DD driving me crazy - i spend all day clearing up in her wake of destruction!

[PinkFluffPudding]

DD is 14 mths and into everything! It's great I know, but sometimes, actually a lot of the time I get totally fed up of clearing up after her! She's forever pulling clothes and clutter out of drawers, pulling photos off walls, emptying the laundry basket, unravelling the loo roll, pulling books off shelves etc... I know this is normal but how long does it go on for? When can i start asking her NOT to do things? At the moment she seems to understand as she looks at me first before carrying on anyway. Does a one year old need to be disciplined? Don't mean to sound so clueless!!!

I can hear her crashing about in the next door room! It's like having an unruly puppy which i can't just put out the back door when i get fed up!! Our house would be a pig sty if i didn't clear up after her (and DH) all the time. Does anyone else get as exasperated as I do?

[loulabelle222]

it is hard work isn't my ds is 13m and he is into everything. He pulls the dishwasher out and starts it.Puts the timer on the oven on pulls out books,magazines.. rips newspapers pulls out the dvds,cupboards. His just exploring hopefully will get bored in a few months. I HOPE..yeah right!

[Lonelymum]

Yes. Not sure when you can expect them to stop. Just wanted to let you kow they don't all have to be like this. My ds1 and my (current nuisance) ds3 were/are like this but ds2 and dd inbetween them were angels - never touched anything or destroyed anything.

The best thing is to try and keep her occupied with acceptable things, eg ds3 took to scribbling on the walls so, rather than hiding all the pencils (not possible with three older children) I just make sure he has paper to scribble on.

She is too young yet to tidy up but if you start now saying "Let's tidy up this mess now, shall we?" then eventually she will start helping you do it. Then maybe you can tell her to tidy up, but don't expect any results for some time. One of ds3's first words was "mess". He comes along proudly saying "Mess, mess" and when I say, "yes it is a mess, who made it?" he proudly says "me!"

[colditz]

My son was like this, and still is to some extent, but he is 2 now, and is learning that no means no, and has given up on the video as a bad job!

[MrsDoolittle]

I empathise totally PinkFluffPudding. Dd is 13 months and is exactly the same. I'm quite happy to drop her off at nursery at the moment, she can carry on there. Oha dn we are also into tantrums now
She was such an angelic baby, and now the demon....

[ghosty]

I was going to start a thread like this ...
I really sympathise. Ever since DD started walking 4 weeks ago my house has looked like a bomb has hit it. I am not the best housewife in the world either and usually don't care about a bit of mess but DD is driving me crazy. Like yours, PFP, she empties drawers and cupboards all the time. She carries odd bits and bobs around the house and then drops them when she sees something else interesting to carry around. As a result I have found my watch in my shoe and my mobile phone in the bathroom. Today I found the bath plug down the toilet . Last week, just before we had guests arriving I found a trail of my tampons throughout the house. She puts things in my handbag and in DS's school bag ... I changed her nappy the other day and before I had a chance to put it in the bin she was carefully putting it (in its nappy sack) in DS's school bag
There are plastic cups in the laundry, shoes in the bathroom, teddy bears in the pantry.
And then DH comes home and casts his eye wearily around the place and I want to stick something sharp into him

[ghosty]

When I have a dicky fit about it I have to remind myself that at least I am not Marslady with twins

[PinkFluffPudding]

Just want to say thanks to all of you who replied to this thread, i had to go out shortly after I posted it and have only just had a chance to go through it!

It's really reassuring to see there are others out there like dd! A lot of my friends are going through the same thing, but most of their babies aren't on their feet yet - it definitely gets worse once they start walking!

I really laughed Ghosty at some of your experiences as your dd sounds just like my dd! I too have found my watch in a boot twice now, and random things left on window ledges etc! I've still yet to track down a sealed jar of Marmite which mysteriously went missing after i spotted her lining it up with an old jar on the sitting room window! Not good seeing as i'm pg and have manic cravings for the stuff!

Thanks again for replying!

[PinkFluffPudding]

Excuse! the many! exclamation marks!