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.

@BonnyE that made me laugh. My DD is forever in her wellies, she’s obsessed with them.

And she has started asking for miiiiilllllk or cheeeese constantly. She must have asked at least 50 times for each in the hour we were round the shops.

When my twins were about 20 months, I strapped them into their high chairs and went into the kitchen to get their lunch. Then I heard a box of toy bricks on the other side of the room being tipped out - DT1 had gotten out of the chair and down without tipping it or making a sound. That same day he managed to pile up some toys and climb out the nice high play pen I spent a fortune on...

They are both autistic so there’s no reasoning or bribery, just constant fire fighting. Get some reins for going out, that’s my advice!

Get this type of car seat. As a CM of 40 years found they were great for Houdini kids. And a added bonus they can reach their feet to get their shoes off

DD tries to do a runner sometimes. I hold her wrist rather than her hand (possibly to the point of cutting off circulation) . My DF drives me scatty, he lets her hold his finger, rather than him holding her hand. It's like he never had kids

She’s going to go places OP!
My son (6) was climbing the stairs etc at 6 months so I got stair gates both ends etc... I had the “why do you bother with those” comments, and after watching him NEVER keeping still for more than a minute, they realised why lol
Get some reigns for shopping and explain the dangers (age appropriate) of unclipping her car seat belt.

Oh god yes!

Apparently I was sneaky and somehow found ways around stair gates etc as a toddler, but bro was even worse he’d just go full pelt at whatever barrier and knock it down (sometimes using larger toys as “battering rams”) or jump over it kamikaze style! One place we lived the back garden backed onto a busy road and bro kept making a bid for freedom towards it, dad built a 6 ft fence and gate with 3 bolts inc a padlocked one - bro still got out, parents were like “how the FUCK did he manage that?!” So they “spied” on him when he thought they couldn’t see and turned out he was basically using the bloody bolts as hand and foot holds and treating the gate like a climbing wall! Then he’d just jump and roll from the top! He was 3!!!

Dd was a bugger for being a bolter and refused to handhold “ow ow you’re hurting me let me go I want to go!” At one point I was using a combination of traditional reins and wrist strap as she’d disentangle herself from one but having the other still there kept her in place till I could reattach!

She also figured out far too quickly how to unbuckle car seat, I eventually drove to an industrial estate at one point and driving relatively slowly then slammed the brakes on not hard enough to hurt her but hard enough she slid off car seat onto regular seat with a bump and got a fright - maybe not perfect parenting moment but I had tried so many other things and was at my wits end! It worked! Shocked her into realising she needed to leave it alone!

My sisters middle child was a serial escape artist, he was also murder for making “sudocrem all over tv” type messes. The worst was completely coating his baby sibling in mums new foundation in about 2 mins flat! Apparently it’s basically all but impossible to get it out of curly baby hair, baby had orange/brown hair for ages (naturally blonde).

“Clamps his lips together to avoid teeth cleaning.” Omg that reminded me! Dd used to wait until toothbrush in mouth then bite hard and refuse to open mouth! Toothbrushes would mangle and come out looking melted! Got to point I bulk bought the buggers!

Cheese - my genes to blame here I love cheese, but once discovered dd at the fridge middle of the night just taking great bites out of a half pound block of cheddar!

“My DF drives me scatty, he lets her hold his finger, rather than him holding her hand. It's like he never had kids” apologies for the referencing of a creep but it did make me think of bill Cosby’s “that woman you adore as a grandmother, that is not the woman I had as a mother, that is an old woman trying to get into heaven”

My mum was TOUGH raising us, she now has 6 grandchildren she completely lets away with murder!

Eg there were 2 choices at mealtimes for me and my siblings growing up - eat it or starve! With the grandchildren she was running in effect an a la Carte restaurant! AND she’d do/does things like cutting sandwiches into flipping star shapes! If we’d even asked for crusts off sandwich would be gone!

*reins (autocorrect)

Have you checked for horns or cloven hooves? If they don’t have them they are probably a toddler. A living breathing creature from the underworld. I have one at the moment and he has sucked the life from my soul. Current rage is because I won’t let him eat a sheet of newspaper

This sounds so much like my DD1 when she was a toddler.

The lovely ladies at her nursery used to reassure me that I would be glad when she was an adult that she is so confident and assertive - they were right she is now a very confident adult but boy was she hard work as a 2 year old!
I went to work for a break!

I thought you were going to say some awful stories then. My two are way worse than that, in fact shall we swap? It does get easier, my eldest isn't too bad anymore. Keep the faith and you patience if you can.

God I remember this stage.Ds is 5 now so I've come out the other side but I feel your pain 💐

DS2 was so like this that one night after a particularly vile day (during which he tried to shoplift a bag from Selfridges while DH was watching him) I even said a little prayer to God (and I'm the least religious person ever) asking Him to please give the Devils Own Bellend Baby a lobotomy through the night.

God took several years getting back to me but DS2 is the most chilled-out, lovely, kind boy now. So, only 6 years to go and you'll be grand!

My dd was similar. At 5 she is so much better but can still throw an epic tantrum if minded to.
For the car seat, we had many a battle over several months until she was eventually able to tell is it didn't fit her. Even though it was meant to be suitable she just wasn't finding it comfy. We bought a new one and car seat battles are few and far between.

You have my sympathy, my son is 'spirited' too.

Hi op

This made me chuckle my 23 month old is the same. She will not sit at the table to eat, hates being stuck in her high chair hates the car seat and always gets in to things she shouldn't.
She will also hardly eat she only eats a mouth full then spits food out

Yes very nor and very very draining!!! I feel your pain!!

My DS was like this. DD may have been too but she is older and I may have blocked it out.

I does seem typical I’m afraid. Frightening because all these things they are trying to avoid are for their safety. But I think normal.

My DS was my first and a very easy baby and toddler. Slept well, adventurous eater, etc. All good.

DD was a demon child. We called her Meggie of mass destruction. If left alone in a room for two minutes would open every drawer and cabinet and toss the contents to the floor.

Then someone clued me into the old saying that God gives you an easy first child to trick you into having another.

Sounds normal. This week my toddler pushed the wood knots out of my dining table and filled the holes with banana.

Standard issue chez toddlers.

This week my toddler pushed the wood knots out of my dining table and filled the holes with banana.

^

Sorry.

You can't make it up

My son isn't neuro typical but boy was he a stubborn toddler! If he wasn't supposed to be somewhere in his grandparent's house then that's where you'd find him! No baby gate or normal toddler cabinet locks worked we had to get the magnetic ones. I can remember sitting on the floor trying to block him from getting into the bedroom of my parent in law's caravan and physically trying to hold him back and giving up and packing him up and going home. He saw it as a challenge testing boundaries and patience. The only saving grace was he would giggle and laugh if he was being mischievous and that would be my cue to run to where he was. He's 19 now and I do not miss those days!

^

It's out of stock

I have applied liberal iPhone in car seat and pushchair situations. Wins mum of the year award. Snacks also work to get them in. Reins the backpack ones although at 2 he wouldn't wear these anymore. I think they just get bored. Wellies are also handy as easy to put back on.

You could try potty training. She sounds ready, gives her something to get her head around.

Hand holding their arms up is tiring. I only insist in car parks and crossing the road. I'm that shouty mum saying stop and slow down a lot. Get her a bright coat and hat too and repeat about cars a lot.

I agree just sit her at the table. She can kneel if it's too high.

I have toddler twins who are a little behind on development (physically) so they’re not quite walking/talking yet... but my DD is so similar in that she is just so stubborn!

Recently she’s decided it’s funny to scream at full on glass shattering pitch when we’re out and about, holds it for about 10 seconds and then giggles when she sees people staring (and her poor DB who is a fairly gentle boy usually cries because she does it so suddenly and so loud that it scares him 😩).

Food is a battle no matter what I do, I’m lucky if she only drops it on the floor rather than Jackson Pollocking it all over the walls.

Gets upset when she throws her food everywhere because her DB still has his food... proceeds to try and steal his and has the mother of all meltdowns when I move him out of her reach so he can eat in peace.

Hoards all the toys, even the ones she has no interest in she just doesn’t like the idea of her DB having any.

Another favourite game is to come and sweetly request a cuddle, I’ll pop her on my lap and we have a lovely hug... then she will let out a fart that is so loud and often smelly that it puts my DH to shame 🤢 he thinks it’s hilarious so trying to explain to her that it’s not appropriate (especially when she did it to her Grandfther who is a rather po faced fellow) isn’t quite sticking yet.

But she’s such a ray of sunshine I can’t be too annoyed, her amazing sense of humour and cuteness just about saves her at the moment (and her dirty laugh) she gets disciplined as best we can at this age and I don’t let her bully DS, but I’m just so bloody thankful that he’s a calm and gentle character and eats his food happily with little mess, if they were both as strong willed I’d have probably cracked by now 😂