Toddler Destruction

Most of us know that if a toddler get hold of something they shouldn’t they will undoubtedly destroy it given enough time to do so. The concept of a pop up book to a two year old is not wow, look how the pages of this book come to life in a 3D style. It’s I wonder if the book will look better with all the pop up parts scattered throughout the lounge. I have given up the amount of times I have put the pink plastic door back on the pink plastic school bus.

The story that follows sums up the ability of toddlers to break anything including my house.

My sister got Lilly and Amy a small child size rocking horse for their first birthday. They didn’t really use it much until about six months later when they could actually get on it and rock around. One day I noticed a small rocking horse handle shaped dent in the wall of our bay window in the lounge. It didn’t take a lot of deduction to find out what had gone on. Looking further down the wall I could see a few scrape marks where it had been rocked down to the plaster.

Well I thought, these things happen, I will fix it up in a couple of days when I get chance. The small dent in the wall over that couple of days became a complete obsession to my devil children. They thought it was hilarious when they poked their finger in it making it ever bigger. They found it even funnier when Emma and I would scream at them when they were taking it turns poking their tongues into it. No matter how many times we told them to get away from it they didn’t listen. That was it; I had to fill it before they got through to brick on the other side of the plasterboard.

I got my filler out, some sand paper a hair dryer for quick drying. I would get the vacuum cleaner out after to clear up any mess. For the first five minutes it was impossible as Amy and Lilly were both still trying to get at the hole I was trying to cover up. I could feel myself getting more and more stressed. Emma scooped them both up and took them out into the kitchen to give them tea. Finally I had about half an hour to get this done.

Twenty five minutes later, I had completed my work the hole was filled and was the filler was almost set after about ten minutes sitting there aiming a hair dryer at it. I had even filled in the scrape marks. Pleased with myself after a job well done, I went to get the vacuum cleaner to clear up the small dust pile I had left from sanding. Amy and Lilly came back in and headed for the rocking horse. It was okay though, the hole was gone and they would have forgotten about it by now. Emma went into the kitchen to clear up. I grabbed the vacuum and went back into the lounge.

Okay, everyone picture the scene with me. Both my children kneeling next to bay window, Amy with her hands and face covered in dust and Lilly with a lump of semi set filler on her finger that she had just liberated from the wall. She smiled at me. I spent the next ten minutes cleaning, dusting Amy off and getting Lilly to spit out the filler that she just had to sample. Emma laughed and I complained for quite sometime about I can never do anything without “them” wrecking it. Ill get over it, someday.

There are two morals to this story. Don’t try to perform DIY when your children are present and more importantly, never underestimate the intelligence of your toddlers. They know more than you think.