How do I discipline a 17 month old?

[Ccaaiitt]

My 17 month old son is such a beautiful boy but... he is starting to become extremely naughty and laughs when told no and continues what he was doing. He follows me around all day long and refuses to play with any toys at all, I have bought so many different toys he has a bedroom full and our living room is full but he runs straight to the washing on the airer and pulls the clothes off and the curtains and pulls on them he smacks the tv and pulls washing out of drawers and the most annoying of them all he rips everything he can so paper, books, cardboard and magazines. I am struggling to keep up with him as he’s constantly destructive and I’m absolutely exhausted.

He is also refusing his food and will only eat yogurt, weetabix, ready brek, oats and smoothies but he shows interest in what I’m eating even if I’m eating the same thing as him.

Forgot to add he’s also hitting, biting, pinching and pulling hair and throws things at me and his dad. He’s an only child and my husband and I have never hit, bit, pinched or thrown things near him ( or at all) and he doesn’t go around other children due to Covid so I don’t know where he’s picking this behaviour up from.

It may be very normal but I’m not sure how to handle this kind of behaviour especially with a 17 month old as i can’t punish him.

Can anyone help this tired mum out?

Agree with PP, he's just being a toddler - no impulse control, an endless desire to have what you have, zero common sense. My DD was obsessed with plugs and sockets from about 9-18months, any opportunity and she'd be trying to plug something in!

I'd say:
Rearrange his toys - we have a small cupboard in the living room and every fortnight I bring a different set of toys out so she only has a small amount to play with. Helps her focus her play.
Get outside as much as you can to wear him out
Likes ripping? Do some ripping and sticking pictures together - you're creating a safe time for an otherwise destructive activity
If he wants your food, let him have some. Someone else's usually looks better than your own anyway!

Same age as my daughter and a normal toddler! He doesn’t do any of those things because he’s trying to be naughty, he doesn’t have the cognitive capacity to do that. They’re all fun, interesting or get an interesting reaction.

I’m no expert but here’s what we do:
Expect no impulse control. If she’s not allowed to touch something, it’s out of reach. If it can’t be we assume we’ll need to constantly remove her from it.
She joins in with everything. Sorting laundry, sweeping, gardening
We spend at least 2 hours a day outdoors
No big reactions to behaviour we don’t like. When she climbs on furniture I say “sit down please, we don’t stand on the chair” then if she doesn’t I move her. When she hits I physically block her and say “hitting hurts, I won’t let you hit me”, calm and matter of fact, no angry face or loud voice. I might add something like “it looks like you’re really cross, if you feel like hitting you can hit this cushion” if she’s really upset.
And if I get overwhelmed and raise my voice I try to model apologising!