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3.5 year old play, creating a huge mess and won't tidy up, not sure it normal type of play

1 reply

MommaBH · 26/04/2025 14:03

Mommas,

My 3.5 year old likes to engage in a type of play where he takes LOTS OF toys, booksand household items, cushions, kitchen utensils etc (big and tiny pieces etc) to create what he calls a 'show'
He'll make a train or a boat or Santa's sleigh or today's was 'presents' and a 'party'....it's creative but it's exhausting

He'll pile then all up and arrange them in certain ways, stuff lots of items into boxes etc

It ends up be such a big mess and he WILL NOT tidy it up
I've tried all the tricks in the book to get him to tidy up...playful approach, reward approach and NOTHING motivates him!

It's creative and that's wonderful but I'm t
at my wits end now to be honest!
It takes me ages to tidy it all up and put things back in their place (random puzzle pieces, legi pieces etc)

Is this normal type of play?! Anyone else experienced this and how did u handle it?

Sometimes I wonder if he has ADHD and maybe this is typical play of he does...

Please help

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
ItalianMUM89 · 27/04/2025 08:27

Hello,
I don"t know if it is normal but my LO (3.3) does the same. However i also sometomes wonder if he is ADHD. Especially since i will evalute myself for ADHD soon 😅

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