Almost One and Testing Boundaries!

My beautiful DS is about to turn 1 and whilst I love him to bits, he has started really testing the boundaries with me and I'm after advice on what to do?

I feel like I am always yelling "NO" at him and it seems to make him do it more. By "it", I mean things like pulling on the blinds, throwing food on the floor, banging the sliding cupboard doors. I know it sounds petty and I understand he is exploring but the few things I say no to, he smiles at me and does it more and more. Feeding him has become a nightmare! He takes one bite and tosses whatever it is on the floor. Again, I know it's all normal behaviour but when do you start to discipline?

With the blinds, when I catch him doing it I sternly say "NO". He does it straight away and I again say "NO" whilst removing him from the blinds. He smiles at me and goes to crawl straight back to them. I don't believe in hurting your children but is a small slap on the hand ok? ARGH!

As I said, he is just about to turn one, I dropped his night boob feed a week ago and plan to wean him completely in a weeks time. He is just about to walk and I remember he went a little "loopy" just prior to crawling so perhaps he is just overwhelmed?

Any advice???

:redface:

Hey my little guy was born on the same day!

We have "no" issues as well. The biggest one for us is standing up in the bath. He will do it, we say no, he smiles, we keep saying no and then he either sits down himself or we sit him down. Then he's straight back up!!! Argh.

The thing that has really, really helped me is to remember he is not being naughty, he is testing the boundary- and that boundaries make them feel secure, so they test it (and test it and test it) to make sure its still there. So when he just keeps doing whatever it is, I just keep saying no and/or taking him away from it- again and again- and remind myself I am actually giving him a nice, happy boundary and not being a big mean disciplinarian. It doesn't change his behaviour, but it most certainly helps my sanity.

The other thing I do is simply limit the amount of things I say "no" to. At the moment, there is about 3-4 things we say "no" to (bath, touching certain things, pulling on the telly). Everything else we just kind of move or adjust around. I don't want to be saying no all the time. I guess you have to pick your battles until they're really old enough to get it. Having said that, it sounds like are already doing this, but if there is anything that's kind of borderline, maybe let go on it for now?

But I would be frustrated by the food thing too. DS usually only drops his food when he's no longer hungry. I have one of those big plastic mats underneath that I take out and shake at the end of the day. The funny thing is, something he will be crawling around after a meal and will come back to his mat and find something he dropped and eat it- GROSS!!!

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know you're not alone. The boundary testing has well and truely begun!

We are having the same issues with our twins. There are certain things like touching the tv screen and pulling on the blinds that we say no to. We try and work around it like we put the tubs of the kids toys in front of the tv cabinet so sometimes that stops them and other times they just push them away and do it anyway :wall: I can certainly feel your frustration. Sometimes I feel horrible saying no all the time but with two I am saying it twice as much (and they encourage each other which doesn't help :doh:)

You are definitely not alone darl. They just love to push the boundaries :rolleyes:

Double post.