Isn't she so lovely? Look at her cheeky smile, what a darling?

Do not let this photo fool you...

Isn't she so lovely? Look at her cheeky smile, what a darling?

I'm here to tell you all something. As much as I love this little lady, pretty much more than anything in the world. This little lady was far from darling this evening, she did something that I would never had imagined she would do. 'My child would never do that!'. Well this darling did, and so I thought I would share...

We gave each other kisses and cuddles before tucking this 'little darling' into her bed, read her a story and sang her a lullaby. She then drifted off into slumber. Finally, she's asleep. It's now time to chill and relax, so I go downstairs into the kitchen to make myself cup of tea. I snuggled up with the husband to drink my tea and watch a bit of Netflix. Anyway back to why you're here, my 'little darling'.
About and hour or so later I go back upstairs to go and check on our daughter. I try to ninja into the room, with the use of the torch on my phone to see her sleeping, like most nights. Oh crap, she's awake! What?! She's naked! WTF! I then turn on her bedroom light and my daughter begins to jump on the bed, very excited whilst singing 5 Little Monkey's. But then, something rolled onto my foot, WT...Is that poop? The 'little darling' continued to jump on the bed along with drops of poop, can you imagine? FML!

But it gets better...

'I feed Milo', 'I feed Milo'! What?!
Just so you know, Milo is her special sheep dog that she has for bed time. As she is jumping and shouting 'I feed Milo', she then shows me!  I'm sure that I don't need to tell you what she was feeding that poor dog!. I was disgusted! Eurgh! But I now had to clean this sh*t up. Be a mum, they said, it will be fun, they said!

So this...'little darling' is very far from darling this evening.
This, however is not the only time that I have been greeted by a naked and free baby. My husband and I had some friends over for some dinner and we took our daughter to bed, she was very reluctant to go. As toddlers do. After a couple of hours, I go to check on our daughter and she's completely naked with a pair of tights on her head. Our daughter had somehow managed to get to her tight draw, unravel every pair, throw them everywhere before trying out a pair on her head. She clearly had way too much fun because she was in a very deep sleep. I managed to get a nappy and a gro on her, mama got some skills.
I really don't want this whole naked thing to become too much of a regular thing and so I asked other parents for advice and googled. I found that a surprising number of toddlers do this whole 'lets get naked thing'. It's perfectly normal and usually for a bit of attention, but it can also be due to boredom or the sheer excitement of being' free'! I think we all would if we could. Even though as parents we want to encourage independence, it can however be an irritating habit and so with a little help I have come up with a few ways to prevent any nakedness at night time...
1. Look at your schedule. If your child is taking off their nappy at naptime every day, maybe they are not as tired as you think. Perhaps it's time to ditch nap time or make an earlier nap time.
2. Toddlers love naked time, it gives them a sense of freedom. Make a point of letting them have some time everyday where they can practice taking their clothes and nappy off and on. When it comes to nap time or bed time remind them that these are not times for nakedness.
3. What's your reaction? Do you make a big deal out of finding them naked? Do you smile and laugh about it? I know the first time I found my daughter naked and bouncing along with her poop, I was completely shocked, disgusted and then laughed at it. Attention is attention and perhaps it's more than enough to encourage that type of behaviour. If it happens again, I think I will try and stay calm and not feel completely grossed out when poop falls on my foot!!!! 
4. If all else fails, try using clothes or a Gro Bag until they understand that nap time and bed time are not naked time. For us, we used her Gro Bag one night, but she escaped from the Gro Bag and got naked! Onto plan B, underwear. I would put her in a nappy, put some underwear on and then a baby gro. But she yet to escape from this one.
Remember that this, like all phases of a child's development, won't last forever. After a while your toddler will lose interest in their new game and find something new that will sure frustrate you!

6 comments

  1. EEEEEEKs! Sounds like you handled it very well! I used to use a gro-bag and that seemed to work quite well :-)

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  2. OMG! I have to admit I was actually laughing at this until I read about the poop and I stopped laughing and thought about what I would do - thank goodness I haven't ever had to deal with that.
    Reuben did like (and still does at times) to be naked and he would regularly take his clothes off and run up and down the hallway. We just left him to it. Never done it at bedtime though.

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  3. Ahhh the little darling! My Son did this when he was quite a bit younger. I used to popper his vests over the top of his PJ bottoms, superman style. He couldn't gain access then! Thanks for linking up to #FridayFrolics

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  4. Hahaha, sorry not funny for you! Thanks for joining us #FridayFrolics

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  5. Omg! You're a stronger mama than me. I think I would have made it worse by vomiting everywhere!

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  6. I think everybody has at least one poop story. For as sweet and cute as they are, they can be disgusting little monsters when they choose to be! #fridayfrolics

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