Typical behaviour of a 3yo

[eidsvold]

As our older child has sn, dh and I are not sure what is 'typical' 3 yo behaviour. We fear that perhaps as dd2 appears to be so much more grown up and with it than the average 3yo that perhaps we are expecting too much of her.

Please can you just list what is the sort of typical behaviour - good and bad for the average 3yo!!

Helps us not feel like such crap parents

I don't think it matters so much what is typical for a 3 year old - but whether your expectations are frequently too high for YOUR dd

but it would be helpful if someone could just list what would be seen as general behaviours of a 3yo:

what sort of things would the average 3yo be expected to do:

eg make their bed, toilet themselves - you know those sorts of things.

I'm not really sure what typical 3yo behaviour would be as they can be quite different.
Are you expecting something in particular?

make bed - well they could try to straighten a duvet, but that would be difficult for the average 3yo because their arms aren't long enough to do it well

toilet selves: many can, but it's well within normal range for a younger 3yo to still use nappies or to need help with wiping etc.

guess I just wanted a rule of thumb as to what others expect of their 3yo and what is the general behaviour that one can expect from a 3yo.

ie dd2 can remember the minutest fact about some obscure thing you have said in passing but cannot remember the 100 times you have told her to stop getting her baby sister in a headlock to give her a cuddle. iyswim. Now if being overly friendly with baby sibling is what the average 3yo does then we won't sweat it so much again iyswim.

my dd2 is 3 in a couple of weeks
she can pull her duvet straight in the morning

she takes herself to the loo and can flush and rinse her hands but she still has accidents

she can dress her self, knickers, vest, socks, trousers shiet but sometimes has things in back to front and has terouble with vests and shirts occasionally

she uses a knife and fork at the table but is messy with it and usually 'pulls' the food apart with them rather than actually cutting it

she drinks from an open cup with ease and no spillage and has done since she was 2

but I agree with everyone else all children are individuals

description of typical 3yo

mel - they were just things I plucked out of the air - dd2 cannot do her bed as she is too short. We are on track with generally being okay with toileting.

oh and she has a baby sister who is 13 months and is overly rough with her sometimes in the name of cuddles
I would have thought that was normal

3yos have selective hearing! And poor impulse control.
DS (not yet 4) can remember his sister attending a preschool she left almost 2 years ago, but he won't stop shoving his face in the baby's face (scares the poor mite witless).

Your 13:07 post sounds perfectly normal to me.

okay trinity - thanks for that - so generally dd2 is about average.

mel - thanks for that link - did not know they had that.

thanks again.

yes I thought so - just wanted to know if she was like an average ( or not) 3yo. So pleased to know other siblings terrorise their younger siblings.

She also bosses dd1 about something fierce.

That description of a typical three year old chimes exactly with my experience of my daughter.

My DS3 tries to boss everyone in the family around. Constant stream of commands from his mouth. Control freak Champ, he is. Look at Yurt1's thread about her ds3, too.

Dd was 3.5 when ds was born and I had to put a lock on the door to keep him safe when I went to the loo. As someone said, impulse control is poor.