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Tips and Toys for
Toddler Boys

Ideas and reviews from moms of toddler boys on toys, essentials such as strollers, and parenting tips
Happy toddler boy surrounded by toys for toddler boys

Toddler Toys

On this page, you will find reviews of lots of cars, car ramps, and other things that go ‘vroom’! We also look at other toys to keep your little boy active and entertained.

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Two empty strollers in park as toddler essentials

Toddler Essentials

Here you’ll find a range of comparisons of essential toddler gear we find we can't live without at this stage.

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Toddler boy asleep on dads hand

Parenting Tips

This section has a collection of tips from mums of toddler boys on topics close to our hearts such as potty training, biting, not staying in bed at bedtime, and much more.

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kids on floor asking who is Beans Mama

Who is Beansmama?

Tips and advice from toddler mom to toddler mom

This site was started by me – mom of Bean (Anna Rowland) – a few years ago. I wanted to share some of the things I learned and found helpful when Bean entered toddlerhood. I’ve since been joined by a small group of lovely moms of toddler boys sharing their experiences as well. Any tips and recommendations you find on our site are based on our own experiences with our little boys over the years. Thanks for visiting!

What Is a Toddler and Other Common Questions

So many questions and so little time, especially with a toddler boy at home! Hindsight gives you some great perspective so I asked our experienced mom Deirdre, whose ‘toddler’ is now 20 years old, to to answer the questions below.

When is My Boy a Toddler?

toddler boy on ground smiling

The age at which an infant becomes a toddler is not really clearcut. There is definitely no milestone that announces to the world that your baby boy has moved on to the next stage of his life. Moms don’t post on social media the day their baby becomes a toddler. 

Scientifically speaking, toddlerhood isn’t a medical term. Being a toddler is a term society has come up with and we moms just follow along. It has always been one of those things that you just know when you see it. 

If he walks like a toddler and talks like a toddler then he must be a toddler.

That being said, the term toddler came out of exactly that – the point when a baby starts to toddle around. Developmental milestones come within a spectrum of what is considered average which means you can’t even really use walking as the definitive point of toddlerhood. 

However, generally speaking, children start to walk around a year old and the world tends to consider children ages 1-3 to be toddlers.

What Do Toddler Boys Need Most?

Trying to figure out what your toddler boy needs most can be such a loaded question for a mom already putting so much pressure on herself to get this parenting thing exactly right.

Is it the right school? The right books? Denying electronics? Choosing gender-neutral toys? What is the one thing that is going to make that little boy have the best life ever?

I worried about all those same things as my husband and I sat watching my son run around with a dozen toddler boys at our neighbors birthday extravaganza. He was tall for his age and athletic so he didn’t miss a beat in the already established alpha male world.

My husband beamed with pride watching him, that is until the moment each boy, one by one, jumped down a fire pole attached to the swingset. Each little boy on the line jumped without hesitation and then kept running.

And then my son’s turn came up. He froze. Time felt like it froze. I could see the wheels in his little brain turning, trying to calculate the distance from where he stood to the pole and then from where he stood to the ground.The boys behind him on line started getting annoyed.

I saw my husband get a look of panic on his face. His boy, his man-child, was acting less than manly and all the other dads were watching it happen. And then, in an instant, my husband’s judgment softened and he walked over to our son and showed him what to do and helped him down.

Such a small, insignificant gesture that I am sure our son has no memory of. But it was the moment my husband gave my son what he needed most in this life – the belief that he is loved for who he is, no matter what that is.

The good, the bad and the risk-averse. He was taught that whatever he brings to the table will be greeted with anything other than acceptance. And that knowledge has helped him become a man who loves all his parts, not just the ones that the world rewards boys for.

A toddler boy needs to know that he has a place to belong.

What Do Toddler Boys Like To Play With ?

Toddler boys who likes to play with red toy cars

When I was a little girl, I would look at Hot Wheels Car Track commercials and secretly wish I could put it on my Christmas list.

It sounds crazy today, but at the time, saying I wanted a “boy toy” wasn’t even remotely an option. I could ask for an Easy Bake Oven. Boys asked for Hot Wheels. 

Thankfully, gender roles have evolved since then. But what that memory has always reminded me of is that what toddler boys (or girls for that matter) like to play cannot be defined by what society or a commercial says is appropriate. 

My son was very much a “boys boy” from early on. He liked to watch and play sports even as a toddler. But when we brought his baby sister home we gave him a toy kitchen because he loved to cook with me and he had gardening tools because he loved to help his grandfather plant flowers. 

Prior to getting the memo that society has gender-specific expectations, toddler boys like to play with whatever brings them joy.  

There isn’t one list or set of instructions out there that can fit every child. Instead, follow their lead. See what they’re drawn to and do your best to ignore that voice inside your head that screams that this isn’t what they are supposed to like or what you want them to like. Basketballs, pots and pans, trains, arts and crafts – all of it is fair game. 

There is nothing you can do to make your child like or dislike playing with something. They will love what they love and you have the chance to encourage them, at an early age, to follow their passions.

Come to think of it – I’m thinking I might go pick up a Hot Wheels Track on my way home!

Why Is Having A Toddler Boy So Exhausting?

Anyone who thinks they know what tired means before having kids has a rude awakening when that first baby is born. The constant feeding and limited sleeping those first months is a form of torture that childless people never get to fully appreciate. But the carrot on the end of the stick during that time is that it is fleeting. That infant will sleep through the night and then YOU will sleep through the night.

What everyone fails to mention is that when that baby becomes a toddler, while sleeping through the night is a wonderful gift, raising a toddler boy brings with it a new phase of exhaustion.

Toddler boys are extremely active. From the minute they wake up, their bodies and minds are in motion and ready to get things done.

When my son was a toddler, the day always started at 5 AM. He could be fast asleep at 4:59 but as soon as the clock struck 5 his eyes were open, his mouth was open and his legs were moving. And he was moving until he was forced to go to bed that night. When I suggested he sleep a little bit later he would eventually tell me he didn’t want to sleep because he might miss something.

There is actually no scientific evidence that toddler boys are more exhausting than toddler girls. The research shows that boys and girls demonstrate equal levels of activity throughout the day. But anybody who has actually raised a toddler boy would scoff at this.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that toddler boys spend more of their waking hours in physical activity, whether that running, climbing jumping or getting involved in any number of adventures.

Of course toddler boys are exhausting. It takes a lot of physical and mental energy to keep them alive until bedtime!

Raising A Toddler Boy

happy toddler boy walking in green meadow

I grew up with a sister and all of my friends were girls as well. Even in college, my closest friends were female. So when I was pregnant with my first child, I assumed it was going to be a girl (although that clearly made no rational sense). 

We didn’t know the gender before I went into labor, so you can imagine my surprise when the doctor announced “It’s a boy!” Fear, dread, ambivalence and even (dare I say it out loud) disappointment. What was I going to do with a boy?

What I can say today is that raising a boy has been the farthest thing from a disappointment and nothing short of an exciting adventure to an unexplored land. By the time my son was a toddler, I was learning all the things that all toddler parents need to learn like toilet-training, nap schedules and making nutritious meals. 

I also learned what it meant to raise a boy like mine. I learned how to get dirty, explore streams and build block cities with trains running through them. I even (finally) learned the rules of football because he loved to watch game replays while his sister napped. 

Living in the world with a toddler boy is seeing the world from the perspective of a ball of surging energy that is constantly looking for a place to land before it needs to get up and start moving again. 

Raising that toddler boy, and guiding him to soft (albeit fun) landing spots has been an experience that changed me and how I see the world (for the better).

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