My Son, the Tornado

My son started walking at 8 months [yes, on his own with no hands] and has been a tornado ever since [Actually, I'm wrong. Technically it all started at 5 months when he began to crawl!]. He is now 3 1/2. However, now at least he is able and [mostly] willing to clean up after himself.
Knowing my family and friend's children, I don't think the tornado can ever be tamed!

ETA: just realized...maybe the signs were there when he was a really little baby and kept hitting the bottle out of my hand over and over, and kicking his blanket onto the floor again and again lol

I have two. ;) A 2 1/2 year old and a 16 month old. Some days I call them search and destroy. I usually don't even attempt to clean the living room and their bedroom until bedtime. lol Our house is very small so those are the only places they have to play and they get REALLY messy some days. I am not sure how to tame them. I discipline them both for throwing clothes and laundry on the floor. Some days it works. Some days they still try to do it. My hope is that they will outgrow it. ha!

In the old days I was confined to a playpen at that age. It didnt harm me, so while I'm not suggesting the playpen, your son does not have to have full range of the entire house! Use gates and keep him in one or two rooms for a while! Rotate his toys every few days so he is really interested in the "new" toys and actually plays, interacts and learns from them rather than throwing them and becoming bored immediately. And when he makes a huge mess- dont forget to take pictures to make you laugh when he is grown up and moved away!

My son is the same way. I will tell you this, he goes to daycare and in his "room" (12 months to 24 months), they DO teach them to clean up, they stay on them about it, and it works. At first I thought maybe that was too young of an age to do this. But it's amazing...my son now randomly picks up his stuff (say, a bunch of toy cars) and starts putting them away saying "beeee UP! BeeeeUP!" (His way of saying clean up, SO SO cute). He is 21 months, older than yours...but i would say, in a few months or sooner start working on teaching him to "Beeee UP!" :)

My son is 9 now, and is still a tornado. He will absentmindedly pick up something, and set it down randomly 10 feet away. He'll pick up something of ours like a memory key that was next to the computer, and leave it on a chair in the kitchen. Or building something with legos will somehow manage to leave a few legos in every single room of the house.

yep. I think natural neat-nicks are rare. Both my kids are tornadoes (now 5 & 3). It seems like as I tidy up, they are right there behind me, throwing more things out on the floor. I tease my daughter because whatever she is holding in her hands when she gets distracted by something else, gets absent-mindedly thrown on the floor on the way to the next thing. My daughter is now better at picking up after herself, but it is a huge challenge to get my son to clean up, unless there is something he really wants at stake, like a movie or dessert. It's a discipline area we really struggle in, as we have tried everything I have heard of! I guess it's like homeostasis: It's like they need that state of chaos to feel comfortable! It's an important part of play to be able to make a mess with vim and vigor! I wish it didn't drive me as crazy as it does - they should be able to play freely without getting yelled at about the mess.

Yup, my 16 month old daughter sounds just like yours. However, I contain the mess. I have a gate up across the kitchen, so she cannot enter...she's confined to the living room and two bedrooms. Every night, it's good exercise to clean up after her. :) No advice!

are your kid and my son brothers????? He picks his toys up and 5 minutes later they are out again. just teach him to pick them up. I tried the 3 toys at a time method but with his hearing issues he didn't comprehend it.

Lol! I call my 13 month old daughter the tazmanian devil! She does the same things it sounds like your son is doing. She empties drawers, cupboards, the pantry... you name it! She will pull every single one of the lego duplo blocks out of the container one by one and if there are ones that are stuck together she pulls them apart and then throws them aside like the rest of them :). I'm interested to see if anyone has any good advice for you on this one because I could use it too!

I look forward to these answers!

My ten month old can walk, and pretty well. I will go pick up his room, the living room, the kitchen and the bathroom. In a matter of minutes, he can have the whole place destroyed again. Pots, pans, books, toys, clothes, my loofa. towels... It is quite amazing.

I would like to see a world record set for world's quickest baby tornado!

I think it's part of being a toddler and exploring the world ; ) My almost 2 1/2 year old is almost always either getting into something or trying to, closing doors we want opened, trying to sift through the trash, yuk, turning the TV off and on...he considers it all his mission in life! Some things that I really don't want him doing like throwing clean clothes out of drawers, which he replaces with dirty ones :-/ or playing with the dog bowls I do discipline with time-outs, and others I try to head off by closing doors, putting items out of reach, teaching "We do not play with _____," distractions and quick trips to the pack n play with something while I straighten up. I also enlist his help when cleaning up, if he threw it he can help pick it up and put it away.

In their defense I don't believe they're purposely trying to be destructive, just utilizing their options. Best we as parents can do is curb temptations, discipline appropriately if needed, and teach with set boundaries, physical and learned.

Haha! I wrote a post like this about my 2 year old! She just turned 3 and is just finally **KIND OF** starting to "get" the fact that she needs to clean up after herself and not take EVERYTHING out of every toy bin. That being said she still does take every single toy out of every single toy bin at least once a week lol. I think around age 3 they can finally understand not to be so tornado like. :)

We call our 16 month daughter Hurricane Sophie. I came home last night and said, "well I see hurricane Sophie struck again." She can tear apart a room in a matter of seconds.

My son is almost 17 months old and he is a tornado also. He never stops unless he is sleeping(although he moves constanly in his sleep) My oldest child was not like this at all. He never made a mess. My middle one was wild and I thought he was the worst...NO my current baby is the craziest. I am prego with number 4 and I hope I dont' have another wild one. I am not sure if there is anything you can do,they really don't understand. I know people say they do and to disipline them but I feel they are babies at this age. My older 2 don't run around and make a mess constantly. You can however close doors to rooms,move the dogs water and food(I had to),put some toys up so he can't make too big of a mess. He is exploring his world so I say let him have as much fun as he can within reason.

Ha Ha Ha!
My one year old is the same, except we call him our "MANIAC"! Looking forward to hearing some suggestions, you are not alone! LOL!