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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Any one else have a car-mad toddler?

30 replies

Kalypso · 07/05/2011 14:37

DS is 14 months old. The interest in cars started about 2 months ago.

When will this obsession wane? Or is this likely to be a lifelong thing?

I live in a busy part of London and when we're out, the running commentary from DS is "Car! Car.....car. CAR! Beep beep! CAR!" and also "Car! Whee." (i.e. wheels) It's very sweet, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep up the pretence of being fascinated by cars....

Of course, DH is happy because DS loves watching Top Gear with him.

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pinkyp · 07/05/2011 15:45

my little boy loves cars! well its more wheels to be honest! I went to a carboot sale and bought him a massive box if corgi cars for £3 (theres about 100) and after about 6 months of constantly playing with them he's started to get a bit fed up (hurray!!!) of the god dam things! lol

Coffeeisking · 07/05/2011 16:05

My DS was the same at that age, he is now 7 and plays gran turismo on the playstation and knows most of the specs for hundreds of cars!!

The school run now consists of him telling me the breakhorse power and top speeds of most cars we see!! He has books on supercars, Top Gear - top trumps, and likes watching formula 1. hes obsessed!

Good luck

Mummyloveskisses · 07/05/2011 16:17

You might be lucky like pinkyp OR you could end up with one like me! DS1 (now 13yrs) became obsessed with cars at around 14 months and by 2-2.6 yrs he knew all cars by their badges, volkswagon, ford, citroen etc we couldn't go anywhere without him talking about ALL different makes he could see (some of the pronouciations were sooo cute, my fave was mitsubishi (mits a fishy) but I am sorry this was the only joy I got from my gorgeous boys obsession! It didn't every fizzle out completely but by 4 did become interested in football too so we had a different type of boredom to cope with :)
Luckily his dad, my ex loves football and this is their thing (phew) and from about 5 he became more of a F1 fan than a car fan and this is seasonal so I
could introduce other activities that didn't make my brain go numb :)

Original poster

Kalypso · 07/05/2011 18:42

Ha! Thought so. There's something in his hopeful shriek of 'car!' upon waking in the morning which tells me I'm in for the long haul.

Thank you for being honest ladies. I shall mentally steel myself to learn a LOT about cars over the next few years.

I tested him today by asking, "DS, would you like a car or a Mummy cuddle?" His answer was a firm-sounding "CAR!!".

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seaweedhead · 07/05/2011 19:05

My 20 month old DS is also a bit car obsessed at the moment. I have no idea where he gets it from as DP and I are not at all interested in cars.

I think its partly beacause its just an easy word for him to say and he's very pleased with himself that he can say something we understand.

Galena · 07/05/2011 19:55

My 2yo DD loves cars. As we drive along I can hear in the back:

Red car! Red car! More red cars please mummy! Wow, BUS! Green bus. More buses. Car! Black car! Hello black car! etc.

Carparks are just great, really, I don't grit my teeth and try to hurry through them!

blueeyedmonster · 07/05/2011 22:07

My son started liking cars at about 9 months and is now completely obsessed (now 3).

He can pretty much tell me every make of car and walking anywhere can be a nightmare with him as he HAS to watch the cars go past him. He can't do it while he is walking either he has to stand. It drives me bonkers at times along with the constant naming.

Buses,diggers,bin lorries,mixers and the like are not spared either.

He has already told me he is going to have a loudy car with a big exhaust when he is older. Seems i've bred a boy racer...................dp is very proud!

blueeyedmonster · 07/05/2011 22:09

mummy thats how ds pronounces mitsubishi too, so cute!

confuddledDOTcom · 07/05/2011 22:18

My 2 year old daughter loves cars and anything else with wheels on! She doesn't speak much yet and we mostly get sounds. She'll ask for help eating and will only open up when we've said brum and beep (or arooga, she likes that horn) enough, sometimes she feeds herself like that!

headfairy · 07/05/2011 22:23

one of ds's first words was porsche-car. Before he was 2 he could identify about 20 different types of car... now at 3.7 he knows practically every make and most models. He is obsessed! (mitsubishi is Minchy Binchy - he can pronounce it properly now but we prefer his original version :o) He loves watching formula one and it's a Sunday morning tradition now that he sits down and reads the "car paper" with daddy (the Sunday Times motoring section :o)

Allegrogirl · 07/05/2011 22:34

My DD is 3.6 and still car obsessed. HV was rather critical of this when visiting 1 week old DD2 (have you offered her dolls? ffs). She dresses in pink fairy costumes and plays with her garage and cars for hours. Favourite film is cars.

Takes after car mad daddy. Loves car museums. Glad someone does (yawn).

PelvicFloorsOfSteel · 07/05/2011 22:40

DS is another one. I always thought the motoring section was the one that everyone threw straight in the recycling but now I have to keep it, glad to know I'm far from alone.
For some reason he knew all the expensive makes first and didn't learn the cheap brand of our car until months after he'd started pointing out car badges.

Mummyloveskisses · 07/05/2011 23:16

Another thing for you all to look forward too is the free Auto Trader at the supermarket.... my son's favourite reason to go shopping :o)

Mummyloveskisses · 07/05/2011 23:17

blueeyed its the little things that get us through the boredom....

oldsilver · 07/05/2011 23:18

DS was another one at 3 he could recognise car badges and name them - was a useful trick to keep him walking on the trek to Nursery every day!

Original poster

Kalypso · 08/05/2011 08:30

These are so funny. Love blueyedmonster's DS' announcement that he will have a 'loudy car with a big exhaust'. I'll be highly amused if DS ever comes out with that one, since DH mutters darkly about boy racers every time a 'loudy car' zooms past in a cloud of dust.

Some good tips about the car papers too - will definitely keep those in mind. DS would probably enjoy looking at the pictures in Auto Trader now.

Allegrogirl, I can't believe your HV said that. FFS indeed!

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ragged · 08/05/2011 09:09

boys, wheels, anything with wheels on it. Motion, connections (wait until he ties ropes to things and drags them around, and can't understand why you don't think it's terribly fun, too). And then it's onto sticks and balls.

No, they never outgrow it .

blueeyedmonster · 08/05/2011 09:46

Yes we have the sticks and balls too. Balls have been for nearly as long as cars but sticks is recent.

I don't get the stick thing though............what is it about sticks?

working9while5 · 08/05/2011 10:19

Me too. Started with ball. Ball! ball! ball! ball! Then car. Car, car, car, car. We have since had "choo choo" and "itta witta" (incy wincy - for anything insectoid).

Working hard on animals and foods here for variety for me! Ds is 18 months and we have bought a doll and a teddy and a load of foods and cups/etc and are playing picnics in and amongst the endless car and train play. It saves me from being bored and is a nice vocabulary extender!

seaweedhead · 08/05/2011 11:03

Ah yes we get "ball! ball! ball!" all the time too. He got very upset in the park the other day when the older kids were playing football and he couldn't join in.

larakitten · 08/05/2011 13:17

My 3.6 DD is car daft......but then again, so are we. We both drive modified, tuned cars, one being a classic mini. She has come to car shows with us since she was 6 months old, and constantly talks about driving at "whole speed" and big exhausts .

She's currently watching the Grand Prix with her daddy, plays with toy cars all day long and hands daddy spanners when he's tinkering with one of the cars.

I think she's a tad obsessed, but we did encourage it.......

AngelDog · 08/05/2011 19:59

Interesting thread - my 16 m.o. is obsessed with both balls ('bee') and all vehicles, including buses (called 'bee bee' ).

He's often saying 'mimi' as there are lots of Minis around here.

blueeyedmonster · 08/05/2011 20:17

larakitten my ds would love to live with you

headfairy · 08/05/2011 21:52

argh! Sticks! DS has just started on sticks.... luckily I've persuaded him that it's kindling for the fire (barbeque now it's warmer and we're not lighting the fire) but my pushchair almost always has a small (ish) collection of sticks in it.

Original poster

Kalypso · 23/03/2012 10:57

Thought I would update this thread. DS is now 25 months and has followed the predictable path... A few months ago, he started pointing out Mini cars (Mini Coopers) and I told him what they're called, and from then on, he wanted to know the make of every car we passed.

He has known 20+ makes for a while now, and will squeal them out in his high-pitched little voice. I can't believe how excited he gets by it all. I'm going to start having to tell him the different models now, aren't I?

With regards to pronunciation, most of them are is pronounced correctly, but BMW is pronounced "beem-em-double", which is the cutest thing ever - I think I shall be a little sad when he starts saying it properly!

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