I Need Advice About My Almost 2 Year Old.

Use a large toob sock to put over top of the door and then pull the doors closed snuggly. It is too strong for them to open and then you don't have to install locks on doors that you do not want him to get into. This works for us. I also bring my son into the kitchen for example and fill the sick with 1/2 inch of water with lots of soap. He can splash and have a great time while I am cooking dinner or cleaning up other messes that he just made. It is great because if there are a couple of dirty dishes or even taking a couple of his dishes out of the dishwasher and putting them into the sick for him to wash he feels like he is being a big helper.

I have a few questions, Is he bored with his toys? Does he have advanced coordination skills? Think about What he is doing when he is off exploring. is he Just destroying things? or is he looking at things testing, trying them out trying to figure out what they do?

Maybe instead of depending on a product or safety mechanism you will have to watch him like a hawk. I rarely rarely had to use baby gates or latch's on cabinets etc. I just taught my daughter from the minute she was mobile what was ok to touch or open and what wasn't. My daughter has been taught to respect her things and to respect mommy's and knows she must ask before using or touching my things. She's never deliberately made a mess with bathroom products, never broken things deliberately etc. She colored on the wall ONCE and I took her markers away for one year. She cut her hair once which was mostly my fault for having them in access for her. It's all about teaching, reprimanding etc. Our jobs as parents is to teach them right and wrong and they can start learning this around age 1 of course it's something you'll have to continuously remind them of. Starting at age 1 you can start and teach them boundaries and limits and what's a no no. They aren't going to get it right away but after a few weeks and maybe a year or so they should definately know the rules.

my daughter is the same way she just turned 2 in sep i just go over to her every time and stop her i give her a toy to play with and tell her that what she was doing was rong now she still does it but not as much.

Mine is 18 months and starting the same things. He gets into EVERYTHING. His doc told me two weeks ago to start time outs...but that is frustrating because I don't think he understands yet. The thing that has helped me is the kind of saftey locks we have for the doors. We have french handled doors in our house and had to get special locks...but that doesn't help with everything. My husband read that we are supposed to start letting him help with housework also. HA HA...when I vaccuum he screams until I let him hold the handle thus I don't get it done. I'd like to see my husband try to get the housework done letting the little guy "help". Oh well, I guess we just have to let it be and enjoy this stage.

Hi A.-
I have a son who turns 2 in December as well. I use the "Love and Logic" system to encourage him to make the right choices, or to live with the consequences. Try reading "Parenting with Love and Logic." This philosophy is sound, and I've seen the benefits firsthand as a former preschool teacher. Good Luck!

I read somewhere that until 2 and a half children don't have self control...they understand 'no' but don't have the power to stop themselves. The doorknob covers that you have to squeeze to open work great at our house. We close all the doors and keep the main part of the house Sean-friendly. We also have a wooden gate with a metal latch that only an adult can open. That isn't to say he doesn't find things to get into but it helps. We too have a refrigerator latch and an oven latch. Now if we could find a way to keep him from climbing on the furniture like its a jungle gym...Good luck!

A.,
We are walking the same path right now.
I have a very creative, rowdy, distructive, stubborn 2 yr old! I have 2 other children as well. I am glad to tell you this is a phase! They will grow out of it, right now they are trying to be indepent and figure out caues and effect. If you bend the glasses, guess what, they will break. I don't think the child is trying to be naughty, I think at 2 yrs old they are to young to comprehend that. But still they need guidance, and need to learn that behavior is not ok. Lots ot patience is needed, and love!
I put all of my glass, breakables away, or high on a shelf! My living room looks very plain, but it is kid friendly. When they are 4, maybe you can unpack it.
Children are very tiring and trying, but also they are to cute, and easy to forgive, it is very rewarding!
Take care!

Me too! y little girl just 2 is sooo busy and I know that we were too relaxed regarding safeguarding the house with locks and special devices that will keep her out of things and safe and keep us sane. When we added the special door knobs on the big doors that she was opening like our bathroom dor, our fron door and our office door....that has helped soooo much because she simply can not go there...also putting the dafeguard lock on the fride helped so much as she was always getting in there and spoiling food and eating anything. Well, I have also learned and realized, she is smart and curious and that I need to redirect her and help her find stimulating, safe activity. I have a 5 year old who helps a lot too now. But, she did get into vitamins and razors and out the front door before we put some safety locks in place. So,I would be sure to safeguard things to keep her safe and rememer it will not last too much longer before she moves on to less mess making. Cherish her and stay safe!

My nephew is 3 and like that. My brother chalks it up to being a boy, but I see him do things like spread his pudding on his moms arm and she just laughs it off and quietly says, no Kobe, don't do that. If my daughter did that I would be very firm and if she still did it we would be excusing ourselves to the other room and having a time out. What did you say to him when he broke your glasses? Did you tap his hand and tell him no, or just put it away and let it go at that? Did he know he was doing bad? Being with any 2-yr. old is exhausting, but it is a good time to start teaching them the foundations of right and wrong. Praise him when he does something good and tell him you love him all the time, but be firm when he is bad and make sure he knows what he did is wrong! If he is just a busy boy there must be some activities you could give him that keep him busy so he is not getting into places he doesn't belong. I had a friend who had his kids play follow the leader, where the older one would go over the bed and through the door and onto the couch and roll over on the ground and then jump up, etc. and have the younger one follow. It helped them bond and kept them occupied too.

I ran into this with my son as well. It wasn't until I spent time just letting him explore all of those "off limits" places that it became less of an issue. I made sure I was with him and tried (really hard) to not instinctively tell him "No". They are SO curious at this age that anything forbidden is even more interesting. Once he had a chance to check things out he wasn't as inclined to keep trying to get into things he shouldn't. It's still an issue on occasion, but nothing like it used to be.

H.

sounds like you have a very intelligent son! but he is still short put your things up and out of his reach and plant some of his toys around the house where he will get disstracted by them instead of going for the off limits things. He also sounds like hes a little board try to find some creative toys that will keep him busy for awhile.