Anyone else have a child who scares them...?

[misspollysdolly]

My DS2 is 4 and a half. He's DC3 of 4 DCs and he both delights, frustrates and terrifies me. He has been extremely physical from an early age (crawling with purpose at 6 months) and has an approach to life that he just 'goes for it' without thinking to check things out with adults first. He has - somewhat miraculously - escapes any major injury to date, but even at nearly school age with four years of me saying no/stop/wait/be careful over and over he will still help himself to knives/gadgets out of the kitchen drawers, plug appliances in 'because he wants to help' etc. He does not listen to me and I often have to get angrier and angrier in order to get a response from him. Two weeks ago he nearly (seriously) choked having helped himself to an apple from my bag whilst we were at church and eating it whilst running around the hall after the service. He has plugged the Hoover in today without checking with me and I am started to lose my mind a bit with him. He's not a 'runner' as such - generally speaking I don't feel afraid with him around roads and cars, except that if I'm not careful he would start trying to cross on his own ('because I can, Mummy'), but things like shopping or waiting in queues are awful. He just fiddles, fidgets and behaves badly. Is anyone else in the same boat? Does anyone else fear for their child's safety, even in spite of your own best efforts...? MPD

Yup, my DS (now 18).

DH and I actually thought he wouldn't make it to adulthood and braced ourselves from an early age to the thought that he might do something so stupid one day that we might lose him. It really was that bad. He was utterly fearless and very physical.

He was constantly in hospital from age 1 to 6/7 having his head stitched up/glued/steri-stripped. I can't even remember how many times.

Bottom line is, around 6-7 he finally understood that he might get hurt and actually started to be careful. He still continued scaring practically every day until he was about 16.

He now appears to have calmed down a lot and seems to have finally understood that he might actually get hurt. The thing that did was him finally breaking a bone (albeit in a very minor way) doing judo. He just became a lot more physically cautious since that.

oh yes. My DS2 is 2.5. He petrifies me. When DS1 was little, he was mega-active, but he didnt do particularly dangerous things (and when I say that, I mean relatively -all toddlers do dangerous things some of the time LOL - its part of being a toddler - I realise that) He calmed down when he hit 2, and is a bit of a couch potato now. Part of me is relieved about that!

DS2 lulled us into a false sense of security by being a mega-happy chilled out baby. He ramped up at 10 months (when he started walking) and basically hasnt stopped since. He is such a gorgeous little boy - he is just delicious and so gentle and caring (he is well into cuddly toys - DS1 wasnt interested). BUT he has been into vacuum cleaners for about 10 months now - his favourite thing is to go to the 'hoover shop' (tesco electricals dept) at the weekend. He likes to dismantle them. He knows how to plug them (and anything else) in and turn them on. He likes to make hybrid hoovers out of various bits from the house, including the phones.

The other day I found him in the kitchen having moved the stool over to the oven. He'd removed all the oven shelves and was filling the oven with tupperware from the drawers. Thank GOD the oven hadnt been used recently. He can also work the microwave and the tv (dvd, virgin box, ps2). He loves to climb shelving. The other day I asked him to get his changing mat for a nappy change, and instead, he climbed up the radiator, lay down on the windowledge and put his legs in the air, which was hilarous but... worrying! especially as he was hanging onto the blinds for stability.

He thinks he can do anything the older boys can do, and like many kids has absolutely no fear - when swimming he will take off his armbands and leap in the pool knowing full well that he'll sink..

he does has moments when he'll be still - if we're shopping I have a small window - but I must feed him during this time or he'll be out of the shopping trolley in a shot. Recently he's started watching shaun the sheep and I can get him to sit still for a good 4 episodes - thats 7 minutes each!

He is a runner wrt roads - but he's 2 - so I just hang onto him and let loose when theres nothing moving nearby. He petrifies me on his little bike because he goes so fast and I have to sprint to keep up!

So yes, he scares the wits out of me!