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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think 2.5 year olds

45 replies

catgirl1976 · 16/08/2014 10:26

Are just set to default "Destructo" setting and my entire life revolves around stopping him breaking things, hurting himself and wrecking my house

So far this morning he has "mopped" the walls, drenching the paintwork, got stuck down the side of the sofa, ran a pan along the slate floor scratching it, strewn raisins around the living room, picked the seeds out of his bread and shoved them in a speaker, emptied his nursery bag around the house and fucked up all the settings on the TV.

Arrgh. Is it too early to start drinking?

OP posts:

StillWishihadabs · 20/08/2014 16:51

What are you all thinking ? Keeping 2 year olds in the house for a morning, they need to be run like dogs, twice a day.

ifyourehoppyandyouknowit · 20/08/2014 16:57

Ah, it's a great age isn't it?

At some point we will be allowed nice things again, right?

Original poster

catgirl1976 · 20/08/2014 23:08

Oh this is making me feel much better

And, in fairness he has been very sweet today. He threw a party for his rubber ducks and baked them a cake.

Virtually nothing has been destroyed and he even consented to a bath without screaming too much

OP posts:

LizLimone · 21/08/2014 00:32

My DS's destructive phase was 18 months - 2.5 years, almost exactly. Since then he has calmed down A LOT. We have been reveling in our new found freedom and ventured to buy new couch covers and a new dining room table in the hope that this calmer phase lasts...!

My solution at peak destruction phase was to get him out to the park for hours every morning. Exhausting but worth it. He got to hit things with sticks, throw stones, dig holes and destroy the vegetation while I got fit and he then would crash for a long nap once he got home. Win-win!

Andrewofgg · 21/08/2014 00:39

Catgirl You will look back on these days as happy and lovely . . . when he's in his teens!

Original poster

catgirl1976 · 21/08/2014 19:46

They are happy and lovely Andrew

But I am very much looking forward to a lie in when he's 15.

Though maybe not the sleepless nights waiting for him to get home ;)

How are you?

OP posts:

GrouchyKiwi · 21/08/2014 19:50

I went into DD's room last night to check on her (she's 2 1/2) and discovered that she'd taken all of her baby sister's clothes out of the drawers she could reach. They were everywhere.

I was extra grouchy after that.

Andrewofgg · 21/08/2014 19:50

Fighting fit, thank you, and as you may have seen on another thread revelling in the arrival of DGNiece, now eleven days old and gorgeous!

deakymom · 21/08/2014 20:12

ive a 14 year old who is a disaster too i ask her to water the plants she practically floods the kitchen! she tries to be "helpful" it really isnt working! my 18 month old is actually not bad with the mop and broom its stopping him thats the problem my five year old can cook a curry which will blow your socks off though so sometimes you get a good one!

Andrewofgg · 21/08/2014 20:21

deakymom

my 18 month old is actually not bad with the mop and broom its stopping him thats the problem

Shades of the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

But a child who can make a curry, now there you have hit the jackpot!

busyboysmum · 21/08/2014 20:45

Funny thread. My 2.5 year old Ds3 is exactly the same. Recently we redecorated the bedroom. Lovely lilac Laura Ashley paint on the newly skimmed walls. Little treasure joined in once we'd finished with a black felt tip all over. We got one reduced roll of gorgeous Laura Ashley wallpaper for behind the bed. Just made the one roll stretch. As dh was fitting the bedhead I heard " no! " and Ds3 had got himself a screwdriver and scored the wallpaper just in a place where it wouldn't be hidden by the bedhead. Plus a legion of other things too numerous to mention. His brothers were never like this.

Ormally · 21/08/2014 21:04

Short answers:

Para #1: yup.
Last line: Nope. Unless you'll suffer all the more later - benignly tipsy by 12 works fine, usually.

Rebecca2014 · 21/08/2014 21:09

My 2 year old is the same. She can now reach the cutlery drawer and has started throwing knifes at me! she always gets the knifes out.

RunnerHasbeen · 21/08/2014 21:18

Not all, mine is the opposite - books immaculate, toys all in the right places, loves structured kinds of games with rules or little toy animals talking to each other where they all go to bed at the end. Sounds lovely and peaceful, right... that's before you add her 9 month old brother to the mix who can now mess things up. I dream of a child that doesn't notice if a Duplo brick is in the wrong box and wouldn't feel the need to tell me absolutely everything her DB is doing (as she doesn't think shoes are for chewing or he should be trying to stand up as he's too little).

BendyMum15 · 21/08/2014 21:23

Loving this thread and so glad I'm not alone.
DS is nearly 3 and likes to sweep the kitchen floor...except he calls it 'scraping' and that is pretty much what he does. He somehow uses the non bristle bit of the broom head to scrape the floor while simultaneously hitting everything else with the handle!
Have given up trying to put the toys away in the tiny room that we grandly call the 'playroom' its not worth the effort!

NorthernChinchilla · 21/08/2014 21:32

YADNBU...
We had the same busy, had just decorated the living room with LA duck egg blue, and DS scribbled on it with orange crayons...he's run into the living room and randomly hurled an egg at us appeal, and is in the posting things outside the house via the letterbox stage. The grill on the range is his favourite plaything, the sofa looks like a deflated Loch Ness Monster thanks to his energetic thrashing of it....

A day where a brio train is not whizzed at my head/the chinchillas/the TV is a good one.

Bring back laudanum I say

busyboysmum · 22/08/2014 08:29

Oh and I forgot the worst one. Hit the 42 inch plasma TV with a bow and arrow set he was playing with. Big crack. Dead telly. Cheers little menace.

lucyintheskywithdinos · 22/08/2014 08:49

I too have a destructo-toddler! She is DD3 and the other two were not like this!

Yesterday, I asked her to put down my cafetiere (she is also talk enough to reach or climb to everything!) and she threw it across the room at me. It smashed, necessitating a trip to the shops to buy another one.

Her favourite thing is to raid the spices, evading the ever increasing defense mechanisms I attempt, and merrily run through the house flinging cumin in clouds around herself.

Thank fuck their Dad has them this weekend, I am going to drink wine and shag my boyfriend!

4boysxhappy · 22/08/2014 09:33

Lucky with my lot up until now. Boy number four who is 2 when tired or thinks he is not getting your attention goes wild child.

I am in shock at the things he manages to do and the temper on him if in a mood.

My other three have always been so laid back and well behaved.

Original poster

catgirl1976 · 22/08/2014 12:30

Andrew I missed the arrival of DGNiece

Congratulations! :)

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