On a deadline...

[Smorgs]

My son is two years and nine and a half months old and starts maternelle/pre school in September (we live in France) which he needs to be fully potty trained for.

I started potty training six months ago; just taking his nappy off after meals and before bath time and encouraging him to have a go but didn't really make any progress. A couple of months ago I had him in pants/bare bum all weekend and put him on the potty regularly but nothing happened. Then about a month ago he managed to do his first pee in the potty (after drinking a lot), then another one and then just spent the next few hours taking himself off to the potty to pee without even telling me. I thought we'd suddenly cracked it but by the end of the day we were back to square one and the rest of the week he didn't manage a single pee. The next Monday he did two poos on the potty but no pees and he's really only done a couple of pees on the potty since.

We were on holiday last week so I put him back in nappies and started again today. He managed to do a poo on the potty without me even asking him but not a single pee (sometimes getting off to have a pee) and I started to see glimpses of real anger and frustration and am worried it's becoming a power struggle now.

I reward him with stickers and chocolate buttons and have told him he will get a big present when he can do all his pees and poos on the potty. It just seems like he is not going to be ready in time and I don't know what to do. He obviously can do it, so is it just a question of motivation? I try and encourage him to be a 'big boy' but his baby brother arrived 10 months ago and there is still lingering jealousy and a need to be 'babied' from time to time, which I think is also playing a part.

Also, he absolutely refuses to try and pull his pants and shorts up and down. He needs to be able to do this at maternelle as they won't/don't help them. How can I encourage him to want to do this? He's pretty feisty and independent usually so I don't know why he doesn't want to try and do it all by himself.

Any advice is welcome please!!