I think that one of my big challenges as a parent is to cut out “he’s too young!” from my thinking. Niko is 15 months old, and from many MANY people I’ve talked to, he’s plenty old enough to start learning things like “don’t throw food,” say “thank you” (or “taa-pu” as a friend’s toddler does), and pick up toys. And honestly, he doesn’t throw food OFTEN (when he does, it’s usually because he is DONE eating and wants to get OUT of the chair and we haven’t responded in a timely enough manner to the tune of like five minutes and he can’t SAY “hey, sup, I’m getting bedsores from sitting here and need to stretch my legs” so the red peppers he licked but didn’t eat go onto the floor.) and when my sister-in-law leads the way he picks up toys and puts them in a container just fine.
Last night, Nesko and I hung out in Niko’s room before bed. We played with blocks, we played with balls, we read a book together. Niko ran around yelling and throwing balls. Then I started guiding him to pick up his toys.
It didn’t work very well.
I’d put something in a bin. He’d take it out of the bin and throw it across the room. I’d put something else in the bin. He’d take it out of the bin, put it in a different bin, then get his big beach ball and shove it into a bin. Then he’d take the beach ball and chuck it into the closet. I’d put something into a bin. He’d pull it out and throw it in his laundry hamper (which is A Big No, and we are working on him not putting things in/out of there, but it’s something he’s decided he wants to push on and test limits on. It’s a weird hill to chose to die on, but sometimes clothes in there are REALLY dirty and I don’t want him dragging them around the house.) while giving me a “dare you to stop me” look.
We kept at it a while. He started calming down. Nesko took him out to brush his teeth and I picked up all his toys and put the bins on his book shelves. They came back. Niko pulled all the bins off the shelves and chucked a stuffed skunk at his dresser.
We put him to bed.
We’re going to start the bedroom-cleaning each night. I figure he’ll pick up on the correct rules of the “game” soon enough (put toys in and leave them there, not put toys in and dump them back out).
