Toddler Sabotage
Posted on September 4th, 2008 – 8:41 AMBy Kay Krhin
Has anyone seen my iPod?
Ben, our 2 ½ year old is getting into things and turning our household upside down
He means well, really. He’ll bring me my purse when I don’t need it “Here Mommy.” Or my sunglasses “Sunglasses. Broken.” (My third pair this summer that he has snapped in two. I’ve learned to never spend more than $5 on sunglasses ).
He’s not hiding things intentionally. But he’ll grab things, put them elsewhere, and neglect to tell us.
Like my car keys.
Which I was also unable to find this morning.
I still blame my misplaced things on sleep deprivation or brain synapse miss-fires.
Which very well could be true for my car keys.
But we’ve caught him in the act so many times.
Saturday I found my Visa card in his sock drawer. WHAT!? Must’ve slipped it from my purse before handing it to me. Put it in safe keeping so he could go on toysrus.com later. hmmmm.
Tuesday morning I was late why? Because he likes to go in our bedroom, press the different buttons on my alarm clock and watch the digital numbers fly by. I found out too late that my clock was now set for 2:16 pm.
Oh well, it was a lovely morning to sleep in.
Sometimes we’ll find the dishwasher running when it isn’t full, or the coffee pot will brew with nothing in it.
Peter will ask. ”Did you turn it on? No. “ Did you?” “No. ”
We’ve caught Ben in the act – he likes to watch the little lights go on “Green! Red!”
Now I know the onus is on us as parents. We try to keep these our things in out of reach places. But I swear that overnight he has grown stretchy arms like the mom in “the Incredibles”. He can stand on his tippy toes and can reach to the back of the kitchen counter no problem.
Sigh.
I guess we should be grateful he hasn’t dropped anything down the toilet yet. (To our knowledge)
But has anyone seen my iPod?
Any child sabotage going on in your household?
15 Responses to "Toddler Sabotage"
When my son was a toddler, things went down the toilet quite frequently - we got to know the plumber quite well. He once slipped a knife down the bathroom sink, and it took me several hours to remove with needlenose pliers. A cup got wedged down the kitchen sink, creating a terrible block that I could only get rid of by CUTTING THE CUP INTO TINY PIECES WHILE IT WAS STILL DOWN THE DRAIN in order for me to be able to grab onto it to pull it out. Lots of cursing that night. Not my finest parenting moment.
Our daughter, nearly 3, has fewer squirrelling tendencies, although I often find her baby dolls in the tub.
[…] Originally published by Cribsheet […]
Mine is only 16 months old, but it is already starting. The button obesession especially. One of these days she’s going to lock out the password on my blackberry. I did give her an old broken ipod to have as her very own, so hopefully she’ll leave mine alone.
I learned quickly to check my alarm each and every night. If my son hadn’t changed the time, he had probably turned the volume all the way down.
Luckily nothing down the toilet, yet. My fingers swell when I train, something about walking 18 miles at a time, and I am very careful now about where I place my rings for safekeeping. It only took the 4 year old handing me my diamond once for me to realize that it sparkles, he wants it, and probably no place in our house is high enough for them to be out of reach.
My 18-month old hides things all the time. Yesterday my husband found a pair of shorts in the refrigerator. I don’t remember the baby being anywhere near me when the door was open, but I guess he must have been. We have a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement that we really never use, except that the little monster throws things down it all the time. Last time I went to the basement, there was a little pile of baby washcloths, a roll of toilet paper, and several small toys waiting for me.
Our daughter is still too young, but I’m sure that one day she’ll reset the message on our answering machine.
And how is it that they know the correct random series of keystrokes on the keyboard to wipe out an entire report?
Emily ~ Your post is too funny. It’s like a surprise everytime you go down into the basement.
When my daughter (now 12) was 2 she loved, and I mean LOVED to put the end of the toilet paper in the toilet, flush it, watch it go down, and repeat the process until the roll was gone. (Thank goodness there were no MEGA rolls back then).
It is funny, but my son has never done anything like that. As soon as he was able to talk he could tell you where anything was, even the smallest toy he hadn’t played with for four days!
My best friend has a 3 year old that is a fan of flushing her Blackberry…..her cell company loves her…….FYI, sometimes if it is ONLY water…..electronics will still work after they dry.
I have another friend who had to stop buying economy size shampoo. When she found out it is better than finger paint on walls……it smells better too. That’s was her 3 year old’s comment when she was busted…. “smells soooooo good mommy!” 
Kim–We’ve had the same problem with the alarm volume, although more typically he turns it all the way UP. Nothing like being awoken at 5:55 a.m. with BLARING MORNING RADIO SHOW going on!
Tobi–Yep…that would for sure have had me swearing too. : )
Ben is creative and actually playing hide and seek without your knowledge. Introduce a basket of of goods he can seek and find. Such as an old purse of yours, old wallet of Daddy’s, sunglasses of different colors and shapes, o;d set of keys, some of his trucks and trains. Select a few items each day and tell him to hide them. Start with 3 or 4. Then turn the game to Mom hides them and Ben finds. Each day fill the basket or bag with selected items. (Take a photo or make a list of the items so your remember what you’re looking for) Ben will have fun with the hunt. You can change it up to all green items one day all items that start with “B” sound etc. He needs his creativity expanded. When he finds all the items he gets a treat such as ice cream before bed or two books read instead one before bed. Boys love to hunt and discover.
Thanks to my almost 3 year old daughter, or perhaps her almost 2 year old brother, neither my husband or I have been able to find our watches now for over a month!
We’ve had some of the same problems with the alarm clocks, too.
Roz, that is a good idea. Our oldest is too old for such a game, but our youngest will quickly grow into it. I’ll file it away in the back of my brain. (And lose it in there if we keep teething at 2 a.m. and I don’t get more sleep. Molars. Ugh.)
My aunt finally gave her son an old key chain filled with old keys. Way better than the plastic ones, and once he had his own in the toy box he was less likely to play with (and hide) Mom and Dad’s.
We call our daughter “Elastigirl”, she’s 18 months. She wants to do everything her older brother does (4 years). She loves to throw things in the garbage, I caught her one time trying to put my purse in there. She also brings us our shoes all the time. Whenever we mention “shower” or “bath” she runs to the bathroom, opens the cupboard throws her toys in the tub and begins undressing. Oh and both of my kids love to hide things under the couch and under the beds.
Oh I almost forgot, my 4 year old loves to watch the toilet paper unravel when he flushes it. I have to go check on him if he’s in the bathroom too long. He also likes to get his sister to do things so that she can get in trouble but not him. But I still punish him too because he made her do it.
Why are important things being left in the reach of a toddler in the first place?
My son’s pacifiers where always going missing and then we had to buy more. Well, about a year after he stopped using them we where doing some furniture arranging and found out that the back of the recliner actually opened up at the bottom with velcro - low and behold it was stuffed full of pacifiers. Reminded me of a squirrel hiding nuts in a tree!
