When does the facination with doors and light switches stop?

My boys will be 2 next week. I am at my wits ends with the door banging, opening and closing. I can't walk into a room without one of them trying to close the door on me. Then if I leave it open without a door wedge, one will slam it shut and the other get upset because he's on the other side. When I'm in the basement they'll follow me in the bathroom. As I'm doing my business, one will close the door and the one outside starts freaking out because he can't get in. :crazy: :crazy: And all heck breaks loose if I close the door and don't let them do it.

And then there's the light switches. We have a tri-level and can't go down the stairs without them playing with the switches. Just to go in the family room in the basement takes a few minutes because they'll stand on the stairs and turn the lights on & off.

They are now beginning to move furniture to get to other switches in the house. :headbang:

I have a sectional sofa in the family room and moved it to the center of the room. They started climbing up on the back so I moved it to where it was before. I completly forgot it's right next to 3 switches, two of them are for the outside lights. So I guess I will need to move it back to the center again.

Just now I heard something and Josh moved his Elmo workbench into their room so he could climb on it to turn on the light switch.

I do 123 Magic and for other things it works, but for this they can care less.

PLEASE......When does this end!!!!! :drown:

 

we had an issue with the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen with DS. man, it took MONTHS. i hate to tell you that, but it did. i thought i would lose my mind. it wasn't just at our house either. he'd do it at other people's houses. i was embarrassed each and every time.

we moved on from cabinets to the regular doors. quite a phase where DS really liked to open/close/slam them. now he and DD both play like that. ugh.

so, we're in about 18 months of it now, but it isn't all the time anymore. it's still annoying, but not nearly as bad as it was.

 

I think every kid has their own obsession which they are very persistent with! I would say to just remain consistent with the TO's 1-2-3 Magic-style, and eventually they will get it. Good luck!!

 

My girls still flip light switches off and on, off and on, off and on...it drives me insane! They don't do it ALL the time, but they will decide one day that it's time to bother them again. They don't slam doors as much until they get mad at one another, then I hear screaming and slamming.

 

I don't have a great suggestion for the light switches, but for the doors, we hung folded hand towels over the tops of all of ours. It keeps them from shutting all the way, but the towels are so high up that the kids can't reach them to pull them off. Once they were no longer getting that satisfying "bang" from slamming doors, the fascination wore off. We can now usually go without them, although we have to do a refresher course every few months when they start slamming doors on each other again.

 

Well from all your experiences, it looks like I'll have to learn to deal with it because it won't be stopping any time soon.

For the doors, many of them do have the foam stoppers on them so they can't slam them shut. I should probably pick up a few more just to have them.

I was thinking about the switches and I might buy thses more for safety. I'd rather them turn the switches off and on while being on the ground verses moving furniture to get to them.

 

My boys have been obsessed with doors since I can remember. We have the foam wedges on them so they can't shut each other out (or little fingers). Mine also enjoy LOCKING doors (ugh). We have a rule in our house, "If a door is open, LEAVE it open. If it's closed, LEAVE it closed." We've had that rule for a good 6-8 mos & they STILL don't get it. It drives me bonkers, too.

Light switches are an issue, especially since Conner can finally reach them without assistance (Aiden has for a while). Our rule is that they ONLY touch the light switches when WE ask them to. Again, we've had that for quite a few months & they still don't get it.

I shouldn't say they don't 'get it'. It's much improved. But, apparently doors & light switches are just too tempting some times. I was hoping they'd outgrow it months ago, but no luck....

 

My DS is totally obsessed with light switches and lights. I thought he was the only one! He cannot reach the light switches in our house but when he has the urge to do so, we let him do it once and then if he wants to again, we tell him the "light is sleepy" and then he usually tells us "Shhh, Mommy, light sleepy!" That seems to help for now.

 

Honestly? I'd tape all the switches for a while so they lose the fun. Turn on the lights you want on for the day then tape them in position. Same with the ones you want off. When they don't get the satisfaction of driving you nuts they'll move on. Eventually you'll be able to leave the tape off and they won't even notice. Annoying? yes. But it would keep me from going bananas on them all day long.

 

it's dwindling for me at 2.5. good luck!

 

Ditto this!!!!!! The one thing that I found that helped some with the light switches was when we bought them flashlights...that way they could go into a darker room with it and weren't as concerned about the light switches. This helped some.