3 year old will not listen to basic directions

[MySunAndStars]

The past little while I've noticed my step-son will not listen to basic directions. Once when he was going to put his pudding cup into the garbage (there was no bag in the garbage) me and my boyfriend tried telling him "don't put it in the garbage" "go see daddy and put it in the bag", we repeated ourselves atleast 3 times each, he paused for a couple seconds than put his pudding cup in the garbage anyways after telling him not to. Today when I tried asking him to wash his hands, I told him to scrub his hands together with the soap, I than had to show him how since he wasn't doing it. I than told him to rinse his hands in the water, I asked him multiple times and he still would not do it.

Has anyone else had this problem? Its beginning to be a little frustrating that he cannot follow basic directions that he knows how to do any other time.

 

[smokey]

I think its all part of the joys of having a toddler.
The love to test us and see what buttons they can push and how far they can push them for what reactions.
Patiants and repitition is pretty much all you can do untill they decide to stop torturing us

 

[RachA]

Do you for sure that he is hearing you properly. If you asked him to do something nice would he respond straight away?

The other thing to consider is if he understands you correctly. We would tell our eldest to do various things and after a while of seemly ignoring us we worked out he didn't really understand our use of words. We had to simplify things a bit.

Or the other thing it could be is just him ignoring you on purpoe to see what you'll do if he doesn't do as he's told.

 

[MySunAndStars]

Hmm, I can see him "ignoring" us. I know he hears us properly and we always ask him nicely to do things. I could try wording things differently if he doesn't respond the first time. He's usually such a great kid and listens whenever we tell him to do something. I guess its just a stage he's going through, I hope he gets out of it quick!!!

 

[Cattia]

Does he sometimes follow instructions and not others? Abigail does this, sometimes you can tell her to put something in the bin, other times she won't and sometimes you can see her actually deliberately getting more engrossed in what she is doing because she wants to pretend she hasn't heard us! The fact that he paused, suggests that he heard you instructions but maybe decided he didn't want to follow them!