And here’s the other side of the coin. Duplo is way (as in orders of magnitude) more destructive than Lego ever was. He colors on walls. He pours anything he can get the lid off of onto the floor. He rips books. He breaks things. For a month, right after he learned to climb onto chairs to reach the table and countertops, he broke a dish almost every day, on average. It was horrible.
We were really consistent about giving timeouts for writing on non-paper and eventually got good at keeping pens out of his reach (crayon washes off more easily). We taught him to write only on paper. There were a few months where I thought he was out of the woods.
He just started doing it again. Who knows why. Today he tried to write on my shirt, on the couch, and on his hand (he succeeded on his hand). I also found highlighter on a few keys of the piano. That’ll wash off, right? Please tell me it will wash off.
His favorite place to drive his cars is on the piano bench, or even on the piano, despite the fact that I always tell him not to and give time outs if he doesn’t listen. The piano bench is now covered with scratches and scuffs from matchbox cars. I wonder how hard/expensive it would be to have it resurfaced after the kids get old enough to treat it more carefully.
Sometimes it makes me so mad when he destroys perfectly good things that will cost money to replace or repair. But I have learned that my love for him wins out over my love for any object in my home, including my beautiful piano. Sometimes parents have to remind themselves, “It’s just a thing, and he’s only one year old.” Over and over and over.
