Originally Posted by Reimel61:
I have a 20 month old who only wants to take the other older childrens toys that they are playing with. She won't get interested in anything unless she's the only one in the room. Someone's there she takes there stuff. I keep redirecting her to other toys but she goes right back. Today I finally got the pack n play out and when she took something from the other kids I put her in the pack n play and told her "No we don't take toys from our friends". I really don't remember any of the other kids in the past being at presistent as she has been. I did have the room gated in half a few months ago but I hate to go back to that. I figure she's got to learn at some point. I think she likes getting a reaction from the kids when she does it, they cry or scream "she took my toy" and she continues to do it. Suggestions??? Thanks
I think I have her clone in my day care. She has no interest in any of the toys until another child starts to use them. Then she runs right over yelling, "Me! Me!" and grabs the toy out of their hands. I tried putting her in a Super Yard gate but she's a big kid and just started moving the gate around the room as she walked. I tried tying down the gate to the legs of a table so she couldn't walk around with the gate but then she started throwing the toys I had given her to play with at the other kids. I tried not giving her anything back to play with but besides the fact that that really isn't a good long term solution, it only made her scream and cry which we all then had to listen to. She'd also pull the other kids' hair if they got close enough to the gate - which they did...often...despite warnings from me. Out of desperation, I finally started to sit her in her high chair with a book or a piece of paper with some crayons each time she grabbed a toy from someone. It hasn't corrected her behavior but it gives me a couple of minutes of peace which, at times, I need just to get something done like change a diaper, make a meal, etc.
I wish I had some great ideas to share with you because I feel your pain but nothing I've tried so far has really helped. Hopefully someone can recommend a good way to deal with this kind of behavior. Right now, I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping it gets better with time.