My 3 year old Fire Starter!

All you can do at the moment is what you are doing punish them. And make sure that they do not go near Fires or anything I really do not know what else to suggest to you Sweetie They are certainly keeping you going there I don't know what else to suggest apart from what I told you on the Phone Big Hugs to you

OH my goodness how scary! You never know when they might start a fire bad enough to spread. I would do all I could to hide anything they can use to start a fire. They sell things to go over the knobs on the stove here in the states do they have them in the UK? That would help. Also do they have safety gates there to keep the kids in certain areas? That said it reminds me of when I was a child; I put one of my dolls in the broiler. My parents didnt' know and used the oven so needless to say the doll caught fire. I wasn't trying to burn my doll; I was just 'putting it away'. I was definitely sad when my doll burned.

I have a similar situation at home with my 2 year old son, he loves to play with the gas connection, he switches it on and off and even managed to remove a knob, then the microwave, he opens the fridge and he plays with the regulator and my fridge is never in the same temperature for long, now i lock the kitchen doors, he goes to the balcony throws everything he can outside the balcony, it goes on and on, how do we control them

Aaah. Sweet. Don't you just loooove them at that age? Yep, the problem is only solvable by corralling them in a safe zone when you have to leave them, even for minutes. We had a caged area in the garden and a play room in the house. The play room had all the power points disconnected (the wires undone in the back of the point), the key hole filled in on the play room side, burglar bars fitted across the windows with wire netting to stop toys smashing the glass, no carpet, no furniture except a chair screwed to the floor and ditto a small table. In other words, anything hard could not move. The children loved it and didn't look on it as a 'punishment room' but as their special room. Once they grew out of it the room became their study with soft armchairs and book shelves and reading lights. This was in the pre-computer days but they would now be there too.

Ohhh Rainbow your post really made me laugh the way you have written it but i know it's not at all funny, my Dempsey who's now 5 has ADHA and you can not leave him unattended for a minute to his own devices, i left him all of 2 seconds yesterday to go to the bathroom and walla he had given himself and my new persisn kitten a hair cut....at Easter i was clever paid the extra and bought all washable colours...however my 9 year old daughter managed to find a permanent marker and decided Dempsey would look great painted as a bunny, yes i have had to explain to the school it doesn't come off. NOw about the slight mishapes you are having with your little fire starters, my friend solved this with her twins also both ADHA and at the time they were 3, they set her bathroom on fire. She contacted our local fire station and explained that the boys were setting fire the anything, the fire brigade were more than happy to arrange for the boys to visit the depot and sat and explained to them about fire and show them all the equippment and how fire can destroy since then the boys have not done anything naughty with regards to setting some alight that is. Dont know if it helps. Good luck. Failing all that make sure yoy have a few fire exingushers handy lol

oh my...you must be wxhauseted by now. doesnt it sem like they go through spells of badness and trouble lol. mine do, and they are the best of freinds when they misbehave. i hope your easter was good ours was, but quiet, thats the way i like it. i dont really have advice cuz if i did i would be using it myself, lol. jordan is odssesed with fire, i cant take my eyes off him. so i understand. i hope things get better, your freind mandy

This could be very serious for you so somehow you have to get to the root of this. Does he just like twidling with the switches, in which case maybe lots of twiddly toys may distract him. Is it the light of the flame, or is it the disintegration of the object which is burning. If it is the disintegration which is the fascination he will grow out of this as he gets older, as this is a form of intelligence in that he is trying to grasp the concept of something hard and solid turning into either a sticky gooey mess or ashes. At three years old it is unlikely he is actually trying to destroy things, so it is probably a fascination of one form or other. I hope that some of these ideas are helpful to you.

atleat you have an excuse, my son lit the fire and as soon as I entered the room pushed the burning paper under the bed I pushed the shole bed over in a go so thankfully it didn't catch fire. as far as I know this runs in the family, my brother had always been attracted to matches and lighters and so many times we had prevented an accident. Now my son takes after him, I suppose. he had lit lots of candles wioth the babysitter the day we were out for a reason and left them there and my daughter chewed on them after that. Gosh I also am at loss, want to give them away sometimes. Both are really handfull. may be you can set up a smoke alarm or something so that you can come to know in time. but wait they might love the sound of it and make it a habit of settign up fire just to listen to it. sorry no more ideas, if you get any do tell me too.

wow you got your hands full. It is amazing what kids can do in so little time alone. Im glad my boys are afraid of fire. I wish I could give you some good advise but wow I wouldnt know where to begin on this one.

LOL I am so sorry for laughting but kids are so funny. they go through stages and they do some crazy things but they outgrow it and on to something else. You just have to stay strong and survive till they are grown. Good luck and I dont envy you. Our daughters are raised now and married. My Grandkids are driving their mom crazy and she is always calling home "help mom, what should I do" I have to laugh at her too.

OMG I have three kids like that my daughter was and still is at 24 a fire starter, when she was 8 the boy next door to us mad her mad and she burned down his tree house and her and her brother one place that we were renting when they were young they had painted the whole frount of the porch with brown paint and the siding I might add oh yes kids like that never grow out of it but you have to make sure that you hide all matches my one son sat a whole roll of toliet paper on fire and then put it in the toliet. good luck because they are not done with you yet.

Oh dear...well...I can honestly say you're not alone. When my darling oldest son was about that age, he was curious...too curious for his own good. Well, one night I went into my bedroom and just before I turned out the lights, I noticed that my wall outlet had some black smudge on it. I didn't think much of it until I found one of my steak knives under my comforter with a melted blade. Yup...that boy nearly killed himself that night. Plus, he's set fire to the YMCA's bathroom...but he's much better about it now.

Wow, you sure have your hands full there! My kids once decided to start trying to set fire to my living room. I turned the fire on and left to go put the kettle on. When I came back, my daughter was merrily watching the cushion smoking where she had it pressed against the bars of the Gas fire. After I freaked out and scared the hell out of her, she never did it again. As for your son turning on the stove and the fire, is there any way you could remove the knobs so he can't turn them on? Disconnecting the electric supply to the stove would be an idea too but it's also time consuming to have to reconnect every time. I wish you the best of luck in sorting this out.

Hi Rainbow! Maybe to set the oven a little bit higher and out of reach will be good. Like on a little platform. Or I think some wire material, like a screen are available in the market. That you can place in front of your oven so children can't reach them. Well I hope you have a solution to your problem. I know it must be quite difficult to think on right solutions how to handle it. Take care! Hope everything will be fine soon! (^^,)

Have you considered getting a different stove with the controls on top? I am sure there is something out there to keep little fingers off. My sister had trouble with her boy, 6 at the time playing with lighters. Later come to find out it was a fascination that he had gotten at school. They had firefighters come to the school and talk with the class, somewhere during the questions being asked, a child asked what happens if your house burns down and the firefighter told them that someone would fix that one or build them another one. That was all he heard and he was going to help them get a new house. She had the same firefighter come to the house and talk to him and straighten things out and so far that has straightened him out. He is now 10. It is scary to think that your son is so obsessed with turning the oven on. Can you pull the knob off so that he cannot move it? I know it is an inconvenience but it might work. It sounds like you had better not leave him alone. You definitely have your hands full. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Wow, the artwork your home must have. Maybe it will be a museum someday!? :) Fire starting is serious and you can keep the lighters etc in a tin and out of harms way. The dials on the stove could be removed until you wish to use it. They do come off and that could stifle that and then he might forget or find another outlet. Good luck with this!!! Whatever you do, it might be considered a need for you to find someone to come in for an hour a day or something. That way you could have them monitored and you also get you time or get things done. That would be very logical. A friend could help you out with this. I would help you or my daughter. Too bad we are across the pond. I hope you get good ideas and that you weather this storm in your life. He will grow up however it remains to be seen the progress. I hope for the best for all of you! Take care my friend.

Yeah, my advice would be to watch your kids a little more careful. I mean setting things on fire? That is serious. Why would you even leave the kids alone? You said you left them alone because you were doing something in the room, well, how long were you in the bedroom? For them to do all that, you had to be away a while and when you have kids at that age that is a big no, no! You just don't leave kids alone at that age. Even for a second. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I have never had this problem, because I just don't get up and go into another room while my 4 year old is left in another room. You also said they were at this time in their rooms throwing toys around? Well why are you on the computer then? Take care of your kids first before you get online or wonder off as you call it.

Hi Rainbow. Am so sorry to hear about all of these problems that you're having. Being a parent of young children can be really challenging, and when they're special needs, even more so. When my daughter was that age, I can remember that I barely had time to go to the bathroom, let alone do anything else. Unlike some others here, I don't believe 'any' mom should never be able to have time to herself to do anything. Not only does it 'drive you around the bend,' if you don't, but it's impossible too, as everyone, and moms in particular in this situation, must have some time to breathe. I'm wondering if you have agencies etc. in the UK that'll support you, and give guidance etc. for your special needs son, and maybe you could talk to them about your 3 year old too. As I've mentioned to you before, my grandson (almost 4) is autistic, and requires a great deal of 'extra' care too. My daughter-in-law works very hard to ensure his safety, and explores every avenue she can, to get the special help for him that is required, by professionals etc. Even so, she finds herself exhausted all of the time, and needs to have a break from him, so that she can 'recharge.' I saw him at Easter, and he's made a lot of progress, but still has a long way to go, and we can't tell for sure at this point what his future will be, as it's a day to day process with him. We're still awaiting the day when we can have a 'real' conversation with him, and be fully understood. I wish you all of the best, and hope you can get some help from someone there who understands. Don't feel as though you're a bad parent, and don't believe it when it's implied by others. As I said before, parenting (single, which I did), or with a partner, of a child or children of this age is 'very demanding,' but certainly has its rewards. My hat's off to you, my daughter-in-law, and all the moms of special needs kids, who have to 'go the extra mile.'

Wow! Autism, ADHD, etc...and now an arsonist! All I can say is you have your hands full with the two of them!! I understand having limited time on My Lot as I do not have a lot of time on here myself with my Son demanding. We really do need eyes in the back of our heads! I rent and my son has coloured on walls and doors with crayon, chalk, etc. He also used to turn the stove burners on and one day the margarine container was there and it caused a huge grease fire but I was able to put it out without too much damage thankfully. We then started turning off the stove at the panel box when we were not using it and then turning it back on at the panel box to use it again. He no longer touches the stove now and we are very happy about that! We just have to try to avoid it (the disasters) before it happens! Good Luck to you my friend!:)

Cute children.. you gotta love em.