Everyone talks about the baby stage, but…

[mustga]

Any tips for ages 1-2? I’m a single parent and wanting to be as organised and mentally prepared as possible…

Anything you don't want broken; move, any furniture with sharp or pointy corners, stick some corner covers on.

They will get into everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! my two year old uses Alexa as a bowling ball, almost pulled a radiator off the wall, we had a late night trip to A&E recently because she hit her head on a table as they have no spacial awareness, they use the furniture as gymnastic equipment, she repeatedly sits on the coffee table and knocks stuff off like a cat, opens every cupboard and pulls everything out, spills half her breakfast, lunch and dinner on the carpet because she wants to feed herself and won't accept help, tips her toybox all over the floor and then doesn't play with any of it.

They are a challenge at that age, wanting to be independent but can't be so will get upset when you try to do things for them. Be prepared for them to test you on every level. It's worse if they have an older sibling, they try to copy everything you or they do.

I think it very much depends on the child.
My experience is quite different to the first poster.

My DS wasn’t a climber thankfully, so no reaching things he shouldn’t have / falling off sofas etc.

I thought baby proofing would be such a huge task but the only thing we have are stair gates, and magnetic cupboard locks (just on the cupboard under the sink where the cleaning products are).

It was a challenging time, my DS was very screamy/ frustrated a lot of the time for no apparent reason. And constantly ravenous. But there’s not much you can do to prepare for that!

I’d suggest getting a hard hat, preparing yourself for judgement from everyone and making sure your contents insurance includes accidental damage.

They have absolutely no concept of danger. None at all.

Everything will go in the mouth and everything will be dropped on the floor.

Nothing is toddler proof. Nothing.

They are completely unreasonable.

They are not above using manipulation to get their own way.

They have selective hearing. They won’t be able to hear you calling them away from something dangerous but they can hear you opening a tube of Pringles from 3 rooms away.

And just when you’re starting to think about selling them on eBay, they smile at you, wrap their arms around your neck and nuzzle into you and your heart melts.