Toddlers can be horrific, can't they?

[MulesToJules]

Argh! This is the worst possible stage.

Newborn was amazing. Small baby amazing. Sitting up and early Walker baby also amazing.

Now he's a toddler and good Christ, this is hard.

Biting. Scratching. Tantrums. Never ever happy.

He also seems behind to some toddlers, although he started walking at 8.5 months. He still very much looks like a baby, and doesn't really speak apart from Mummy and No.

"Mummy no" being the ultimate combo of choice.

And the escaping! He escapes all cots, so can't have a cot now. He escapes car seats, had to find one that he can't actually escape from. We have 3 kinds of pushchair and he can escape both.

Escapes high chair and seats. Can't turn my eyes for a single second or he will climb out and potentially kill himself.

It's so frustrating. So either let him on the floor to cause havoc 24/7 or keep telling him to stop and keep putting him back wherever he's strapped into.

Also refusing to sleep until a ridiculous time in the evening, meaning no time for me or DH. Just constant screaming if he isn't allowed up. I tried seeing how it played out, he kept on for 2 whole hours before.

Someone send help in the form of alcohol

Mine ran away from me, round a lake, as I was laying a blanket down for us to sit on. Loads of people just stayed sat on benches and laughed as he ran past them

Before DC I would have been uncomfortable catching a stranger's child.

Do you have a park near your house? You need to tire the little bastard (affectionate pet name I chose for mine) out. Is he still having a nap during the day?

Have you tried one of the booster seats that attach to a normal kitchen chair. I've moved to one of those when both of mine reached the climbing out of high chairs stage (somewhere between 1 year- 18mo). No matter how hard they try neither have been able to get out of it.

That's exactly how my eldest acts (also walked at 8.5mo) when she's bored, she seems to need a lot more stimulation during the day than other similar children, but also needs a really strict routine at night to wind her down. We've started letting her listen to audiobooks in bed recently which she enjoys.

That amount of speech at 18mo is absolutely normal. Not even slightly delayed.

Agree with treaclesweet as well, mine need at least an hour outside every day in some form otherwise they (literally in DC1s case) climb the walls.

We put a safety gate at the bedroom door - so although son could get out of cot, he couldn't get out of bedroom.

Aww I'm loving this stage way more than the newborn/small baby stage but I don't enjoy the tantrums. However she is so funny about everything, makes me laugh so much
Although I did read somewhere that you should treat a toddler like a dog and walk them twice a day 😂

Toddlers are fucking brutal.

I have a 3.5 year old and a 19 month old and I'm ready to collapse most nights

I think you should exercise toddlers like you would a boisterous young puppy!
My poor DM cared for my DD 4 days a week whilst I worked, by the end of the day she would tell her to run round and round the garden as many times as she could and she would count, DD remembers her Nana sending her out the garden to run and she’s now 23.
I love toddlers but was shocked by there sociopathic behaviour towards each other at playgroup, I didn’t know my sweet angelic looking DD could behave like that!
Toddlers are like teens, always pushing the boundaries.
Exhaustion, making sure they are well fed and a good firm bedtime routine worked for me with both DC.

They are brutal little bastards. Cute but brutal. I have nothing constructive to add, just my sympathy and understanding

It gets better once they start secondary school 😁

Hi OP

I found my eldest got a bit better after she was about 2 and could speak and communicate her needs a lot more. It seemed to take a lot of her frustrations away. Before that she was a biter and a hitter

Have you tried a toddler climbing wall? Some climbing centres have them - might suit him and tire him out!

I definitely found 18 - 24 months harder work than the terrible 2s. Spent the whole time dreading the 2s and it got better!

2 and 3 just have to be endured.

Oh people will have lots of advice as how they got through it by parenting in the most excellent way.

And then some will tell you how lucky you are to have a child or how they wish theirs were little and just enjoy it because it will pass too soon and you’ll miss it.

Those people are all wrong, the little fekkers know how to be 2 and 3 and do it very well.

It will pass, just not soon enough.

No advice but feeling your pain OP had a hellish day with my toddler too, looking forward to work tomorrow for a break 😂 x

I have toddler twins...... Enough said!

If I could insert that Hunger Games meme here I would!!!

(the one with Katniss raising one hand with three fingers up)

Toddlers are fucking savages

Toddlers are absolutely exhausting. We got a trampoline for ours, helps take the edge of her if we haven’t been able to get out as much as we’d like!

Mine is 16 months and I can't have a bath with her because all she wants to do is twist my nipples really hard and loses the plot when I won't let her

Mines a right knobhead tbh used to be horrified at people talking about kids like that but if you met him you'd understand. His new favourite is crushing crab sticks into everything soft my carpet needs to be washed again

Mines a nipple twister, never happier than when he's stretching the neck of all my clothes trying to desperately to reach them

DD is 2.9 and an absolute Hellbeast. I thought DS was hard work (and he can be on his day, believe me) but she is off the scale. She’s too fucking clever by half, she’s got manipulation and emotional blackmail down pat and her dad wound round her little finger. Bedtime involves every trick in the bloody book to delay and usually ends in shouting and tears mostly mine

Then I go downstairs and collapse with a massive

Three year old and two year old here.

It's a good day if I only fantasise about selling one of them to the circus.

All people can be horrific. At least toddlers know no better.

To be honest I’m enjoying this stage more than early days/weeks/months. I had a Velcro baby who would sleep nowhere but my arms until he was 10 months. Literally nowhere. And still woke up every 2 hours. These days he still doesn’t sleep through but he spends at least some of the night in his own bed. And the hours between 5 and 11pm are not a marathon of cluster feeding/crying hell.

Mine didn’t walk until 17 months and yes, the running about after them is knackering, so if yours walked at 8.5 months I can see how it would get old!

I have a stroppy seven year old and an out of control 3 year old. It doesn't seem to get much better