When is the hurricane stage over???????

[physmom]

DD's mission in life is seek and destroy! Seriously, yesterday morning the very first thing she did was throw all the crayons from her art easel all over the floor. I tried picking them up and telling her that she should use one at a time or at least use them on her art easel but then she just picked them up in handfuls and threw them all over the floor again. This is basically her entire day.

She goes threw her drawers and throws all the clothes out, she takes all the books off the shelves, she throws are her blocks every. I get it, she's a toddler but it's basically her morning routine to throw EVERYTHING EVERWHERE and then she can get down to some serious playing.

We try and emulate cleaning every night before she goes to bed. We pick up the entire house. Ditto for many times when we leave the house (like we have to pick up everything before we go to the park). She likes sweeping but that's it. We try and get her involved in the process but the only domestic activities that she likes are stirring batter and sweeping. Otherwise it's destroy, destroy, destroy.

When does this stage end???? Is there anything at all that we can do to encourage her to pick up (or at least not throw everything everywhere?). I don't see her friends do this when we go to their houses. This seems to be something just DD does...

[just_lily]

Life started to get a little better after 18 to 19 months. I found that by then her receptive language was advanced enough that she understood "ta ta please" (don't touch) or "put that back please" or "where is your doll?" to distract her. Before then I had to physcially redirect her every time which was just exhausting.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by just_lily

Life started to get a little better after 18 to 19 months. I found that by then her receptive language was advanced enough that she understood "ta ta please" (don't touch) or "put that back please" or "where is your doll?" to distract her. Before then I had to physcially redirect her every time which was just exhausting.

Hmm...that's the thing. She definitely understands "don't touch" and "where's your doll" etc. She's very communicative (with sign language) and has a good receptive vocab. But it's almost like she gets in a trance and has to throw stuff, does that make sense? Also, many times it totally comes out of the blue. Like she'll be calmly carrying a purse around with all her blocks in it and then all of a sudden she flings it across the room for no reason.

I wonder if it's more the noise it makes? But then again, she does this with clothes too...

[FLmommyathome]

You are not alone. My DS is exactly the same way and it is exhausting trying to redirect him and also get him to help with clean up. He is right at 18 mos and is very verbal, so I am hoping this will become a thing of the past soon.

[ASusan]

It's fun to throw stuff around. I limit access. And provide stuff that's appropriate/fun to toss around.

First, I rotate toys. At any one time, there are generally 1-2 puzzles available. One set of blocks or similar. An oat-meal container of little people and furniture. When DS "plays" with a particular type of toy by dumping and strewing, I target that one for basement time.

Second, I get out crayons and other art supplies at specific times. They aren't out all the time, and when they are, it's a set of 6 (now 5 that one has been broken beyond use). Play-doh about twice a month, and then at his high chair, one color and only until he starts to get it on the floor - about 10-15 minutes. Sidewalk chalk is 2-3 sticks at a time, and I get them out an initiate play with them; they aren't always accessible.

The sandbox has a lid, and it's removed only when we can deal with the resulting mess, which is on the weekends.

Third, he has plenty of assortments of things that he CAN strew. He loves pompoms, and he has a little container of them. They are simultaneously food/a stir-fry, balls for tossing, and things that can be safely strewn. He has a pillowcase full of little pillows. Perfect for a doll, but he also likes to dump them and toss them around. He also has a number of nerf-style foam balls and a beach ball that are suitable for indoor throwing. At any one time, only one or two things are available. The pillows are upstairs in his room; the pompoms are in the playroom because he recently got a kitchen and some pots; and the balls have been put aside because we've moved on to outdoor balls at the moment.

Reading this, it may sound like my child is significantly limited in what is able to do or play with, but seriously, he is not. He can show much more attention to actually holding a crayon and using it when there are only limited choices available. After a critical number is reached, say maybe 10 or so, it just becomes a collection of things to strew around. He's more likely to actually stack blocks when there is just one type available. When there are the alphabet blocks, the duplo, the small wood builders, large wood builders, and lincoln logs all accessible, none of them actually get used - they end up in a giant jumble. Small woods upstairs and train tracks in the playroom is his current selection. Duplos have been set aside in a corner of the playroom, as his lego table is currently serving as a kitchen center. The large wood builders and lincoln logs haven't seen the light of day for several months because the former were too much of a throwing hazard and the latter were too fun to dump. He still has plenty of play choices, but it's easier to make a choice when there are fewer options. Collections among collections are seen as "things to dump and strew" - especially at the age of your LO. As I rotate things back in, it's fun to see how his play schemes have advanced enough to use the new-again toy.

[physmom]

Originally Posted by FLmommyathome

You are not alone. My DS is exactly the same way and it is exhausting trying to redirect him and also get him to help with clean up. He is right at 18 mos and is very verbal, so I am hoping this will become a thing of the past soon.

Sorry you're going through this too!!

Originally Posted by ASusan

It's fun to throw stuff around. I limit access. And provide stuff that's appropriate/fun to toss around.

First, I rotate toys. At any one time, there are generally 1-2 puzzles available. One set of blocks or similar. An oat-meal container of little people and furniture. When DS "plays" with a particular type of toy by dumping and strewing, I target that one for basement time.

Second, I get out crayons and other art supplies at specific times. They aren't out all the time, and when they are, it's a set of 6 (now 5 that one has been broken beyond use). Play-doh about twice a month, and then at his high chair, one color and only until he starts to get it on the floor - about 10-15 minutes. Sidewalk chalk is 2-3 sticks at a time, and I get them out an initiate play with them; they aren't always accessible.

The sandbox has a lid, and it's removed only when we can deal with the resulting mess, which is on the weekends.

Third, he has plenty of assortments of things that he CAN strew. He loves pompoms, and he has a little container of them. They are simultaneously food/a stir-fry, balls for tossing, and things that can be safely strewn. He has a pillowcase full of little pillows. Perfect for a doll, but he also likes to dump them and toss them around. He also has a number of nerf-style foam balls and a beach ball that are suitable for indoor throwing. At any one time, only one or two things are available. The pillows are upstairs in his room; the pompoms are in the playroom because he recently got a kitchen and some pots; and the balls have been put aside because we've moved on to outdoor balls at the moment.

Reading this, it may sound like my child is significantly limited in what is able to do or play with, but seriously, he is not. He can show much more attention to actually holding a crayon and using it when there are only limited choices available. After a critical number is reached, say maybe 10 or so, it just becomes a collection of things to strew around. He's more likely to actually stack blocks when there is just one type available. When there are the alphabet blocks, the duplo, the small wood builders, large wood builders, and lincoln logs all accessible, none of them actually get used - they end up in a giant jumble. Small woods upstairs and train tracks in the playroom is his current selection. Duplos have been set aside in a corner of the playroom, as his lego table is currently serving as a kitchen center. The large wood builders and lincoln logs haven't seen the light of day for several months because the former were too much of a throwing hazard and the latter were too fun to dump. He still has plenty of play choices, but it's easier to make a choice when there are fewer options. Collections among collections are seen as "things to dump and strew" - especially at the age of your LO. As I rotate things back in, it's fun to see how his play schemes have advanced enough to use the new-again toy.

THANKS! That's actually really helpful. We do rotate toys, but I've been bad about it lately. She has some toys that stay out all the time (like her little people) because she plays with those and doesn't actually throw them ever. However, I think I'm going to put away a lot of her other toys and just keep things more spare around the apt. It's hard, though, with the crayons at least because she asks to use her drawing easel multiple times per day (she'd probably be happy doing that most of the day!).

I think I really need to make a run to the store and get more storage containers, that might help too!