Why are two year olds SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD????????
I think the "Terrible Twos" is the result of their natural curiosity, and of pushing the envelope to establish where the boundaries are. As they become more confident with their skills, they'll continue to push the boundaries to determine whether the boundaries are real or are due to their own limitations. We gave up attempting to childproof after S11 (#2) summarily defeated all of our attempts and was capable of undoing the protections faster than we could. Instead, we just moved stuff that was truely dangerous or had enough value that we'd be heartbroken if it got broken. Anything else was left out but was made off-limits through conditioning, usually penning the kid (timeout)if the off-limits item was touched. From that point on, we just set very firm boundaries with consistent penalties for crossing them. That philosophy served us well for the rest of the gang (especially when visiting places that were not childproofed). I wouldn't say two is necessarily any worse than later years. I think it is more that it is the first the child is pushing the bounds, so it can be a rude awakening to mom and dad. I think teen age years are certainly more challenging, but in a different way (and we are just starting them).
--GGB who is on par with God in the eyes of a 3 year old, but doesn't know squat in the eyes of a 14 year old.
