Tearing up the house

[BeautyforAshes]

My DD is 2 yrs old and has Down Syndrome.  She is a one-toddler wrecking crew.  She LOVES to pull things out and make messes.  She would much rather do this than play with her own toys, of course   We have babyproofed the dangerous items, but she enjoys getting into the laundry hamper, CDs, books, the recycling, etc.  My husband and I are having serious disagreement about how to handle this particular behavior.  I see it as a relatively harmless phase that will eventually pass, although that might take longer than for other toddlers.  He is very tired of picking up after her.  The biggest question is what to do when she's trying to do things that might cause damage, like touching the computer, opening the CD player, etc.  His solution is to yell "stop" or "no" to get her attention and then he would like to give her a swat on the bottom if she doesn't listen.  I absolutely disagree with the yelling and spanking.  My usual response is to physically remove her from the area and redirect her.  I don't think at this point that she is trying to do something "bad", it's just fun for her.

[Mittsy]

Could you try to make cleaning up into a fun game for her?

[One_Girl]

I think your response is great.  Does your husband read?  You may find that the Dr. Sear's book for fathers helps him connect with literature written for fathers as well as helping him see that you can parent effectively without hitting.  When my ex used to question whether this really would work I pointed out that it worked for them even though they have a gazillion kids.

[pianojazzgirl]

I agree with the pp that your approach sounds great.

I know it would probably be a huge PIA but can you do even more "babyproofing", putting at least some of the stuff she gets into out of reach, or possibly putting up a baby gate in a strategic spot?  At times (when each of our kids were toddling babies) we had some pretty weird set-ups that weren't the most convenient for us (things put up on higher shelves, in cupboards or in different "out of bound" rooms) but were worth it to prevent the "tearing up the house" that you're describing.  Especially worth it if you're talking about expensive stuff that can get ruined.

Good luck getting through to your dh.