anyone with an 18 month old, confident boy........

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

You attend a garden party with much older children and much younger children, lots of adults, doors to the house wide open, steep paths in the garden..........how would
/does, your little one behave???

girl, but still:

charges liek mad round garden, accosts elderly aunts, demands crisps, milk and attention
knocks over drinks carelessly placed on low tables
terrorises cat
steals cousins' football
has whale of time

sleeps all the way home

Mine would have clung to me to start with. I'd have walked him round. Then he'd walk round the bits we hadn't explored. Then we'd get a drink. Then he'd wander off to get himself a "treat" to eat. And soon after he'd disappear, to be seen happily playing by himself. Then later holding an audience / persuading unknowing people to chuck him about.

DD now 22 months but has been behaving like for at least 7 months.
Careers round, does mad dangerous things usually involving climbing, demands to be noticed usually by being cute (she learnt to get people to smile at her from a young age. especially likes old people and check out staff), grabs anything she can, makes off with toys, will go a ridiculously far way away from DP and I with confident abandon, will take on cats and dogs (have to keep close eye on her) and so forth...
She's a very confident, sociable, crazy, menace

DS would look around cautiosly for the first few minutes then run off to where the other children were. He would probably try and stand on the babies and would stand in awe and watch the older children. He would then take huge handfuls of soil and drop them on the path, collect handfuls of small stones or gravel and put them in flower pots and generally be a handful. He would accost anyone he saw for food but would run off once he had it to a safe distance as he doesn't like strangers.

I dunno. The last party we went to, I didn't see him for 2 hours. He's 2.

He finally appeared wearing a different t-shirt and covered in poster paint, roller in hand.

Love it! So assuming you all believe your children to be 'normal' my DS must be too!

He was in and out the house, exploring the lights in the garden, going up and down the steps a million times, charging around the list goes on.....

Mine (2weeks short of 18 months) would be off exploring immediately. If he saw something that interested him he would stop for a few minutes then move on. He would not give a monkey's arse where his parents are and would spend the whole afternoon trying to join other families.

What did yours do OP?

He stuck out MajorMajor!! I think with babies and older children he was the only active toddler. He was in and out, in and out the house, loving climbing through the dog flap, running all over the garden, going up and down the steep steps 100's of times, a nightmare!

when my ds was 18mo he would have been happily circulating with everyone and helping himself to the buffet. He's 2.7 now and is still as confident .

Yeah mine would have done the same, marypoppins. When he sees a flight of stairs his eyes light up at the challenge. And because I don't want everybody to witness a screaming tantrum, I follow him up the stairs, help him down, follow him up, etc etc...

Have given up trying to prevent him climbing up and down stairs. He has a black eye today because he climbed on a chair in McDo to do his "show" (waving at people, clapping, wagging finger and saying "Noooooo") and the chair tipped.

I am waiting for someone to call social services on me. Poor little bug looks like a very small football hooligan after a Saturday night brawl.

Does anyone have toddlers that don't behave like this?

ds at this age would have been off the second we arrived without looking back. he would have gone into any room that was off limits, ignoring the many rooms he was allowed to go in. General wandering and exploring the whole time. Would eat but only if permitted to walk while eating. Probably would ignore any younger children and watch with admiration the older ones. Actually would do all this now (he's 3)

we were in a garden party a few weeks ago, older children playing tennis on the tennis court, ds running into the middle of it all howling with laughter dodging balls, followed by standing on path beaming at people patting his head as they passed, chasing cats, dogs, geese (!) mad, but it was great, not sure where he gets his confidence from (well dh probably) but hope it continues. (17 months)

mine would have been just the same, marypoppins. into everything, always going where you don't want him to, but additionally wanting food allllll the time. exhausting but aren't they at a wonderful age, I wish I had DS's confidence, I wish I could bottle it.