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In a Toddler's World ...
10 Things Toddlers Know and Adults Don't By Gina Roberts-Grey
3. They honestly don't know! Have you ever regretted asking your toddler why he did something, only to be stonewalled with a wide-eyed "I don't know"?
"The painful truth is toddlers really don't know," says Sue Chrystal, a preschool teacher from Radisson, N.Y. As the mother of four children and a preschool teacher for more than 20 years, Chrystal offers frustrated parents insight into some of their child's actions. "Toddlers don't know why cutting their bangs two days before the family portrait or giving the cat a mud bath is appealing," she says. "They just know it is." Acting impulsively is typical in children, and your toddler is no exception. His curiosity overpowers any reason that he is developing. While he may know he's not supposed to cram a waffle in the VCR, his curious nature is urging him to find out if it can actually fit.
4. Ketchup is one of the food groups. Countless parents have quietly argued with their children in restaurants not to douse their scrambled eggs or fries in an unending sea of ketchup. His refusal to eat anything unless it's soaked with ketchup is the perfect time to adopt the 'pick and chose your battles' theory. Other than risking your loss of appetite, his ketchup dependency will probably lessen somewhat with age and isn't harmful. "If a child dips every bite of his potatoes, vegetables or chicken in ketchup, he's still eating the nutritious food," says Dr. Jonathon Kaufman, a pediatrician from Crystal Lak, Ill.