Is this normal behaviour ? ?

by nikki
(worcs)

My son is 2 next month.

He has boundless energy & hates to be restricted in any way.

Most recently he has started fighting any attempt to sit him in high-chairs, pushchairs or car-seats, or even to get dressed or change his nappy, to the point that attempting to leave the house is purely exhausting.

Staff at the creche he attends have now given up even attempting to put him in his pushchair at home time & suggest I walk him home to avoid the struggle, as he is physically too strong to fight.
They readily admit that he is the most active child there and needs to be accompanied all the time.

He regularly rearranges the furniture in my living room - The sofa gets moved to the middle of the room or coffee tables and chairs turned upside down. He also climbs everything in sight.

During a temper tantrum he will head-butt the floor repeatedly, slap himself in face or scratch and pinch himself on his face or arms.

His brother is 6 years old, very well behaved, but suffers greatly by my youngest constantly hitting & throwing things at him & fighting him any time he has my attention or attempts a cuddle.

He is very clever at problem solving, but will not engage in activities or play with toys with me for more than 2 mins before he is off again

I am a single mother, working full time in a physically demanding job.
I am exhausted & need advice.
please

Dr Maud answers
This is normal behaviour but it can be very exhausting as you are finding.

There is information on the Hitting and Biting page that will be useful for that problem.

I would recommend the Talking to Toddlers course -it not only gives strategies for dealing with a willful two year old, but it gives strategies for communicating more effectively with all ages so will be useful as you toddler grows. To find out more, Click Here!

Don't try and tackle every problem at once. Choose one that really bothers you and concentrate on that. You will need to perservere with it as things always get worse when you start to change how things work - but if you perservere your son will realise that what he is doing doesn't work.

For example, if you decide that getting dressed is the problem, then everytime you toddler moves away, bring him back. It will be exhausting at first as your toddler will possible escalate his willful ways - but keep strong and eventually you will find that he realises there is no point but to keep still and get dressed.

Good luck