• John Rosemond wrote about parenting: “Ticket” shows  benefit of feedback(July 11, 2009, Living D5)

A mother developed a method to help potty train her kid: She used a marker to divide a notecard into 4 sections. Use a timer set to 30 minutes. If the kid’s pant is dry when the timer bell rings, she gives a ticket (a sticker) in a section. If all 4 sections are filled up in the card hung in the door, the kid can go out of the bathroom. As a result, his son’s underwear is staying dry and the potty is filling up. A small change in the method can turn a headache in training to becoming a great success.

Good idea indeed. You can apply the same technique to other things.

• In the same page, Betsy Flagler answered a question about how to establish baby’s sleep habbits early. She recommended two books which provides most valuable tips: 1. Sleeping Through the Night, Revised Edition: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night’s Sleep by Jodi A. Mindell; 2. Rock-a-Bye Baby: 200 Ways to Help Baby (and You!) Sleep Better by Penny Warner

The advice in her anser is, “trust in your instincts, believing in yourself that you have the ability to raise your child”, quoting from the forward in the second book.

I wish I had read the books she recommended when our kids were little.