Why is my son mothering his toys?

[slatternlymother]

DS got a 'George Pig' for Christmas and he's been 'taking care' of him all day! Patting him on the back, sitting him on an imaginary potty, making him cups of pretend tea, telling him he's a good boy...

Is this a developmental stage? Why does he need to do it? I'm just interested to hear if anyone else's children do this? DS is 2.2 btw.

Very normal behaviour and also very sweet too. He is in role play mode and copying what he sees you doing

Now this is very silly of me, and certainly teaches me a lesson, but I didn't expect it because he's a boy.

Not "mothering" - but "nurturing" - seriously do you want the next generation to be as disconnected from their emotional selves as the 1950's? It is absolutely fine and normal for both genders to role-play in this way. There was a time when half the children (the ones with a Y chromosome) were bullied and shamed out of this, but thank god we are mostly over that now. It won't turn your boy into a girl to be allowed to play in this way. My son did this a lot mostly between the ages of 2 and 3, after which he became a lot more vehicle oriented without any external pressure to become so - it's alway jut a phase unless you deal with it in such a way as to give him hang-ups about it.

I love this stage. Ds still does this with some of his soft toys and he is 6.6. My favourite of his "mothering" behaviour was when he copied me bf his little sister - he was four, and would even burp his teddy and change sides!

What an incredibly sad assumption .

My boys are both incredibly nurturing and caring - towards their toys and younger children.

They have an amazing role model in their dad.

Is this a serious thread?

Does your husband never parent your son?

Er... Ok then!

My son is 22 months and going through exactly the same stage. Looking after babies and household chores. He's spent the whole day playing with their new kitchen, his new vacuum cleaner, mop, dustpan and brush, tea set etc as well as his sister's my little ponies.

I am really enjoying this stage as it's really cute and I'm sure it's all down to my wonderful parenting and he'll make a great equal partner

And I never said it wasn't ok for him to do this; I just expected it a lot later. It's very nice, and I never suggested it wasn't normal

Wow. Not just slatternly but stuck in 1952...

poche DS has had a new kitchen as well; it's fab he loves it! He's patting his George and stroking him on the back, and it's so lovely to see. I just wondered if it was an actual developmental stage.

You don't have to contribute if you don't want to

at poche's breastfeeding son swapping sides, what a lovely image!

I didn't expect it because he's a boy.

This is the bit which caused all the s. It's seemingly his gender, not his age, which surprised you.

It's lovely I thought he'd be much older before he wanted to nurture, as we don't have any other children and that's where I thought he'd get it from.

I didn't really get myself across properly, sorry.

He's just quite competitive with other children atm, and doesn't have siblings so there's nothing for him to copy.

And poached I'm happy to stand corrected. It's all a learning curve, isn't it?

Am so glad most of the other posters have replied in a similar vein to me. My first thought: that's parenting not mothering. Second: how is this worrying behaviour? Surely better than playing with toy guns etc?

I never said it was worrying behaviour, and it certainly wasn't implied!!

I asked if it was a developmental stage to mother/nurture things because he hasn't any siblings.

Your first posts did come across as if there was something wrong with a boy being gentle and caring.

Ds is 3 and did a lovely tea party for mickey mouse last week!

sirzy I certainly didnt mean to come across that way

Just interested, and wondered if anyone else had similar experiences/nice stories. That's all.

You explicitly stated in your 2nd post that you were surprised at his behaviour because he was a boy! You seem to be back pedalling fast!

And I said it taught me a lesson knitted!

Hey guys, cut the OP some slack, it's christmas, lighten up.