My ds is a thug....

[Jenie]

Oh and the day started so well, nothing dismantled or snapped or chewed, he saved it all up though, getting his large plastic (so heavy) ball with beads in it he threw it at the tv. It missed the tv but did hit the little cabinet where the video player and the amp live! You guessed it the front pannel is glass and it shattered!!!

Ds is unhurt, I'm more concerned that he laughed when it broke and clapped! Then because I put him in his cot so that I could tidy up without him getting hurt he screamed and banged it so hard that the neighbours came around to see if I was killing him!

I explained to them what had happened and they left, then finished clearing up, when I went up to get him I found that he'd pulled dds Barbie apart and eaten several books. He also has a big bump on his head from where it looks as though his hit it on his cot, and another under his chin. He screamed the whole time he was up there, even whilst he was dismanteling Barbie and eating the books.

This is how it starts isn't it, soon he'll be one of those thugs who mug old ladies and stand around on street corners, I despare.

Jenie, I have one like that too. Twenty months, how old is yours? in fact my first ever post on mumsnet was about a nightmare day I had with him smashing glass ornaments (climbed on the fireguard) and eating a foam paint roller amongst other things..it all becomes a horrible blur after a while.

Jenie I just wept with laughter at your description. What a nightmare! Sometimes I'm so pleased I've got a girl (though she can be a thug too...)

Wow Jenie, you certainly have your hands full

Ds is 16months I don't know if he'll get to see 20 months - I doubt it. I don't think I'll ever be able to look the neighbours in the eye again....

That's the problem with neighbours when you live in a terraced house with paper thin walls, they can hear everything, some days I'm sure they turn their tvs off just to listen into the chaos that has become my home since ds turned 1.

Oh yes marthamoo couldn't agree more a horrible blur of accidents, near accidents and accidents waiting to happen....... where's the padded cell?

I feel for you Jenie. I though my ds was bad. I try to explain to people when I go to their house that I have to keep an eye on ds all the time. They always say, oh don't worry, there''s nothing dangerous around. I always then have to try and convince them that it's not ds's well being that I'm worried about, but rather the possibility of his dismantling their home in 30 secs flat.

Friends always come to me for that very reason, he's proved them wrong time and time again, once he ran into a closed patio door and actually knocked it loose from it's runners. I think that was the last time we were invited anywhere.....

Oh Jenie, your ds sounds just like mine. I found the time between him walking (day before 1st b'day, it was like Kevin the teenager) and about 22 months the hardest by far. I too have a broken tv cabinet, along with broken electronic car keys (both put through the wash), and my smashed favourite mug. And I won't even go into him accidentally calling the police which led to them breaking into our downstairs neighbours' flat. I recently bought him a t-shirt which says "Weapon of Mass Destruction" on it. Well, you've got to laugh...

my youngest is a few months off his 4th birthday and still too much of a handful, he's been to a paedatrician, had his hearing and sight tested but have been assured that he's fine. I was desperate to have some time off from him last year and found a cheap, local playgroup that would take him - he bonded with one woman very well and she's been brill at not judging me, accepting him and working with me to improve his behaviour. For your own sanity, try and find someone supportive to you who will take your horrible toddler off your hands for a few hours a week. Persevere, it gets easier. I doubt yours is going to be a thug, he's probably an intelligent lad. I found with my older kids that going to school helped a lot. At the age they are now, they find it hard to understand that what they find great fun is unacceptable to others. I think boys are a lot like dogs! They need lots of exercise (long long walks, swimming, ballpits etc), simple comands and food (check the aditives). Be kind to yourself and learn to ignore those neighbours - it does't help having that sort of pressure does it?

Just thought I'd give you all an update on ds's latest adventures.

Whilst out with mil he thought that it would be fun to practice a new word, witch was his chosen word, and his chosen recipricent of the word was oh you've guessed it mil. He pointed and shouted witch, not just once but for a whole day. People laughed in coffee shops and sniggered as they walked past when he was doing it.

We were spending the day at Birdland and not once did he say bird or duck!

After switching on fil's computer he then proceeded to try and get the cd thingy out and then sat on it! He was more than a little cross when it snapped off and he bumped on to the floor. Fil was very understanding. The rest of the computer was removed to a safer place.

Mil is a keen gardener and has her own allotment which she takes great pride in, ds likes going there and getting muddy, on this trip he also discovered that he doesn't much like tomatoes (I already knew this) he found it out for himselfe by crouching down by the plants and gently biting a bit off of each of them.

Mil discovered what he was up to and we promptly went back to their house. She didn't speak much for the rest of the day.

There are some funnier antics that I'll add at a later date but I'd like to hear of anyone else who has these kinds of problems with their children. It's great to know that it's not just my ds.

As for finding a play group for ds to attend, I can't go to college at the moment because he is so clingy, the only person I can leave ds with is my mum and even then his not too happy.

He screams and bangs his head off the floor so hard that he can harm himself. I don't think that his exactly horrible in the true sense of the word but perhaps mis-guided would be a better word.

And Wilbur if I didn't laugh I'd go insaine. He can be such a handful and then he curls up on my lap and hugs me or gives me one of his very best butter wouldn't melt smiles and it's all forgotten about. How can you stay cross with a toddler?