to take a trip to Chucky Cheese to spend the tokens. Samantha has never been there, so she has no idea what that would mean. I have been seriously considering taking her there just to see if she would like it enough for that to work, though.

Then this weekend, she dropped her microphone on the floor and it broke. She said that we need to buy a new one. Daddy said no. I told her that she can earn money and save it until she has enough to buy a new one (it was only 99cents at Target...the best 99cent toy ever!...so it really is reasonable for her to be able to save that much money.)

Then I had a thought. Maybe I could pay her a nickel each time she has a dry diaper or panties AND uses the potty. Brent said that if I think it is a good idea, then we can do that. I'm guessing he doesn't really like the idea. And I'm not entirely sure that it is a good idea. The thought of paying her to go potty just doesn't seem right...but I can't think of anything else to do, and I know that this is something that she wants and may possibly try to work toward.

What do you think. Is this a good idea, or a bad one? What are your suggestions for potty training a VERY strong willed 3 year old?