What's your toddler's odd obessessions?

[FuckingFlumps]

19 month old DS has a rather odd fascination with stones it's beginning to border on obsessive. He collects them everywhere we go, fills buckets and bags with them, lines them up, makes patterns and stacks them and generally favours them as his toy of choice when playing outside.

In my mind it's an odd little quirk of his character and most toddlers have a similar obscure fixation. However I mentioned to a friend today in general conversation and she said its utterly bizarre and not normal because her toddler has no obsessions.

Not fussed about her comment or attitude if she wants to think that so be it. However it got me wondering what other oddities are coverted by other toddlers. So feel free to share with me what unusual items your little people seem to treasure beyond all else.

Mine is really into bin lorries. I have to hold her up by the window so she can watch them for ages.

Lavender.

We have tonnes of it, which she picks abs then posts through keyholes.

Stones here too.

started as traffic cones now cones of any variety, such as the ones signalling wet floors in shops. We have bought him his own traffic cone that he cuddles. He has to touch every single one he passes when we go out. Started at around 18 months now he’s 2.5 and not growing out of it!!

Hoovering, role play in his IKEA kitchen cooking me soup and smoothies, pouring water from one container to another.

Same with stones here too. Don't worry!

It was sticks for mine - started at about 1.5 and still going now at 3!

When my oldest Ds was a toddler he loved jugs (the pouring kind 😁). He always used to have one with him, sometimes a spare one too. My other Ds carried an extension lead around for a while.

I have a massive bowl full of toddler selected stones on my windowsill!

My brother used to be obsessed with toilets, everywhere we went from toilet training until about 5 he had to see the toilet, even if he didn’t use it. He used to carry around a ghostbusters toy which was a toilet that turned into a ghost when you flushed it. He’s a perfectly normal 36 year old now!

Dd 4 has a friend who always fills her pockets with stones - her mum sews them shut 😁

Tidying up before he goes for a nap or sleep.
He has to put every single toy away, make sure nothing is out of place and close all doors on his way to the bedroom. It actually drives me mad.

My son has many obsessions

Fire extinguishers mainly (shouts in every place we go to mum fire)
Trains
Planes

He gets very excited over his passions too

Henry hoover!

My 14 month old has to wave at every helicopter plane and bus she sees

Oww some great examples so far especially loving the toilets and lavender very cute. Also to be fair I can understand bin lorries they are pretty exciting vehicles.

jamsandwich1 sounds like your DS is going to live being a student

Mangofandangoo love this idea I may have to utilise it in the future.

Also loving that lost of small people are just as obsessed with random objects as mine. Honestly it's so sweet watching how fascinated he is. Sometimes he's just sits quietly and states at them lovingly.

Mines obsessed with stones too, and hoovers loves a good Hoover! My first son wasn’t really obsessed with anything.

Potatoes. He has favourite potatoes, friend potatoes, potatoes for filling cars and trucks and a potato pit in the garden.

He hates potatoes on his plate though

Kitchen utensils. Dd loves nothing more than taking out a few bits and bobs from the drawer and walling around with them.

She is also obsessed with the flash mop!

I’ve got a bloody rock garden I don’t want because of DD’s obsession with stones.

She also likes flannels, got to have all 100 in the bath; tiny bits of broken crayon any normal human would throw out – they’ve got a special box; and the bag clippy things, aka “my snap-snaps!”

DS2 (nearly 3) loves bus/train doors, the brakes on buses that make the big "ssssss" sound, and road barriers which he calls door gates.

He likes to make the sound effects at home "tssssssch, a-a" (we aren't sure where the a-a comes from, but it is essential) while opening/closing anything, from boxes to legs.

Any kind of wheel is also fascinating, the bigger and chunkier the better. We thought he loved tractors when he first started to speak, but it turned out he was just looking at the wheels. So he thought the word for wheel was tractor for ages. He does like tractors, actually, but mainly because they have giant wheels.

He likes looking out for slugs and snails "Neil!" but really hates spiders and beetles. However the scariest thing ever is buttons, as in buttons on clothing.

and a potato pit in the garden.

I love the sound of a potato pit, it's certainly a step up from a boring sand pit. I bet you never imagined you'd have one when you first moved into the house, the things you do for your toddler.

DS1 could entertain himself for ages taking every toy one by one out of his cupboard and once they were out putting them back one by one. Didn't play with them. He did that most afternoons for about 6 months.

DD liked small scented candles in tins to sniff (unlit). MIL used to take the top off a collection she had and DD would work her way along, picking them up, sniffing them and putting them down, making 'MMM' noises.

DS2 likes fruit. He is fascinated in the greengrocer and supermarket. He empties fruit bowls at MIL's and looks at them all, strokes them and (if you don't stop him) licks them . He likes to put them in a shopping bag and carry it round.

Another stone fanatic! Took them on a particularly exciting trip to the B&M garden section to see all the stone samples in the display

A random person on the periphery of our lives. For 18 months I had “Does John* live here? Is he in this cupboard? Does he like sushi? Is he good at swimming? Is he very tall? Will we see him today? Is his favourite colour red?” etc. She’s nearly four now and I still hear about the fucker every other week. Never met him 🤷‍♀️

Vehicles, all vehicles, real and toy, he loves watching them, talking about parking restrictions, etc. To get him handed over at nursery without tears the nursery workers say "come on, let's go and see what cars we can see from the window" - there's a used car showroom behind!

I also suspect a brewing affair with traffic lights that I'm trying to suppress. Might be too late. Gran let him press the crossing button last week . . .