who finds the memory/concentration span of a toddler to be INCREDIBLY frustrating at times.

Examples:
"Caelyn its time to tidy your toys away". So she comes over, takes the first one to the shelf and en route she notices a book and starts fiddling with it. So.."Caelyn cmon hon time to put your toys away". So she comes back, gets the next one, wanders to the shelf, notices a happy land figure, starts fiddling with it....

"Caelyn dont pour fruit shoot into your tea set, its wooden and you will damage it"...ok Mummy. 5 mins pass. "Caelyn I told you not to pour fruit shoot into your tea set as it will be damaged and you cant use it anymore"...ok Mummy. maybe 15 mins pass. "Right Caelyn Im confiscating your tea set til you have finished your drink"

Some days I would swear she does it to test me if she didnt look so damned surprised everytime i tell her. I know shes smart but by god shes got the concentration span of a lemming. Sometimes feel like I spend all day repeating the same thing over and over and over again and it sSTILL DOESNT SINK IN

Little minirant over. So does mine just tune me out or does anyone else get this?

Haha

"Ellie, please don't draw on Walls"
"Ellie, please don't draw on furniture"

I totally know where you're coming from.

Certain things yes...but i don't believe its concentration span with Izzy - she knows I have said it but blatantly will do it again to test me..I give a couple of opportunities then tell her off and take it away or whatever

YES YES YES! Esp with the tidying up or asking her to do something she will always find something on her way and totally forget about what she was supposed to be doing!

I think the tidying up is totally down to concentration but im kinda with you on the things shes told not to do Lisa. She usually ends up with it taken off her too. Dependent on whether i think shes being a toad or genuinely having a toddler moment depends on how much she gets told off so this morning the tea set seemed a genuine mistake

I think with tidying up Izzy is just too darn lazy to do it! She puts one bit away and then sits down and says its my turn! If I help her she will do it!

i do find offering an alternative works moderately better than just saying not to do something.....elijah remember pens are just for pieces of paper.............elijah heres a better cup for juice........elijah why don't you ride pretend doggy around and leave the poor cat alone...

Yeh that is the way with Izzy, I always try to get her to do whatever she is doing in a better way if she is doing something naughty so to speak


Not the same with tidying up though - they just gotta do it
I find bribery works most of the time .. I use anything to bribe her.. tidy up and we will go to the park, eat your lunch and we will go to your shops, let me get you dressed or you cant go to Grannys... we were going anyway but hey it works

ah i can still get elijah to tidy up while it's still quite good fun (ho ho can't see that lasting much longer!) i don't think he quite gets bribes yet we do tidy up at the same times every day so hopefully that will stay with him for another few months at least!

Oh yes, Libby is exactly the same - drives me crazy!! When I ask her to tidy up and she gets distracted I'll tell her again and she'll say 'oh yeah, hehe I forgot I was tidying up'

mariheartselijah wrote:

i do find offering an alternative works moderately better than just saying not to do something.....elijah remember pens are just for pieces of paper.............elijah heres a better cup for juice........elijah why don't you ride pretend doggy around and leave the poor cat alone...

That does work sometimes til they are quite good at arguing back lol. Am lucky that C has til now been good with pens thougbh *touches something wooden quick* though postage stamps are another matter

lol, Izzy is terrible with pens/chalks anything!
Did you see her elephant drawing in chalk? Thats on the wall above my bed...and she woke me to say proudly she had drawn me an elephant!

hahaha i am just waiting for elijah to be able to say 'but mummy the stuff on the wall IS paper'

Aimee has taken really well to bribery now. Up until recently she didnt really put her toys away as I just thought it was easier to do it myself. But now we really try to get her to do it.

As for the wooden tea set... I feel your pain. We have the same issues here x

i have another absent minded tidier upper here too, she starts off enthusiastic and with the intention of tidying up, but, gets distracted at the drop of a hat lol

Cant say this is exclusive to putting her toys away, Paige is extremely easily distracted during anything, so i am also guilty of the old bribery trick to keep her on task, otherwise i swear we would never leave the house as she would be constantly faffing about