I'm new to this whole parenting thing
but I'm prepared to stake some serious money on that child growing up to be a nightmare.

2 year olds might SAY they have definitive tastes. They really don't, what with being 2. As Bonzo says - projection.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:35, 4 replies, latest was 12 years ago)

nah, she's gorgeous and very sweet tempered
her parents don't indulge it at all. all 3 of their kids have lovely manners. auntie swipe spoils them rotten though.

believe me, on what i've seen of my family and my friends' numerous sprogs, some 2 year olds have VERY definitive tastes. lots don't. but some do. if yours does, you'll know about it.

ha, have got an image of you holding a screaming 2 year old and explaining, "no darling, you don't really like the pink sparkly lurex socks*, you're just projecting."

*those are daddy's special hockey socks
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:37, Reply)

My friend's child, when you ask him what he's been eating, says "cat"
not because he has been eating cat. or he wants to. but because cat sounds funny to him.

Next week, something else will sound funny. It's not a "taste or a preference" unless parents are projecting a "ooh, look how advanced little Martha is, she knows she likes Jimmy Choos already" attitude.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:39, Reply)

that's one child
my nephew didn't give a fuck what he ate or wore (unlike now, when he's totally fashion conscious, bloody essex). but his sisters have had very clearly stated preferences since they were very young indeed. kids are all different. of course they don't know the difference between jimmy choos and clarks. but they certainly know the difference between cute pink shoes and boring brown ones!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:43, Reply)

gah. You are missing the point.
they don't have taste at two in the way you are projecting it, because they are incapable of understanding it in the way you present it. It's projection from adults - you give her pink things from day dot because you want her to be a princess, she obliges.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:48, Reply)

no no no no no
they know what they like. they are, of course, incapable of understanding why, or what it means, etc. but they know what they like to look at. i took my friend's 3 year old to hamleys the other week. her parents are quite keen on gender neutral toys, and so far her favourite things are play-doh and a fake phone. 2 mins in hamleys, and she's clutching a pink hello kitty doll and a barbie. her dad was disgusted with me!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:51, Reply)

they like it because you want them to like it.
Consiously or subconsciously.

I bet if she'd gone round Hamleys with me she'd have come out with a toy car or something.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:54, Reply)

bugger off, i was pushing her towards the remote control helicopter that also climbed vertical walls!
barbie, my arse.

i am so getting the nephew one of those helicopters for christmas.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 11:02, Reply)

she can see through you like a window, rachel dear.

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 11:05, Reply)

haha you wait
imma bookmark this. a shiny ford mustang says that in about 4 years' time, you'll be complaining like a mo'fo that kid number 1 was really easy going, but kid number 2 was BORN with strong tastes and you can't override them!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 11:08, Reply)

Just as long is the 2010 Bullitt edition GT

( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 11:15, Reply)

Makes pussy joke

(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:50, Reply)

of course 2 year olds have different tastes.
no they won't remember specific occasions when they are older, but they will have a sense of a happy and nurtured childhood.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:41, Reply)

not in the sense that swipe is talking about, they don't
not at all.

I'm not suggesting that indulging them when they ask for something reasonable is in any way bad. I'm just saying that it's daft to read that as a two year old having a "taste" or "preference" in the way adults understand it.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:43, Reply)

i get the specific memory V projecting thing, this is definately correct
but, if making a nice cake in their current favourite colour/character/shape makes them happy then that happiness becomes part of a deeper less defined memory of childhood and whether they felt loved and nurtured.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:46, Reply)

totally, and obliging that iss part of being a good parent.
but the reason swipe wanted a princess cake is not because at 2 she was in any way capable of understanding what being a princess was, or liked the idea of being a princess as an independent decision.

It's becuase her mum and dad had been telling her she was a princess since she was tiny.

That was my only point. It's not taste. It's what you've made them be.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:51, Reply)

ahahahahahaha
if you'd met my parents, you'd understand why that was so funny. for a start, my dad's present for me on the same birthday was a fucking football.

this being said though, i think we're sort of saying the same thing. it's not a well-formed taste, of course it's not, but some toddlers really do have very well-defined preferences.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:52, Reply)

I bet it's not.
I bet that's exactly what your mum did. And all the aunts and uncles and grandparents. becuase that's exactly what happens to every single baby girl in the universe.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:55, Reply)

it really isn't
my bedroom was a delightful 70's orange and brown, my dad called me stan because he wanted a boy, and my mum tried to turn me into a lesbian (according to my grandma) by putting me in dungarees. i had probably seen a princess on tv and loved it. it doesn't matter why i loved it; it matters that i did.

by age 10 i wanted a carousel with horses on it. i got told to fuck off!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:57, Reply)

some kids won't notice, they'll just go, CAKE
other kids will go, wooo! pink cake.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:52, Reply)

FUCKING SCIENCE
yay
(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Tue 20 Aug 2013, 10:48, Reply)