Return of the Tiny Potties

Bianca and I decided that as 2017 dawned that we'd start the long, messy process of potty training the Beethan.  And so, for the last time, the tiny potties have returned to our bathrooms.  Eventually we will move them to places Beethan prefers, but for now, they are going to be in the bathrooms.  

We have the whole range of things to roll out slowly so that Beeth gets ready--applause, potty books, the "Poop on Your Potty" song (which I made up and isn't all that complicated), and lots of encouragement.   The thing that strikes me as so odd is that this whole thing is a shift in labor that makes no sense from Ethan's point of view.  We do a good job keeping him in clean diapers and monitoring rashes, so really, what incentive does he have to assume a lifetime of work?  None, really.  We will, of course, bribe him, probably with toys or maybe food, but in the end, those remunerations are tiny in comparison to the amount of free labor that we get to pawn off on him.  Imagine the 10-20 minutes a day spent attending to diapers--changes, storage, and disposal--now add that up over 18 years, and it seems like outright theft that we persuade Ethan to do this with what will end up being a couple of Hot Wheels.  

This is the power of wanting to be a big boy, of wanting to be like "brudder," and in the end, of wanting to be independent.  It is a fascinating process, one that eventually leads to college and the like, and it all starts with a tiny potty.