naughty daughter?

[SusieR]

Hi,

My 16 month old is constantly playing with the plug socket switches and has also developed a liking for emptying the fridge. She finds it hilarious when I or her daddy tells her no and pays zero attention. She is normally such a good girl . Has anyone else expereinced this and offer some advice?? Someone suggested ignoring it but I'm worried about leaving her to play with a plug switch.

Sue

its not naughtiness

its exploration

far too young to understand .. but the more response it gets the more fun it is so that's why the ignoring advice

assume you have socket covers on .. you can get fridge locks I think

distraction would be far more effective at this stage I think

its irritating isn't it though .. when they stop staying where you put them

its perfectly normal for them to laugh when given a telling off

its extremely difficult not to laugh back!

just say 'no' and remove her from the socket, shes just being nosy

yep, susier, you can deal with this by socket covers and fridge locks. I am a huge believer in toddlerproofing houses as it makes life more fun for everyone - no fun for you to be constantly saying no, or for her to be stopped in her exploratory adventures....

The other thing that works with this age group is distraction, distraction.....just keep giving her other toys or activities in a positive way and this will not be a problem.

agree with twiglett re distraction

Boots do a multipurpose lock with a long strap which I use on my fridge. Socket covers are easily available too.

i am trying distraction so hopefully that will kick in and she'll forget about it.

I do have socket covers but no fridge lock. The one i bought was faulty.

i dont agree with locks on doors, fridges etc unless there is any danger

i kind if think "how do they learn not to do that?"

try the boots one Susie - I bought about 5 different types that were rubbish until this one

SusieR, ds 16 months also loves turning on and off the sockets. I usually just say a firm 'no' and remove him. This he usually responds to with a quivering lower lip and putting his hands infront of his face in a pretend cry... I always have to turn away because it makes me giggle

they do make you laugh don't they?

Thanks Puff, i'll try Boots.

Depends on the child, distraction worked with my ds up to a point but he just regarded it as unfinished business and always went back to whatever I didn't want him to do.

So I ignored dh, who would agree with nailpolish, and got catches for the fridge and cupboard doors etc. It avoided battles and he learnt from the catches instead of me constantly saying no.

He learnt to open them himself eventually anyway, BTW . but by then he wasn't quite so destructive.

Socket covers and I put a stair gate between the kitchen and the sitting room. This also means that you can get on with preparing food with toddler safely out of the way.

hi SusieR.

Your dd sounds like mine (same age).

This morning before we left for childminder at 8.20 she:

took card out of digibox about ten times then screamed because she couldn't see the programme; poked about in the loo a few times and tried to flush her big sister's mobile phone top-up card down it; emptied all the ex-Christmas chocolates out of the dreser in the dining-room, took a few dvds out of their boxes and chucked them round the sitting-room; emptied loads of stuff out of the bathronm cupboard and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

Then we get to childminder and she sits happily with the toys and leaves the childminder's ornaments and so on well alone.

I KNOW I should probaby get locks and catches and stuff but feel she won't learn if things are locked away from her, so I try distraction too (and then go to work to get away from the mayhem!!)

Not naughty, just exploring and having fun. I would ignore the switches if you have plug covers - she'll soon get bored - and put a lock on the fridge and distract her with, say, the pan cupboard.

I use a stairgate to keep dd in the kitchen with me! I like having her around and can keep an eye on her and entertain her.

We have had to tape our socket covers on as DS2 (15.5m) has now learnt how to piggle them off. Bless him. The only door catch we have is for the cleaning cupboard where all the nasties are kept.

She's not naughty, she's learning, exploring, testing boundaries etc.