How are you stopping your dc from playing with the tree and decorations?

[JingJanglingrecieversaidthanks]

The dc are driving me mad! Not looking forward to the next couple of weeks tbh. They are 3 and 2, and will not leave the decorations or tree alone.

Time out isn't working for them, and the next step is to put them away.

They throw the decorations around, turn the lights on and off continously, and just don't leave them alone when we ask them to.

not a battle I am willing t fight
we decorated it together she can do as she pleases, and actually after the first few days she is not that keen on playing with it any more, I just leave it

sorry not what you wanted but imo not worth the stress

Mine is 4 and moves the decorations around constantly

he takes off the nice ones and hides them in his room

then replaces them with bits of string, scrumpled up paper and playdough creations

I have laid down the Christmas tree law (well I have shrieked a lot)

I also agree it is NOT worth the stress but can I chill out about it?

no I can't

it is sat there in the middle of the room and I have to look at it, I am buggered if it is going to have string and blu tack on it

we bought a really really prickly tree well dp did
At first I was thoroughly pised off as we all receieved lacerations decorating it
But as ds2 is cruising now... the prickles are earning their keep
he hates it LOL

same here sfxmum...I let my dd (almost 14 months) have a look and get it all out of her system...she takes a few off daily, but I just put them back on - no harm done

The way I see it, she is just curious. Sorry not to be of more help JingJang x

Ours is in a play pen (DD is 13 months). I think of it as forest management

Franny,
My ds is 4 in Feb,and does exactly the same thing. Takes all the nice decorations, throws them around for a while, then tries to put them in the bin our out ofour front door!

WE've got a fibre optic tree, and bth dc try to take the fibre part out!
Lol Piffle, wish we thought of that.

Sfx, it is a battle though when they start throwing them at each other!

We've had this fight for a week now, and it's not getting any easier.

Ds begged us to put it up, helped with it, but he just won't leave the stupid tree alone!

at least I know I am not alone though!

I told DS1 who is 2, to press the button on the fairy lights control box whatsit. I had them set on just 'on' but if you press it it does different things.
He pressed it and the lights went off then started flashing faster and faster till they were like a bloody strobe rave.
He ran away shouting 'tree broken' and has not touched it since! LOL
I did not intend for that to happen btw, just lucky I guess!?

Ds2 who is 1 is too poorly with some sort of cough and cold to get off the sofa/my chest so we are okay atm, but I am soon as soon as he is well, he will have the bloody thing over.

Lol whomoved,
Ds is just so excited about it all, the tree has already fallen on them once, did they learn? Did they hell

I am sure* even, not soon....

We did the playpen thing too - my sister recommended it after discovering that someone (no actual proof but suspected to be DN2) had skillfully removed the contents from each chocolate decoration, leaving the foil wrapper hanging on the tree...

I also think it would be easier if I only had the one dc, but once one starts, they both do it.

TBH, I do wonder why I stress about it, but it's continously happened, and tbh, I've got better things to be doing than picking them all up again

I only have one dd 2.6 so I guess it is easier although she insisted on tinsel for the tree much to my horror
dh told me to grin and bear it

Mine (nearly two and three) have calmed down a little bit now the tree has been up for a couple of weeks. They still keep turning the lights on and off though, and ds2 keeps taking the plugs out. We have had to move alll the decorations nearer the top of the tree so now the bottom half looks shocking. The tinsel is looking a bit sad as well as they have been 'plucking' it for the last two weeks.
It's true that when one starts the other one joins in, little sods.

I am an unreconstructed Victorian parent. I have 'spoken' on the matter and the children are compliant

They are 3 and 5

Am wondering if I am too scary...

handlemecarefully, what did you say that was so effective? Or was it the tone of voice that did it?

I think it is because they know from experience if I expressly forbid something, it is better for everybody that they toe the line......My wrath knows no mercy (privileges withdrawn etc). They are told in advance what the penalty will be and I deliver on it if they ignore the warning

Other absolute taboos include things like drawing on the walls (so I can leave 3 year old alone in charge of felt tips and he won't do anything amiss - he knows that it's just not worth the aggro)...

but actually I am quite laid back and permissive on a lot of things. Just have a few cardinal rules

OMG, what's wrong with tinsel?

Basically, there are no amounts of timeouts that will stop ds1 (2 yo) from attacking the tree. So I put all the ugly decorations (you know the ones dh and I bought when we first got married and thought looked so cool, but now I think are hideous, I mean how much purple did we need on our tree)

So basically he rips down all the ugly ones, breaks them and I don't feel upset because hey, I was waiting for an excuse to throw them away anyway.

I think the real problem is dh who still thinks they look nice

Jeepers. Who is the tree for the benefit of???

When I became a mother, I bought cheap and tacky (very cheap, very tacky, very plastic) baubles from Woolies. Those, plus the cheapest possible fairy lights are the basic tree decorations, plus whatever crafty things anyone feels like making and putting on.

Any children in my house are encouraged to touch the tree, to take the baubles off, to play with them as much as they like. Having exhausted the fun of it, they feel no need to destroy the trees we encounter with precious objects on, like at other people's houses.

If you don't like your children playing with objects in their own sitting room, then don't put those objects in their sitting room. It's not rocket science.

ooh emma! [handbag emoticon]

I have carefully stripped off the plastic casing from the fairy light wires.

Every time they try to touch the tree they get a 240 volt shock.

Worked a treat.

Only been down casualty twice so far.

Ours is on a coffee table, just high enough so they can't reach most of it, but they have been moving around the lower baubles, doesn't worry me. Anyway nothing could be as bad as when we had our cat and it insisted on climbing up the tree and when it reached the top his weight would cause the tree to come toppling down arghhh there was no time out or reasoning with a cat!

imagine putting a cat on the naughty step! The look of utter disgust you would get. They would show you their bum and walk off.

There was a sodding mouse under ours this morning. Bloodysoddingcat again! Thank goodness I removed all the foodie type presents last week. Hopefully it's only been there overnight

So Seashells, I feel for you, ours used to do that. But there was an incident with a large round ball that the cat confronted head to head and was scared by. Now he just brings us 'presents' to put underneath.ss