3 Year Old's Interests

My son will be 3 next week and he is into the whole superhero thing too. He makes up his own superhero so I never know who he is pretending to be. He tends to go into phases... summertime, everything was fireworks (if it was a flower, it was a firework, if he splashed in the tub, it was a firework....) then fall came and it was all about scarecrows, and now all of a sudden, it's superheroes. I think it's a normal toddler/kid thing. Embrace it and do pretend play with him to get him involved in other things... build his imagination. Like if you take him to the playground, pretend the jungle gym is the batcave.... when you color, say 'lets draw out a map to the bad guys cave (and you can say the Riddler, or Penguin). Go with what he wants to do and play along with him. As long as he is good, well behaved, listens to what he's told and eating, what's the problem?

N-O-R-M-A-L! My DD will be 4 in October. She loves the Disney Princesses. Her favorites are Belle, Cinderella and (not a princess but the lady of the movie), Maid Marian. She acts out the movies (although she's only seen some of them a handful of times). She assigns characters for us to act out. She make-shift dresses up like them sometimes. Her imagination is going full steam with it. It's wonderful.

There are times, however, when it's not quite appropriate. I just tell her then "Right now, you are Emily and I am Mommy and I am asking you to do *blah*." It works great.

Embrace this wonderful thing. It's good. :)

My daughter, who is 4 years old, is into my little ponies right now and at least one or more are involved in everything that she does. Going to grandmas, coloring, playing school, in the car,

Also my daughter is very much into Tinker Bell, has the costume, two blankets & pillows with Tinker Bell on them, books, movies and so on. She either says Tinker Bell is always with her, or that she is Tinker Bell doing something or talk about what Tinker Bell did yesterday (made up stuff like she went to she her mom or wore this or that).

I want to say it is the age, unless there are other things in his developement that lead you to think there is something else going on. In the end I have seen many kids go through this phase, I just try to keep the phase stuff at home (can not wear costume out of the house) but pretend play is very good.

It's pretty normal. I have a little boy tenant here that has been spiderman for about 3 years now... he just cant seem to grow out of that halloween costume for some reason. Don't stress on it, he wont grow up to be batman, haha.
Always keep other options available, plenty of other things to do. if you can slowly make batman boring he might lose interest after awhile. I had a ninja turtle for about a year... so I know what you mean by all means. For now just keep his Bat uniform clean and let him run with it..... I assume you might be Robin on occasion? :)

Yes it is. However neither of my children (my third hasn't made it to this stage yet so so far I should say) have had this bad of an obsession. They like My Little Pony; Princesses; and Care Bears. Those are like their favorites but I can get them to do other things such as school work, coloring, play doh, cooking with Mommy, cleaning their rooms, playing outside, pretend play, and playing with other children. So I'm not sure. I do think it's normal for him to be into Batman that much but I don't think it's normal the he won't do anything else.

its normal. my little girl who will be 4 net month will be a princess (areal, cinderella etc) and you have to address her accordinally. i dont mind that at all. it shows that their imagination is going. he loves batman so if he has to be batman at the park, or durring a game fine :)

Hi, Loribeth:
It is a fad, it will pass.

After all, he is 3. Think about the values your child is learning through play.
Would you rather your son have valves than learn to color a picture correctly? Just a thought.
Good luck.
Thanks for asking.
D.

Being obsessed with characters is totally normal in and of itself. However, when it gets to the point where they exclude all other activities and topics and it is paired with other a-typical behaviors such as lack of eye contact, strange speach patterns such as constantly quoting tv shows to carry on normal conversations or stilted speach, overly sensitive to sights, sounds, tastes, textures, hand flapping, overreacting to changes in schedules and changing to different activities...then there might be a problem such as Asperger's Syndrome or autism. Having one or even 2 of those behaviors does not indicate a problem. But having serveral, might indicate having some rsik factors for having Asperger's. Check out Asperger's syndrome on the web and look at some of the check lists. If you see that your child fits the patterens, then just discuss it with your doctor and see a developmental ped. My son is now 10 and was diagnosed with autism at 10 months and then changed to Asperger's syndrome by 3 years of age. With constant therapy he is now so "normal" that no one can even tell he has Asperger's Syndrome. There is hope and healing with proper intervention, so do not fear if some of this sounds like your child. I have always said that I would not wish for my son to have Asperger's, but I know I am a better mother and person because of it. Good luck and my prayers ore for you and your son.

I think it sounds great, and you and your husband could embrace it. There is a long history of batman--lots of cartoons, toys, comics, stories, etc. Help him find and experience More Batman! I assure you he's learning a ton if he's that interested in it.
If you want to go outside, ask him to fly to the "batcave" (= swingset?) with you. Play batman computer games, find batman pics to color, I'm sure they Have batman play-doh, or you could make some. Build a bat out of legos. Show him real bats on youtube and talk about that. Maybe he would like to go see real bats at the zoo.

My son is into Thomas the Train. He even has a Thomas the Train toddler bed. He pretends that he is some of Thomas's friends and recites scenes from the movies. I think being into batman is harmless and it is normal for the kids to be into something. My son is three and a half. I figure when he is tired of it he will let me know just like he did when he was tired of Barney,Elmo and teletubbies. Enjoy him when he is little. Just enjoy him now. He is going to be big before you know it and into other things.

My 3 year old son, is right there with yours. Face it. Batman is THE coolest. He's gray, he's blue, he's black, he's muscle bound, he flies, he has a cape and a batmobile and lives in a batcave. His graphic logo rocks. Even I have grown to love Batman. I gave my son a 3 pack of superhero costumes-Batman, Superman and Robin. Heaven help the sibling that tries to take the Batman one. Sure, my son will color with me. Now that we've found a Batman coloring book. Before that, he didn't want to. I think it's fine. He's only allowed to watch the classic batman movie once per day. the rest of the time he has to run around our batcave and fight crime. He'll white knuckle it through our bedtime books until we get to his latest batman library selection. His two sisters are sick of being called Joker, Twoface, Catwoman and Penguin all day.

normal but mine is not batman its cowboys and horses and my oldest was teenage mutant ninja turtles he will outgrow it eventually

I think it is the age too. When my daughter was 3 1/2 to 4 or so, she ONLY wanted to do Barbies. No coloring, no cooking. We'd bring a Barbie to the park, if friends came over they played Barbies, etc. She has outgrown it and will now color and do crafts and has varied interests.

Its probably normal, kids go through phases. Both my boys are very into superheroes, especially batman. They are 3 1/2 & 2.
I suggest incorporating batman into other activities.
Ex. tell him to make the bat cave & bat cycle when playing with playdoh. Have him color batman a map to rescue someone. Teach him to spell batman & any other super hero names he is into. Get him a small hand held batman he can take outside with him & go on rescuing adventures.
Try not to harp on it too much. The more we push against things, the more toddlers want to do them, to assert their independence.
That said, if he is still "obsessing" in a month or two, it wouldn't hurt to mention it to his pediatrician.