Mumsnet Talk

Our 18mo DS seems to be going through a stage of coming to me or my DH, taking our finger and taking us to wherever he wants to go / do whatever he wants to do, helped with pointing, even some things he can do himself. He isn't speaking yet (lots of babbling, handful of proper words), so I am thinking this is just his current way of communicating, but I am not sure it is the best thing for his confidence when I know there are things he can definitely do on his own but wants us to do for him anyway.

It's like he has figured "mommy knows better" Been trying to encourage him to do things on his own but this seems to upset and frustrate him most of the time. So we end up with a rather frustrated child at the moment! Hoping he will get over this when the words start to flow... Anyone else had similar experiences or suggestions on how best to handle this?

We had this stage too. Totally normal as far as I know.

For us, I think it was the fact DD realised she could get us to do things for her, and therefore felt she should exercise this right as much as humanely possible. Forcing her to do stuff herself just made it worse, so I'd recommend just going with it. It's just a phase.

Mine are like that too. 'I want mommy to do it'. They are 3 1/2 and 2 1/2 now and yes they have been doing it since 18 months or so.

It has decreased over time and they don't insist upon me doing everything for them anymore, but there was definitely a time when they did. My eldest also became very particular about his food. Would not eat anything that was broken. Wouldn't eat a biscuit if the side had crumbled, wouldn't eat his banana if it broke in two, wouldn't eat bread if the crust was coming away from the slice. Wouldn't even eat chocolate if the bar was broken in any way.

I think they are developing so much at that age that they can become a little obsessive.

My 3yr old still wants me to do a lot for him. So long as I know he can do it at nursery I'm quite happy to. He has a baby brother so I've pushed him to grow up and be independent very quickly, so he wants me to help him more.

I also have a 2 1/2yr old who will not let me do anything for him and has a meltdown if I try to help (e.g get all his toes in the sock before he tries to pull them up).

Thanks all. That is helpful, and good to hear DS is not the only one... In a way it is kind of cute, so I'll just sit back and enjoy for now

My DS does this too, I think it has something to do with not having language..