Surprising Behavior in a 3 Yr Old

The other night, after several days of my husband being gone, my 3 yr old wanted to wait up for him to get home from work. I stood my ground and put him to sleep. As the evening went on I thought I heard him walking around upstairs, so I went to the stairs and saw that the bedroom door was still closed. Thinking that he was back in bed, I went back downstairs. 20 min later my husband came home from work, and my 3 yr old emerged from an empty suitcase in the hallway, to greet my husband. I couldn't even get mad at him, because I admired his cleverness and that he was able to stay silent there for 20 minutes.

All that work, all the excitement of a whole bag of candy, all the pieces they are excited to eat, and they get 2 small pieces. I would hide them too. ;)

A few years ago(kids ages 2, 4, 6, and 8) we put all the Halloween candy into a bowl on top of the fridge with a one piece a day policy. I went to bed at around 11 and got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I saw a light on in the kitchen. When I went see what I had left on, I found the door to the fridge open, a chair in front of it, and the bowl of candy on the chair. When I inspected the kids rooms the next morning I found wrappers in all the rooms and no one was admitting anything. Apparently they had worked together (for once) as a tiny cat burglar team and scaled the fridges shelves in the middle of the night. I didn't know who to punish, or how to stop laughing long enough to do so.

I think the lesson of this story is to never under estimate 3 year olds. I am more surprised at what my 3 year old says that what he does.

Your 3 year old sounds very smart. I wouldn't worry about him hiding the candy though. All kids are different.

Doesn't surprise me at all! Maybe you just never caught the other two....

Not surprising to me!
I remember my little sister doing this one year, at about that age. When we woke up the morning after Halloween her candy was all gone and I said "where is your candy?" She kept saying I don't know, but then we found a big pile of wrappers under her bed. And she was SO mad that she at it all at once, rather than making it last like I did, lol!!! Lesson learned :)

Oh dude. Kids can be sneaky. I think you handled it well. Just as a note, I suggest to give him positive feedback for telling you the truth.

Sounds exactly like my 3 year old ;-) And sounds perfectly normal for this age. 2 years old, no problem. 3, man they start testing you & seeing what they can get past you, lol. Smart & Sassy. Yesterday my DD was more cooperative than usual getting in her bed for naptime. I thought, how nice! Then as I'm leaving, she says "I don't have any treats under my pillow mama." Ahh, lol, yep, 2 tootsie rolls had found their way under her pillow. No wonder why she was happy to get me out of the room! I would just back up your "threat" - since you warned him a couple times - but not think more into it than that. I can't believe your older two never did anything like that! that you know of ;-) ;-)

Honestly, I smiled when I read your question. He's just a three-year-old boy thrilled to have a stash of tons of candy! I remember Halloween being fun as a kid for this very reason. It was such a treat to have candy that it was thrilling.

I would just make sure you put the candy up high so he stays out of it, but I wouldn't worry at all about what this means for him as a young child. Sounds normal to me. :)

when my daughter was 3y, her Dad was doing a whole house clean. kept telling the kids to pick up the toys or he'd throw them out.

I was sitting in a recliner in the living room. she walks into the room with some toy cars in her hands. 'hi mommy'. and starts stuffing the cars between my cushion and the frame. 'Whatchya doing?" ... 'oh nothing, bye mommy'. and she walked away....

He'll do it again, but at least now you know and you handled it well. Welcome to having a scary bright child.

Good news, with the sneakiness comes the unprompted "honesty" or as I call it "lame lie". "Mommy, don't go in my room. There's no chippies in there." Umm...riiiight.

Very clever of him. But I have to admit, it makes me wonder WHY he was thinking this way in advance... My kids, I don't think, would have felt "deprived" enough to feel like they needed to hide stashes of candy... It just wasn't that big of a deal to start with.
Are you very restrictive in general regarding sweets? I don't mean to sound judge-y, I just wonder how often they are allowed to have sweets/treats in general.
My kids didn't have it daily, but it wasn't something that was only allowed in the house 3 times a year or something. Some folks do keep it that restrictive. So I was just wondering where you fell along that spectrum...

Ahh, yes, three is much more mature and conniving than many would have us think :) I've got a super mature (and difficult) one too. On the East River Ferry a couple weeks ago in NY, she hated the loud rumbling of the motor and started to cry. I reassured her it was OK, just loud, and she cried, "But will the boat sink mom? Are you sure?" Huh? I don't even know how she would know boats can sink and put that together with a loud noise (she's been fine on other more quiet boats-like the Pittsburgh tour one). Lots of other examples too pertaining to sneakiness...they are SMART!

Some kids are sneaky :)

I have a friend who's son and his little brother got up in the middle of the night, snuck in to the kitchen and ate chocolate chips and mini-marshmellow's they reached with a chair (from the baking cabinet). She caught them with their mouths full - and (laughingly) they denied they were doing anything.

I'd be surprised if my boys did that - but my daughter - not so much. She's the third, and much much sneaker than her big brothers.

They really are smarter than we give them credit for. This does not suprise me, likely because my little guy has done this several time. They get something in thier head and don;t think it through.

He is the yougest, so he has two older siblings teaching him good and bad things. It is amazing what they "see" and mimic.

Sounds like something my neighbor's kid would do. :) Mine hasn't done it yet (she'll be 4 in Feb) but I wouldn't entirely put it past her, either.

how did he get it if it was out of his reach?

Ha Ha. Last night while my husband was out working on our patio and I was at the store we had a similar situation. We both came in at the same time and were discussing how good the kids had been while we were busy and how maybe we should give them a piece of candy. Then we realized my daughter (almost 6) had her bag already and had something in her mouth. Her 3 year old brother was chasing her down the hall asking for more. I then found a couple wrappers under his bed where they had been "playing". Long story short she first told me he climbed up on the kiddie chair and got it out of the closet, but I finally convinced her to tell the truth because she wouldn't get in trouble. He asked her to get the candy off the top shelf of the coat closet so they could have some. Crazy kids!! I have since moved the candy....

That is just too funny. I love it ~ thanks for sharing!