Help: 4yo DD obsessively packs bags, all day long, with anything and everything.

[Puffykins]

Literally anything and everything. Her belongings, DS's belongings, occasionally mine and DH's. Books, toys, bits of puzzle, bits of lego, rice cakes (not in a packet), clothes - you name it - she will pack it into backpacks, suitcases, Sainsbury's bags . . . . And it's not stuff that's lying around, she will seek it out. But there is no theme. And I've just noticed her Sylvanian Family house - aside from stripping all the animals, she's also shoved a pair of bunny slippers, two Thomas the Tank Engine books and an empty loo roll into their house. Why. WHY?? Is this some deep rooted insecurity? Does anybody know what causes it? It's been going on for as long as she's been able to pack anything and it's driving me dotty because I regularly have to unpack five or six bags to find DS's library book/ the alarm clock/ her hair brush/ my mascara. Oh, and we have mice. Because she fills them with half eaten food. She herself forgets what is in them - and it isn't about what is in them, it's just about filling them. For context, DH and I are happily married, she has regular meals (i.e. she doesn't need to stock pile food), there's never been any upheaval, we've never moved house while she's been alive, I unpack the minute we get back from holiday and unpack while we're on holiday so it's not like she sees us 'living out of a suitcase' ever, I vaguely attachment parented her (couldn't breastfeed beyond a month, but she still sleeps in my bed) she's never had a night without either DH or I being there (I occasionally have to travel for work but we've never left her - or DS - with anybody else.) I got so sick of it I confiscated her bags once for a few days (also she had ripped up a book to make it fit which I was very cross about) but gave them back as promised and she's doing it again. She carries them all around with her too. And wants to take them out when we go out. Though doesn't ever get anything out of them. Has anyone ever experienced anything similar . . . ?

and endlessly wraps boxes in paper and Sellotape.)

this is my DS too! He is constantly taping cardboard to more cardboard! He also went through a phase of cutting paper into tiny pieces. His bedroom floor is always covered in little bits of sellotape and paper.

I'm off to google that thing.

Oh fuck, the paper cutting!!!! I was sick of hoovering up that shit :-)

My DD aged 6 does this. Had no idea it was a normal development stage. Really annoying at times. she had loads of bags full of random stuff including cut up bits of paper and letters she had written. As a toddler she was forever hiding keys, phones, wallets. Luckily her older sister has a gift for sniffing out her hiding places.

We had an interesting time when she started wearing glasses at 3.

When I was younger I watched Home Alone a fair few times. I used to play out the scene where the mum is on the plane going through her bag and her big posh fold out purse over and over. And not even so I could scream "Keviiiiiiiiiin". It was the whole grown up "I have a handbag and a purse and documents" thing.

I'm totally normal. Well....technically normal. Still have a love of paperwork and purses.

Yes to the sellotape and cardboard and little bits of paper all over the floor.

DD sleeps with the duvet wrapped tight over her whole head and body. She is also very happy when sat in a cardboard box in front of the tv. I'm glad this is all normal,

My nearly 6 year old twins do this all the time, all of the time and have done since they were small. Bags of toot everywhere. I never thought to be worried about it!

This is why 'The Jolly Postman' was such a popular book...

YY to the packed bags never unpacked and losing things as a result

Oh my God this is amazing. Finally an explanation about why dd2 throws and jumps so much and why ds keeps filling bags and wrapping things in blankets. Clarity

www.eureka.org.uk/schemas/

Yep all the time here. Bags of little things. You just discover things in things...if you lose something shw never remembers where she's put it but you later find it in something. At school it's all wrapped messages and "presents."

Not much point punishing!!! They're only 4 and 4 is so very little.

Oh and hiding in corners and under rugs and in dens under under chairs...

Wow, how come I never heard of schemas before? Anyone any ideas for a 2.5 year old who spends half his time pretending to be a cat (usually says meow as first word upon waking), and the other half pretending to drive around the house using a margarine tub lid which he calls his 'driving thing'?

My DD had a strong enveloping schema at that age, especially with Sellotape. I bought her her own dispenser, gave her some wrapping paper and a stash of envelopes and she'd stick with it for hours. Age 6 she's far more interested in having a zillion imaginary Pokemon friends around the house and doesn't envelop any longer!

perfectlybroken good imagination! Lovely. Mine are older now I sort of of miss my days at home with my 'pet monkey'

Could you maybe add on another game at the end where she unpacks one bag into other bags but sorts the contents as they come out - hard toys in one, soft toys in another etc? So stuff isn't so messy all the time? Obviously the follow on game would need to be supervised and encouraged probably but it might help, especially with the food (which could be 'unpacked' into a plastic bag to throw away).

She may have zero interest in sorting so it may go down like a lead balloon. Just an idea.

Omg so glad I read this. Thought it was just in our household!!
Dd nearly 5 is obsessed with packing bags. Can never find anything. Then she moves onto packing another bag and leaves/forgets about the last one
We get Sainsbury's bags full of random things. Also obsessed with sellotaping bits of paper and another biggy here is wrapping presents for her baby's birthday. Which appears to be nearly every fricking day she will literally wrap and sellotape 10 or so random items as 'presents' for her baby. We never actually seem to get round to the opening bit tho

I used to do the bags thing a lot and now my youngest 5yr old does too and yep I am really good at maths and she is showing strong tendency towards numbers as well is this a connection

Conversely my oldest didn't do many bags and struggles a bit with maths

My son likes to pack to go camping (we're not going camping)

He's not as extreme with it as your 4yo. Have you asked why they pack everything?

I can go up to his room sometimes and find a bag in the corner where he's packed his favourite things.

Does/did anyone else child go through a phase of putting on lots of clothes? I regularly found DS with a woolly hat, swimming goggles, trousers with shorts on over the top and snow boots on. Or a variation of that. I found him asleep once with thermal long johns a wool that, gloves and a pair of my knee socks on and sometimes he will put my pyjamas on over his own!

He also regularly puts his school uniform on over his pyjamas.

4yr old DD has loads of soft toys. She brings around 3-6 downstairs with her every morning. Same pattern every day, she wakes up, collects the selected toys up, puts them in a specific bag and brings it in to our room and then brings it downstairs and then empties it all out and lines them up on the sofa and puts a small blanket across them. She takes them to other rooms to line them up for pretend games and also to "watch" her reading books or playing with toys/Lego etc. Then at bedtime they all have to go back in the bag, up to bed and emptied out and put back on her bed. She doesn't take them all out of the house when we go out but she probably would if we let her.

I find it quite odd and quite endearing. She must have 30 soft toys on her bed and most of them are rotated for the "chosen" journey downstairs in the bag

And yes to loads of clothes being put on. She wears several pairs of socks plus slippers at home. Pyjamas over clothes sometimes. She has a game where she is a shopkeeper who owns Tesco and she wears a chiffon scarf, an apron and some ear muffs . Lots of dress up in princess dresses but with headscarves, deely boppers on her head, ear muffs, head phones, my old clothes. Little weirdo

Control food and certain possessions- library books must always be on this shelf. School books must always be in this bag. Food must always be in the kitchen. After that, maybe limit the number of bags she possesses so she has to get things out at some point in order to continue the play, but basically let it go.

My 5yo DS does this! Packs bags, boxes, whatever he can get hold of. One night he took his pillowcase off and stuffed it with blankets. Another night he packed 2 blankets into his pjs.....one up his top, another folded in half and down each leg. . He used to pack car keys but stopped that a while back.