My 16 month old is driving me batty!

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I absolutely adore DS16months but he has turned into a demoltion expert lately and is driving us all nutso!

He constantly gets into things he isn't supposed to and no amount of "no" or redirecting him changes that.

Today he has ripped the air conditioning vent out of the wall (it is at ground level), pulled a glass candy bowl off of the kitchen counter (I still have no clue how he reached this!), broke the "enter" key off my laptop and completely tore every page out of several of his board books (yes those big thick cardboard ones!).

I can't take my eyes off of him for a millisecond or something is destroyed. My girls were never like this - they were much more laid back and not nearly as "active". DS woke up at 6am and besides a 90 minute nap about noon he was nonstop action until he crashed at 9pm. Of course DH is out of town so that just leaves me with the kiddos. Ah, the joys of Motherhood...

We have child locks on all of the kitchen cabinets and he can open those. He can open the dishwasher too and is almost able to open the fridge. He can turn the TV on and off and can reach the cable box and constantly turns that on and off too. I am heading to Target tomorrow to see what other types of childproofing I can do but I doubt they have much that he can't figure out.

How on earth do you discipline a child this young other than telling him no?

Of course he is such a charmer that even after he gets fussed at for doing something wrong then he will immediately do something cute and loving. He's a smart cookie! Just look at that face. DH says he has a mischievious grin.

Somebody send me a nanny and a gallon of Calgon!

 

[disneymarie]

My grandson was so much like his Dad. He would take door hinges off, take apart VCR's, you name it. Now he is a top self taught mechanic. Great ability.

But to calm my grandson, I have Rubermaid tubs, they all have holes, just in case. Duct taped everything. Unplugged the microwave, The computer is now in a cabinate with locks on...after the CD doors were ripped off.

BUT to discipline we found accidently something that helps.
He loves Thomas the Tank. While reading a book one night there was a phrase. "stop on the spot!" So now when it is imminate trouble, the phrase stop on the spot means STOP NOW, don;t move. It also has become a means to alert to him wrong beahvior check, danger, butr don;t question just STOP!
He is now 3.

At even under two, he needed when told no, another adjetive added as to why. No! hot...No! wet, no! icky, no! owie etc. or Stop hot.....
Just that added word he did not proceede.

Gosh though, some boys are into everything, and sometimes it is girls. Wait until he brings home frogs in his pockets and you wash them.

Oh, my dd, when her older brother baby sat for us to go to a Christmas party, the sweet, little monster came out. She put saran wrap over the toilet bowl and put the lid down. Then she took the spray hose for the kitchen sink and taped the handle down.

Recently, my cellphone said NO SERVICE, I wondered, but I have a dial tone, then I called it and it worked. so I took it to Verizon...the tech worker tried figuring it out. Then they burst out laughing...somebody made a banner on my phone saying NO SERVICE I wonder who?

AND She is the quiet one of the crew!

Good luck, but try stop oin the spot, I will ask my DIL which book it is so you can read it, and say how it was important to stop on the spot.
dianne

 

[dougsmom98]

You will be wasting your money on the child proofing devices with this child. My twins were just like your son when they were that age. It was awful, and there were two of them! Anything that is not bolted down needs to be boxed up and taken away until he turns four. My house was/still is bare. I have/had no picture frames, vases, glass bowls...We had a tall entertainment center and we thought they wouldn't be able to touch the VCR/DVD player. One day I turned around from changing one of the twin's diaper, and the other one was sitting on TOP of the entertainment center. For their own safety and our sanity, we stripped the living room of everything except toys, books, and a TV/VCR, and then we gated them in there. We also bolted every piece of furniture (except the couches) to the wall so that they wouldn't topple them over. We found an entertainment center with a drawer that locked. We put the VCR in there and drilled a hole in the back so that the cords could go through it and into the back of the TV and plug in the wall. Obviously there were times that they were not gated into the living room, so we had eye hook latches on every single door in the house, so they didn't get into things and also so they didn't escape the house. They make eye hooks that have a special spring in them and they need to be pushed in and twisted in order to undo them. This helped because they mastered the regular eye hooks pretty quickly. Doing all of these things made everything so much better. I could enjoy the time I could spend with them in "their" living room and then if the phone rang or someone was at the door, I didn't worry that they were going to hurt themselves. We also had to do this to their bedroom and we had to have a gate and then a lock on their door. By around the age of three, they were so much better though and as 8 year olds, they are good kids! I totally understand your frustration, especially since you have older children who weren't like this. My oldest DS was a piece of cake and I didn't even need to childproof anything. My DD is also a piece of cake. Some kids are just more curious than others.

 

[DawnM]

A sweet "no, no" did NOTHING for my boys.

I had to get down to their level, hold both of their hands and make sure they were looking AT me directly and say "NO!" quite sternly. I was not harsh, but stern.

Last night we went out to dinner, the kid at the next table was banging his feet against the booth the ENTIRE time. I had a headache already and was in no mood for constant banging while trying to eat. The parents kept saying "no, no." It did NOTHING! The kid just kept doing it over and over and smiling. The parents thought he was cute so they didn't enforce it.

ARGH!

Dawn

 

[Miss LD]

DS was so much like that.
He still is quite a handful, but he's 4 now and he understands a lot better about many things.
Like another poster said, take away as many of the dangerous things as you can.
I firmly believe you need to teach your child the word no, but at the same time I still think you need to remove as much as possible. When DS was little we just cleared out a lot of stuff. Much of the childproofing stuff was just a deterrent.
We also discovered that baby gates could sometimes be more dangerous because he could climb them but would fall over the other side. So, we watched where we put those also.
The one thing we discovered was the word STOP had more power than no. No seemed to be a challenge.

 

[tinkerlisa]

I feel for you!!! My 14 month old drives me nuts sometimes. we shut the bathroom door and he figured out how to slide his fingers in the side and pull it open(sliding door) and he got into the drawers on the side of the vanity(where we keep our toothpaste hidden from him ) so i went to target and got these cool drawer locks with that sticky tape thinking that one try of him opening he would realize he can't get into them now so he will remember this and not bother with them. He opened the drawer one day! He just ripped the sticky stuff right off! I now have to go to walmart today and buy another wasted baby gate(he is trying to climb them) to see if that will block him from going down that part of the hall!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Thanks, everyone. It feels better just to know my child isn't the only rambunctious boy out there!

Oh, we did try the cabinet locks with the sticky tape and he ripped those off too. He tore down the gate in the living room and the one at the top of the stairs had to be mounted higher than normal because of the way the banister is made and there is just enough room for that turkey to slide under it! He has torn the stand off of all the picture frames he can reach and he can even scale the back of the couch and reach some on the wall. We have french door handles and have locks on those that so far he can't open. He can open the front door unless we have it deadbolted (key deadbolt) and he can open the storm door.

Just the other day he opened a DVD case that had the little lock down tabs on the side.

He is very mechanically inclined but so is DH so I guess I can blame him. DH told me when he was little he used to take everything apart - he loved taking apart the wind up alarm clocks.

Disneymarie - DS loves Thomas the Tank so if you find that book about Stop on the Spot let me know! We read books several times a day (he loves books!) so maybe that would work!

Dougsmom98 - TWINS like this! You must have the patience of a saint.

DawnM - I have been in airplane seats with kids constantly kicking the back of my seat and the parents saying that wimpy "no, no" before and I won't let my child be THAT kid. The worst was on a cross country flight from LAX to Atlanta when a little 4 year old "darling" sitting behind me in First Class kicked my seat the entire time. I even asked her father to please make her stop and he just glared at me.

I guess I will be packing up as much as I can. I remember a good friend of mine that collected Precious Moments and had them displayed all over her house. She got pregnant and I mentioned that soon she would have to pack those up. She laughed and said no she wouldn't because she would just teach her child not to touch them! Wonder how that worked out?

 

[tinkerlisa]

Also on another note, I went to Disney for the first time 5 years ago. My fiance wanted to make it special for me so he bought me a $120 tinkerbell snowglobe( the share a dream parade one)
GUESS WHO LOVES IT? yeah my little terror! i had to hide it far far away in my room where he can't get it...yet.

 

[nosy parker]

Oh my, your little guy is absolutely adorable!! It's hard to get mad at them when they look at you in that beautiful way, isn't it! He really does look like a charmer! Cutie!

Well I was just !

So funny to listen to others with the same active boys!

Believe me, you will survive. And what you pay for now with boys is nothing compared to what's to come with teenage girls! You'll wish your DDs had been mischievous toddlers instead! Not to scare you or anything

Ah, kids, gotta love 'em!

 

[nosy parker]

I remember a good friend of mine that collected Precious Moments and had them displayed all over her house. She got pregnant and I mentioned that soon she would have to pack those up. She laughed and said no she wouldn't because she would just teach her child not to touch them! Wonder how that worked out?

Ha ha! I just read this! Yeah, wonder how that worked out?!

People with no kids or new first time pregnant parents crack me up. They really shouldn't open their mouths, should they? I can't tell you how many times I've heard dumb comments like that. We had friends who had called us to go out for ice cream at 9:30 one night. When we said no because obviously it was too late for our baby, they replied "Oh, when we have kids it's not going to change our lives. They'll just have to go with us on our schedule" Yeah right! They had three and it changed their lives so much that they're now divorced!

 

[two-foxes]

I had this day with DS, 15 months, yesterday. I ended the day very grumpy I feel your pain. I felt like I was chasing him all day long....I was constantly re-directing him to his toys, which he wanted nothing to do with. Everything else in the house was much more interesting! He was literally crying for my cell phone or the regular phone! These days are getting much more frequent, and I know it is all part of the development, but it is frustrating at times!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Also on another note, I went to Disney for the first time 5 years ago. My fiance wanted to make it special for me so he bought me a $120 tinkerbell snowglobe( the share a dream parade one)
GUESS WHO LOVES IT? yeah my little terror! i had to hide it far far away in my room where he can't get it...yet.

It is only a matter of time!! Put that snowglobe in a sealed box in the attic! Are you guys getting married at WDW? DH and I had a belated reception at the Seas and loved it.

Oh my, your little guy is absolutely adorable!! It's hard to get mad at them when they look at you in that beautiful way, isn't it! He really does look like a charmer! Cutie!

Well I was just !

So funny to listen to others with the same active boys!

Believe me, you will survive. And what you pay for now with boys is nothing compared to what's to come with teenage girls! You'll wish your DDs had been mischievous toddlers instead! Not to scare you or anything

Ah, kids, gotta love 'em!

Oldest DD is 14 and started high school this year so we do have the moody teenager in the house. Thanks for the warnng!! Luckily DD10 is laid back most of the time - for now at least.

I'll be glad when DH finally gets home (he has been gone for most of the time since the 1st of May and comes home in October) so he can help wrangle this wild child. I tell him of DS's antics and I think he doesn't believe me. Boy is he in for a surprise when he comes home. I think I'll take a spa day and leave DH to watch all the kids for the day and see how he holds up. Now to mount some hidden cameras...

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

Ha ha! I just read this! Yeah, wonder how that worked out?!

People with no kids or new first time pregnant parents crack me up. They really shouldn't open their mouths, should they? I can't tell you how many times I've heard dumb comments like that. We had friends who had called us to go out for ice cream at 9:30 one night. When we said no because obviously it was too late for our baby, they replied "Oh, when we have kids it's not going to change our lives. They'll just have to go with us on our schedule" Yeah right! They had three and it changed their lives so much that they're now divorced!

Oh my. Well my friend with the Precious Moments actually has 2 kids now and her 2nd child (the boy) was a holy terror and still is! I never did ask her how many Precious Moments survived thru the toddler years... maybe I should!

I had this day with DS, 15 months, yesterday. I ended the day very grumpy I feel your pain. I felt like I was chasing him all day long....I was constantly re-directing him to his toys, which he wanted nothing to do with. Everything else in the house was much more interesting! He was literally crying for my cell phone or the regular phone! These days are getting much more frequent, and I know it is all part of the development, but it is frustrating at times!

I love your avatar pix! DS had his 1st haircut on Main St too (see my siggy). He needs another haircut badly but there is no way he will last 2 more months until we go again.

 

[tinkerlisa]

It is only a matter of time!! Put that snowglobe in a sealed box in the attic! Are you guys getting married at WDW? DH and I had a belated reception at the Seas and loved it.

yes we are getting married at disney next year! we are very excited. we did things backwards: kids first then get married! lol we have been engaged for over 7 years and were planning the wedding when we found out i was pregnant! then time and life slipped by and here we are 7 years later finally getting married! must be a family thing for him, his sister and her hubby were engaged for like 15 years or so before they got married!

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

yes we are getting married at disney next year! we are very excited. we did things backwards: kids first then get married! lol we have been engaged for over 7 years and were planning the wedding when we found out i was pregnant! then time and life slipped by and here we are 7 years later finally getting married! must be a family thing for him, his sister and her hubby were engaged for like 15 years or so before they got married!

Awwww.... your wedding will be gorgeous and now the kids can be in the wedding too! The pix will be priceless - just don't let your DS get ahold of those frames!!

 

[Lstar311]

You are not alone! My ds is almost 16 months and the exact same way. I have yet to find something that works to get him to stop doing things that are dangerous or wrong. I'm sure they will grow up to be sweet boys who love their mamas!! As long as they don't put us over the edge first!!!

 

[geniegirl]

Wait a sec did my son come to your house for the day. Yes we too have a wild child and NO does not work. He does something wrong and just turns around and smiles. It seems like he is waiting for you to say No so he can give a bigger smile and run off.

We have a dresser that has has several drawers and the other day he managed to open them in a staggered pattern so that he could use them as steps. Oh my..... and he can also open child proof med. bottles.

Some day I hope he calms down my father in law raised 5 girls and gets so worked up when the baby is crazy he insists we are not doing something right becasue we can control himself.

 

[wrighter]

I couldn't help but smile when I read this post.

My DS (now 5) was so wonderful. All it took was a stern, "No touch!" and he would never touch the thing again. Eventually all we had to do was look at him and go, "Eh Eh Eh," and he would back off. The only baby-proofing we ever had to use was the baby gate. We thought we were such wonderful parents.

And then my DD (now 3) came along - and let's just say that she could give your DS a run for his money. Not only did she not listen or obey us - she would deliberately do whatever we told her not to do. Our exchanges would go something like this:

"Sadie Jane! Do not step in that street!"
She would stop, turn around, smile at us, and look right at us as she put her foot into the street.

"No touch, Sadie. No touch. Danger."
She'd look right at us, smile, and touch whatever it was we told her not to.

"Hands up, Sadie! Hands up!! Freeze!"
Again the smile, the hands would go up for a millisecond, and off she went. You get the idea.

I know where you're coming from - I've been there. But now that it is behind me I actually look back on those times and smile. I'll never have that again. The challenges that face us as parents have changed, and I miss some of those old ones.

Take a look around you and take a mental picture - someday you'll love to go back into the cobwebs of your mind and recall this frenzied time.

Good luck! And hang in there!

 

[two-foxes]

I love your avatar pix! DS had his 1st haircut on Main St too (see my siggy). He needs another haircut badly but there is no way he will last 2 more months until we go again.

Well, in addition to DS slowly sucking away my sanity some days, he is sucking away at our bank account, too! (Not complaining...just stating those facts!) But since it will not be another 2 years until our next WDW trip, I will have to find a suitable substitue for Main Street Harmony Barber Shop...nothing will compare! He sat so good, never cried or whined...he did look suspicously at the clippers though! We have one picture where he is looking at them like, "um, you are not going to actually put those near me, are you???" The best part was the ears!!!!! Too cute

 

[labdogs42]

Lock up your breakables! Put everything away!! You might want to try some different locks, but maybe that's a waste of time. Luckily, I did have some locks that kept my inquisitive DS out of some things. We have the ones for the cabinets and drawers that screw into the wood and they seem to work. I have a lock similar to this one for the dishwasher and fridge and this lock on my oven. I used the regular doorknob covers on the bathroom, garage, and pantry doors to keep him out of those areas. Most of that seemed to work. My son is 3.5 now and I'm starting to be able to have some stuff around my house now! I know what you are going through. I hope you find a solution that works for you!

As for the people with those kids that listen to a simple "no", you are sooo lucky! My SIL has one of those kids and I swear she thinks I can't control my kid. She's having another baby in a month. I secretly hope she gets a busy one like mine this time!!