toddler's sense off direction/navigation

[OdaBear]

Hi all,

I've been on here a lot lately... apologies.

Just wondering, not concerned or thinking anything unusual- jjust don't know much about kids (only mine).

So my eldest son is about to turn two, and I've noticed that he seems to have an excellent sense of direction. For instance, he knows which way to the park when we're out in the buggy. He'll point in the right direction for the park, make decisions on which road to turn into. He recognises our car when it's parked on the street. (We have no dedicated parking space, so our car is often parked in various different spots in the neighbourhood). Our car is a black Seat, very run-of-the-mill. He recognises places he's only visited a small number of times. I'm genuinely impressed, especially considering I know some adults who are totally unable to navigate anywhere and couldn't recognise a place they'd previously visited. (I'm not one of these people!).

So I was just curious if this incredible ability to navigate/recognise places is just another normal part of childhood development that I'm utterly flabbergasted by (there have been many).

Thanks all x

1 of mine could do this, the other is 13 and still can't

i think it's a normal part of childhood development, and not really unusual tbh

Your son sounds lovely

Thanks guys. He's hilarious and very lovely. I'm not onerho people who grew up around kids, so all theae little quirks of their development are new to me.

My son, just over 2, recognises mummy-cars (Peugeot) daddy-cars (Mazda) & nana-cars (vw). Cue a bit of embarrassment when he kept calling his Papa "Nana" cos he'd just got out of a nana-car, when they're in the middle of a awkward divorce!

My 2yo is like this, last week he threw a massive tantrum in his buggy screaming "no doctor" when we were half way to the doctors, even though I hadn't said where we were going. He definitely gets it from me though and not his dad. Last month I took 2 yo to the park, whilst DH ran a couple of errands and arranged to meet us at the park. Got a call from DH as he couldn't remember how to get to the park. I should point out we've lived in the area for 16 years, the park is 10 mins from our house and we've been going there regularly since our oldest (now 15) was a baby. I can only think that my 2yo tells him how to get their when it's just the two of them!

That's hilarious about your husband Charmingbaker.

one of mine did and does has a great sense of direction, certainly a lot better than mine! My younger DD is more like me, so we just ask DD1 where to go if we get lost. But I agree it's a bit uncanny when they're so little, and they clearly have a map of town in their heads already. I guess it would have helped find the way back to the cave (DD2 and I wouldn't have stood a chance!)

I think stuff that is part of habit/routine is greatly magnified to the eyes of a toddler. Whereas a lot of other stuff is just 'filler' (like watching out for cars) and gets ignored. My DS1 has similarly surprised me by saying stuff like "almost home" several times while driving down a street about 5 minutes away from home.

I got a surprised sounding "no swimming mummy" from the back of the car this afternoon on the way to B&Q when we two turns away from the road we take to swimming. He did assure me he does like swimming though, which was a relief.

Wannabe - I like your take on it - getting back to the cave. He surprised me again this evening on the way home. Saw the GP surgery across the road and started saying ' doctor'. We are not routinely at the doctors and he's never said 'doctor' before!

By the way, I realise the spelling error in the title - 'off' instead of 'of'.