Two year old's sudden bad behaviour

[EightMonthsScared]

Hi all!

My two year old has always been fairly placid, but just recently, he's started throwing things and being stroppy.

So for example, I gave him his breakfast this morning and he threw it on the floor immediately. And then he wanted to use his dad's toothbrush to brush his teeth - I wouldnt let him so he angrily threw his own toothbrush on the floor.

I've never really told him off because he's not needed it, but over the past 24 hours, I've told him off so much and honestly, I don't know what the right thing is to do.

How should I deal with this?

The terrible two's. You just have to be firm and keep anything dangerous well out of the way while trying simultaneously not to tear the hair from your head. It's tough but it does settle down......eventually
It's a bit like Kevin on his 13th birthday when he morphs from a lovely polite little boy into a monster 👻
Good luck!! 👍

Thanks for the reassurance @LakeTiticaca I do appreciate that.

You can't help but worry that something has gone enormously wrong. But I suppose it's classic - the terrible twos!

It's fairly typical toddler stuff, but might be worth taking his temperature in case he's coming down with a bug or similar. Just make sure you react calmly to behaviour such as food throwing. Otherwise your reaction becomes the fun thing to provoke.

The terrible two. They are testing boundaries at this stage ! Good luck. All very normal

Two year olds aren’t bad. They emotional. Gloss over the bad, praise the good, don’t get in a battle but make sure they stay safe.

Yep, terrible twos. My DS started his just before he turned two. It coincided with when I would have had another baby if I hadn't miscarried. I am sure that if I hadn't miscarried we'd have attributed his sudden awful behaviour to the new baby but, nope, just random terrible twos.

My approach is to try and prevent any destructive behaviour before it starts. Throwing toothbrush I wouldn't really care, I'd just pick it up and brush his teeth myself and tell him we don't throw things and he can try again doing it himself tonight. The breakfast plate I'd try to grab it back off him before he threw it. Any time he does do something like hitting with a toy or, idk, drawing on the wall I take the offending object off him and put it on a high shelf. He can have it back the next day (although some objects conveniently disappear from the shelf never to be seen again - looking at you croquet mallets).

I don't tend to get cross with him, just keep it boring, cuddle him if he wants a cuddle and save the yelling for when he does something really unsafe like running out of the gate. I do lose my temper with him sometimes though, it happens.

He's now coming up for 2.5 and we are definitely past the worst of it. His new thing is fighting with his sister....

The most common word coming out of your mouth from this moment on is NO. Said in a low, firm voice.
How is his behaviour at nursery? Or is it just with you he tries it on?

We are in a similar situation although ours is currently obsessed with giving ‘hand bites’ as he calls them which are nips. He then points to the ‘hand bite’ and says ‘hurt there’. It’s a joy!

However, it is just a phase. Like the actual biting phase from a few months ago and firm boundaries will sort it out.

It is horrible when you’re in it and hard to keep your cool and not feel like a terrible parent. But you aren’t a terrible parent and it is just a development phase.

If he's usually calm I'd assume he's getting ill before thinking it's anything else.

Chill, for a start. Stop labelling it bad behaviour. Ubacceptable may be. Use distraction , ignoring techniques, accentuate the positive behaviour. Move on, normal 2year old 'muscle flexing' behaviour

I’m sorry I have no advice but I could have written this myself! Don’t know if it helps knowing you’re not alone in this and I’m also wondering where my placid, nice child has gone and been replaced by a terror demon! Mum guilt is the worst too as feel like constantly telling him off!