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When Do Toddlers Get Easier to Handle?
In my experience of parenting, the newborn stage is the most challenging stage of all. Things do get slightly better when they grow into toddlers, but life is still difficult.
So when do toddlers get easier to manage?
The term ‘toddler’ is usually used to refer to babies from the age of one to about three years old.
To be honest, the exact period from which toddlers get easier to handle varies for each child and for each parent. It also depends on many factors regarding your style of parenting and the disposition of the baby.
But for me, I found that they get easier to handle after the age of two.
This could be due to many different reasons that are relevant to my personal parenting decisions.
For instance, I breastfed all my kids until the age of two. Two was the age of weaning for me. There were many sleepless nights until they learned to settle down after the trauma of being refused the breast. But things soon got better afterward.
I started sleeping through the night, and so did my toddler. After many months of sleeplessness, you can imagine my relief. My mood soon got better, too, and my toddler started eating slightly better when once they understood they didn’t have my milk to rely on.
Another important reason why I found them get easier after two is that I started potty training them around that time. I hardly ever use disposable diapers for my babies. But the decision to use cloth, reusable diapers meant the constant hassle of changing, washing and drying.
Once I managed to potty train them effectively, the diapers disappeared. I still had to take them to the toilet whenever I suspected they needed to. And I had to deal with many episodes on the carpet and floor too, but it was much less work compared to diapers.
In addition, life just gets better when toddlers are two because they start talking around that period. Of course, every child is different, but my ones caught up with words fast and as soon as they were two, they were effective communicators. So at this stage, you no longer have to rely on maternal instincts alone to find out if they are tired, thirsty or hungry. They will simply learn to tell you.
And further, two-year-olds are also much more steady in their walking. At this stage, I no longer had to worry about them falling off the bed or tripping on the stairs. They simply learn to climb stairs safely. Get onto chairs by themselves and take care not to fall. We have a steep staircase, so once they can go up and down them safely, I became more relaxed.
Lastly, toddlers become very good at entertaining themselves sometimes. They only need a box of sand, books or a bowl of water, and they will leave you alone for hours on end. At two, they are very curious about many things around them. You don’t have to try very hard to entertain them.
But wait. If you have a kid that is not yet two, don’t get your hopes up too high. Because all kids are different. While I found that handling and taking care of toddlers do seem to get better once you are past the terrible twos, there are other things that could take a turn for the worse.
One of these is that the older they get, the more children begin to fight among themselves. While at one point, I had a loving and helpful older brother and a troublesome toddler, no sooner than the toddler gets old enough to play with his brother’s toys and demand them, the fighting begins!
It’s a constant challenge trying to maintain some peace in the house after that.
Trying to feed them, too, does not get significantly better. My two-year-old is very picky with his food and will prefer to starve than eat. The older he gets, the cleverer he is at avoiding food.
They are faster when they get older too. Bath times, too, did get slightly worse for me.
And the mess they make also steadily gets worse by the day. The more curious they get about things around them and the more they try to entertain themselves, the more you will need to clean up after them. The more active your toddler is, the harder you have to work. If you can manage to teach them to be tidy, then congratulations!
But in general, I was happy I didn’t have to breastfeed everywhere I went, and I was saved from them pooping in their diapers when I was out with them. Potty training also means that they tend to hold their calls of nature until we find an appropriate spot for them.
When Do Toddlers Get Easier? Conclusion
The exact time period in which toddlers get easier to handle varies with each child. Every style of parenting is different, and so is every kid. But from my personal experience, I have found that toddlers get easier after the age of two, mostly because I wean them at two and start potty training them.
Also read: Why are kids so loud?
*All pics are taken from Unsplash.com
