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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

How normal is a toddler obsession?

18 replies

mummyof1butnotforlong · 11/12/2009 22:12

'Lights'.....I must hear that word 200 million times a day! Its driving me mad and making me worry something isn't quite right. He points to them, grunts to turn them on and off and its every 2 minutes.

He is 24months and his speech is very slow, not really putting 2 words together. He can say Lights, cheese, a few names, buy, please, cake, more, marmite, oh no, no, beans.........a few other words.......does this sound worrying?? He signs a lot.

He is very socal but this obsession is worrying me, we can't even go to a resturant because he pludges people in darkness!

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MavisEnderby · 11/12/2009 22:14

Very normal!!

Lights and doors were a favourite here,oh and tv remotes and mobile phones.

MrsKitty · 11/12/2009 22:16

Normal - Mine's the same. We've recently progressed from "Lights" to "Lights-a-Onnnnn...Lights-a-Offffff" (and repeat...)

Eralc · 11/12/2009 22:16

My just turned two year old is obsessed by lights too - it's his conversation opener with strangers - they say hello, and he locates the nearest light and points it out. He also checks for broken lightbulbs and then points them out to anyone and everyone repeatedly.

Original poster

mummyof1butnotforlong · 11/12/2009 22:19

oh god......how long will it go on....?

I am very pregnant and so exhusted!

I said to him yesterday "do you love mummy" he said "ooooh lights" pointing. "I don't care about the sodding lights! Do you love mummy?" I said. "uh oh, uh oh lights!" he babbled. Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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MavisEnderby · 11/12/2009 22:27

I THINK ds progressed on after a few weeks and then started with "WHY?" which really did drive me insane.

dd has been at the lights stage for about 2 years but take heart it is because she has developmental delay and is operating at about 2 yo when she is 4

She LOVES christmas...so many DIFFFERENT lights to look at LOL!

PavlovtheForgetfulCat · 11/12/2009 22:34

DD aged 3.5 is still obsessed with lights . While she does not turn them on and off constantly it is not through lack of desire but us persistently saying No to her. If we walk into our front room she runs to the sofa shouting 'me first, i want to turn the lights on', clambers on it, and bangs the light switch. If she is fast, she then jumps down, runs over the the computer desk, gets her chair and turns the computer light on too!

Her bedroom lights, she has to turn them on (has a night light and a fairy light). She gets very upset if we do it 'i wanted to do thaaaaat they are my lights' .

She goes through phases of wanting them ON, then wanting them all OFF.

Christmas lights - loves them, wants them on all the time, tries to do it herself (did, before we told her off and said it was dangerous) and she insisted we buy lights for the window 'so father christmas will know us' and she likes to run up to houses with christmas lights in and press her nose against their windows staring at them!

Original poster

mummyof1butnotforlong · 11/12/2009 22:56

Sounding a bit more normal than I thought! Christmas is going to be interesting!!

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smileyboy · 13/12/2009 15:53

Very normal. My ds (2.4) refused to eat his dinner yesterday until he had turned the lights off so he could eat in the dark . He is obsessed with switching things on and off and squeals if you dare move him away from the light switches. Toddlers are strange are't they!

Bibmother · 13/12/2009 20:50

Both my boys were/are obsessed with lights! My DS2 who is 2.1yrs, is always saying 'lights on' or now 'pretty lights on' or 'tree lights on' now that Christmas has arrived and I remember my oldest now 3.9yrs spending one afternoon at his uncles house turning the lights off at one side of the room and then running to the other side of the room and turning back on again (he's move on now) so like others have said, very normal!

Rosebud05 · 13/12/2009 20:51

Very normal. My dd's thing from as soon as she could walk to well past her 2nd birthday was water. I once spent a whole party hanging her over the sink so that she could run her hands under the tap. That was a 4+ hour 'kids and adults' party. She could spot a potential water supply a mile off. Try not to worry too much - it will eventually pass to be replaced with something equally as irritating.

stillenacht · 13/12/2009 20:54

Both my boys were /are obsessed with lights.

DS1 (neuro-typical) wants to be a lighting engineer for films when he is older (he is 10)

DS2 (6) has severe autism and has always loved turning lights on and off. So I would say a light obsession is normal and 'not so normal' too.

SleighBelleDameSansMerci · 13/12/2009 21:00

My DD (2.3) is also obsessed with lights/switches etc. She has to turn the bathroom light on and off at least four times after her bath each night. Also, she has to switch on absolutely everything that needs switching on.

On the "do you love mummy" front be warned... First thing she said to me the other morning was "my love you mummy" and there was the tiniest pause before she said "me want my bike." Guess what she's getting for Christmas?!

IMoveTheStarsForNoOne · 13/12/2009 21:03

normal normal normal.

I've seen threads similar to this 3 times now, just to let you know how normal.

The answer on all of them was 'buy a torch'

just a child friendly one that they can't get the batteries out of. You can get wind up ones I think.

GoldenSnitch · 13/12/2009 21:23

I laughed out loud when I saw this thread! My DS is 2.9 and totally obsessed with lights. DH and I were wondering how normal it was just this afternoon!

It's mostly street lights - we have an update every time we open or close the curtains or go outside as to whether the lights near our house are on or off, along with a lot of very real concern of they are off, cause then they might be broken! - but we've had a lot of worry caused this weekend too when one of the bulbs in the kitchen went!

I swear shopping for the new bulb was the highlight of his weekend!!

normanthehairdresser · 13/12/2009 21:50

obsession normal ...

I wouldn't worry unduly about the speech either. My DS was very similar at just 2. Now 3 1/2 and comes out with things like

'Iguanadons are like Christmas Eve, they go a long way away into the forest and you don't see them for ages'

Content rather bizarre but the speech is ok ...

calypsoblue · 13/12/2009 22:32

my ds 19months too in the car at street lights he goes light light light light light light light etc everytime we pass one you can imagine driving on the motorway . Dusk also confuses him he goes dark light dark light dark light light light dark. Christmas lights will be fun!!!!!The moon is also a favourite but thankfully there arnt as many of them

GoldenSnitch · 16/12/2009 14:25

Just putting up the tree and the lights obsession is already driving me crazy!

"this lights working Mummy and this lights working and this lights working"

Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!

hannahsaunt · 16/12/2009 14:45

Could be worse - our 27mo is obsessed with bins; has been for a long time; driving force in choosing his toy kitchen for Christmas was the fact that this one has a bin ... he can spot bins at 100 paces and we have to acknowledge each and every one he shows us ...

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