To seek your reassurance that my DD is just a typical toddler and not the devil?

[Dumptyhumpty101]

This is a bit lighthearted but I’m really started to wonder if everyone’s toddlers are this difficult, or if it’s just mine.

DD is 22 months old and nothing with her is simple, here are some examples:

She will throw a tantrum if you try and leave the house without putting her shoes on. Why would you want to do that I hear you ask. Because she will take them off in the car every time with out fail and I’m sick of having to put them on her twice every time we go anywhere.

I fight her to change her bum, she then does a poo within minutes, at least once or twice a day. Let fight number two commence.

From about 8months old she’s been able to get her arms out of her car seat, no matter how tight it is. Bought a Houdini clip, worked for a few months until she worked out how to open the clip! She can also open her car seat but thankfully that’s only happened once!

Fight to put her in her pushchair to go shopping. She’ll sit for 20mins maximum , and will than loosen the straps so she can just climb out.

Let her walk, she’ll hold your hand for a minute maybe before she snatches it away. If it’s outside I insist she holds my hand but if it’s a shopping centre for example, she’ll walk nicely next to you for a few minutes and then abruptly turns and runs off in the opposite direction laughing.

Battle to put her in her high chair every meal time. She hasn’t worked out how to get out of that one yet, but she knows how to shuffle the high chair around the room so she can get stuff she wants off the higher surfaces.

There are so many more examples I can give you too.

So please fellow mums, please share you toddler stories to reassure me I haven’t given birth to the devil.

No advice sorry but I feel your pain! My dd is the same age and exactly the same, very strong willed and stubborn, if she’d been my first, she’d have been my last!

DS was like this. Could open stair gates and could undo car seat belts.
I’d ditch the high chair now though if she’s shuffling along in it. May tip.

Also, DS was once in a restaurant in one of those snap on seats you can fix to a table top. He brought his feet up to the table edge and drove backwards in one swift motion and shot backwards across the restaurant. No injuries thankfully. It’s still talked about in the family and he’s 25!

My toddler DD was like yours. Absolutely exhausting. Never went in the pram. Wouldn't go in the high chair. Mega habdabs if I tried to do something daft, like make her wear clothes when its February and -2 outside. She pulled my mum's whole fireplace out of the wall. Got herself into the bath and emptied an entire bottle of Molton Brown bubble bath, then couldn't get out as it was like an oil slick. Emptied an entire bottle of bright red kiddy shampoo over the toilet cistern. WOULD NOT get in her car seat on many occasions, including a memorable time when it took 40 minutes and two strangers to shove her in.

If its any consolation, she's 5 now and so, so well behaved. She can generally be reasoned with and persuaded. I can take her anywhere. She just never much liked being a baby or toddler.

DS is 2.8 and he is coming out of the 'total menace' phase a bit. He was bad, but never just quite as bad as DD.

They do get easier. You aren’t doing anything wrong and neither is your child. Yes it’s bloody difficult.

Yes, this is/ was my daughter. I remember clearly the day she opened the car seat lock. I thought I'd misaligned it. Got out re did it, got back in the drivers seat, she undid it again. I used to tie a scarf in knots around it.

Running everywhere, and stubborn. However, she really knows her mind, stands her ground and still hasa wicked sense of humour.
Some kids just don't do rules and believe I have tried

All of this sounds like my two year old lol, he refuses to let me help him out of the car now and screams if he can't close the car door (don't want jammed fingers). He escapes from his lunch chair like houdini and when I went for a number 2 with him and his bro strapped into their chairs, the wee shite escaped and decorated his brother in sudocreme, I was only gone two bloody minutes!! I use a backpack with a strap on it for him now was he likes to pack it and can't escape at least.

My late father built a 'stairgate' out of plyboard to try and stop me from climbing the stairs.

His next view of me was of my chubby little legs disappearing over the top and me carrying on up the stairs.

I'd learned to stand, reach up to grab the top and then heave myself up the gate.

Your LO sounds very intelligent if she's able to work out all these things.

Sorry, no help at all.

Is it awful that my first instinct is bribery??
If you sit in your chair nicely all round the shop we might get you a nice whatever
And get some reins, or a little life backpack with a lead, and if she strops you just tell her why she has to wear it!

She sounds a bit like my dd. No car seat, high chair or cupboard lock that she cannot undo!

My toddler was THE DEVIL. she went on to be diagnosed with ASD at 13, BUt, despite a very ordinary state education shw went on to studt chinese at Cambridge.
She is at 22 the most witheringly honest bust absolutely marvellous , humane human being...
I really thought at 4 she was Satans Daughter

Take heart. It'll get better, maybe not quickly, but it will.

Sounds like my DS, he's almost 3 and a nightmare! It's absolutely bloody exhausting! I have no tips, just solidarity!

she’ll walk nicely next to you for a few minutes and then abruptly turns and runs off in the opposite direction laughing

Sorry this made me laugh as this is my dd similar age (2 last month). She stops dead in the street turns round laughs and then walks the opposite way. Every time. Now it’s joined by waving and a bye bye.

She’s a totally normal toddler , I love this age!

Sorry it wasn't a toddler story but just as acute now as then

My 2.5yo DD is very similar so I feel your pain.

My DD is a handful to say the least in literally every situation it is very hard work. Especially when we are out of the house, that's when she really likes to turn it on

The biggest thing for us is snacks and fresh air. If we go out in the pram for a walk we need an endless supply of snacks and alot of patience when she wants to walk. Which is basically every 10 mins or so. But I usually make sure the walk includes a park or some safe open space so she can run around if she likes with no danger of cars ect.

She gets herself inconsolable in the car so I actually would prefer the pram/snack combination lol

DD has taken to hitting and kicking recently which is a whole new level and I'm not quite sure how to deal with that yet!!

Fellow possessor of a devil toddler here. My other 4 are still alive & I’m still here too so it must get better, I just can’t remember when

The only suggestion I have is for cupboard locks.. magnetic fuckers that you need a key magnet for, keep magnet on top of fridge.

I was a mini Satan.. I destroyed and I mean wrecked curtains off wall, mattress flung, bed frame broken, toys everywhere.. a sea of beheaded dolls.. at 3.
My gp’s friend suggested a priest at one point .

I won’t put what age my mum says I calmed down at.. you’ll all be grey lol.

Sounds standard toddler DS was a nightmare, he's on the cusp of being 3 so you can reason argue with him properly at least now.

Toddlers, whilst hilarious, delightful, seeing the penny drop when they realise something new I'd amazing etc, they are, in my experience, arseholes approximately 40% of the time

I know I shouldn't have but I laughed at the highchair one. Sorry op your child is just a genius.

Yup, my 2 year old is the same.

Awwwh you have all made me laugh again. I feel so much better hearing your toddlers are similar. Although @Lunafortheloveogod I’m not liking your comment about the age you calmed down.

The worst part for me is I’m pregnant again. I’m seriously praying I get a chilled out child this time!

You have a very clever daughter op. The idea of a toddler nipping round the kitchen in a highchair at her own convenience is hilarious.

My DC is 20 months.
He must hold all keys, you needing them is irrelevant.
Hits faces.
Clamps his lips together to avoid teeth cleaning.
Hates the pushchair in the afternoon. I need to take baby crisps with me for bribery.
Refuses hats and gloves.

If only you could reason with them at this age!

Our DD coming up for 2 soon. Refuses to get dressed. Ever. Only wants to wear wellies. All the time.
Last night after she demanded weetabix for the 15th time that day I said no, we're going to have some lovely porridge. Turned around to put milk in pan. Turned back around and she'd basically raided the cereal cupboard, helped herself to a weetabix biscuit and stood there munching on it with a "well, what are you going to do now?" expression.

There is no reasoning is there.

I have to admit I do resort to bribery, a fruit shoot or peppa pig on my phone is usually the only things that work.

Just have to laugh off the judgement from the old ladies who love to make their “didn’t have that in my day” comments.

Oh and you should have seen the mother of all tantrums when I dared to try reigns. Literally hitting the floor, screaming, snot flying kinda tantrum.

Sounds a lot like my first child. Everything was a fight from the minute she woke up to the minute she fought sleep at bedtime.
In my experience people who have children who are not like this will and can never understand what each day is like.
I remember taking my child swimming and changing her on a towel on the floor. One of my friends raised an eyebrow and asked why I wasn’t changing her on the change table. I said too dangerous. When my child starting screaming, twisting, kicking, crying and fighting my attempts to get her changed she realised.
The truth is, in my case it took years to see any improvement and that only came from consistent parenting and a lot of deep breaths.
At least my second child is nothing like it!