Help! Obsessed with traffic lights!

[Two mummies]

We live in the Hills (small mountains for those of you not familiar with South Australia) and there is only one set of pedestrian crossing lights in our area. When we venture into the city there are, of course, traffic lights everywhere. About two weeks ago Riley (2 and a half) started pointing out the different colours on the light so we taught her that 'green was go', 'orange was get ready' and 'red was stop'. All very cute and sensisble up till now.....she has become completley obsessed in a very bad way with traffic lights! She actually gets really upset no matter what colour they are...if they are red she will stress out about when they turn green and if they are green she starts yelling orange get ready then STOP!

She starts pointing out the colours of traffic lights miles in the distance and gets upset almost immediately and driving in the car with her has become a very stressful experience for everyone involved! She basically has trouble looking at anything else!

Any suggestions for breaking the distraction?

Soph

[lilmonkey]

   Don't you hate backseat drivers?

DD was like this with the lights.  She would get very excited about the lights.  What I end up doing was distract her with our car games.  I spy, finding traffic sign shapes, counting XXX colour cars, etc.  Fortunately dd loves these games.   She still tells me about the lights and how fast to drive but at least it is not as irritating as before.  HTH

[Two mummies]

Thanks for that. We have tried distraction but I guess at the moment her obsession is so strong it's not getting us anywhere. We actually had to stop the car and try and calm her down the other day!

We did try getting her to count different coloured cars (e.g. how many blue cars can you see) but it didn't work at all *sigh*

Do toddlers regularly go through these manic obsession stages??

[Jaime]

Do toddlers regularly go through these manic obsession stages

yup! 

now, when dd was about that age, discussing the traffic lights actually helped her finally understand the concept of taking turns.  perhaps that is something you can start a running dialogue about??

[15milner]

Not had the traffic light obession.

At the moment its fire alarm buttons / fire extinguishers / the sprinkler system etc when going into shops.  Every shop.  Every day..... there's only so many conversations about the fire exits etc that I can have in one shopping trip...

It is just a phase... it is just a phase...(she repeats like a mantra hoping that the more I say it the quicker it passes!!!)


alex

[lilmonkey]

It is just a phase... it is just a phase...(she repeats like a mantra hoping that the more I say it the quicker it passes!!!)

   Since becoming a BW mom, this has been my mantra too.  The other day while dd was in one of her obsessive complusive moods, I let out a big sign and rolled my eyes and she actually said, "Is it mantra mommy?" 

[deb]

Mantra - too cute!

With Josie it was fire hydrants.

With Natalie it's the drains along the streets (storm sewer drains).

After fire hydrants it was VW Beetles and PT Cruisers, so we learned to play Punch Buggy (and Punch Cruiser - no kidding! ). At least now Natalie notices the Beetles and can play Punch Buggy with Josie. (without the punches, just yelling "Punch Buggy [Color]!") But I also have memories of Josie getting hysterical if we took a way to school that she couldn't see where all the Beetles normally lived or if she forgot to look; we actually had to go back some days so she could see them again....

So yes, it's a phase, It'll pass. It may or may not be replaced with something equally or even more irritating to the parental units.

[Two mummies]

Thanks for the replies....I'm starting to see a pattern!

So now we have to live through various obsessions *sigh* this raising toddlers is fascinating and frustrating!

Ah the joy....but I guess for every negative there are a couple of dozen positives, Riley has just started to say "excuse me please" when she interupts a conversation....very impressive and hugely cute 

Cheers gals
Soph

[Gingham Ribbon]

Ah, that's lovely.  Very polite!

Yes, we went through the same thing with traffic lights, and he learned the names of all the different cars and had to name every one we passed/that passed us.  Skoda, Ford, Audi OH A MINI!! WHEY HEY!  BMW, volkswagon...

He still interrupts himself to shout 'MINI' and he's 4! 

I think they're just making sense of the world around them and looking for patterns.  There's a very clear pattern to traffic lights and they're bright and obvious so it's no wonder they're fascinated by them.

No particular hints to break the obsession.  Just wanted to say I've been through it too.

[Two mummies]

Thanks for that, the traffic light obsession seems to be easing but if we are walking down the street we have to stop if there's a red traffic light anywhere and then we can only keep walking when the light turns green!

Took her out last week to our only local crossing light and let her go back and forth according to the lights about 4 times and I think that actually helped! Lots' of passerby's must have thought either I or Riley was OCD though 

Soph