yeah I guess it would show you up a bit, your 4 year old liking to clean more than you. lily loves to make messes- the bigger the better. she's slowly more accepting when she sees hector the hoover but still freaks out when she thinks he's bout to be used. very difficult coz I work monday to friday so it's hard to find time to do it when I'm with lily at home. the only solution is she goes out to the garage with daddy to inspect his motorbikes while I hoover. yeah I know THAT'S LIKE SO FAIR! x x

As unhelpful as this is going to be, I envy all of you as my son adores our Henry Hoover, he is 4 and his obsession did reduce quite a lot over the summer but prior to this, Henry was a "friend" shall we say. It was irritating and annoying as no one but him could hoover the floor and so bits got missed, or the hoover would come out at random times whilst we had visitors. Luckily his obsession is fast fading.

My Son has a similar issue with my hairdryer so now I just use it when he's not around, he'll grow out of it eventually. Maybe just use the hoover when she's not around, get her dad to take her for a walk when you need to do it or do it if/when she's at nursery or something like that - there's no point distressing her if you don't need to.

I think this has already been mentioned somewhere but when there was a problem with my niece and the hoover, my sister in law bought her a little colourful toy hoover so she could hoover with mummy and it really helped. Think you can get them from ELC.

Sorry - added my question to wrong chat page!!

HELP! My 2&1/2 yr old daughter is terrified of having her nails cut. I used to manage to do them in her sleep (still manage to do her finger nails like that) but whenever I try & cut her toe nails she becomes totally distraught! Even in a deep sleep, I only have to hold her toe for her to wake up screaming 'don't cut my nails!'. She watches me cut mine ok, she won't 'help' me cut hers & when I ask her why she doesn't like it, she can't say, but says it doesn't hurt. REALLY don't know what to do. She is even waking in night with nightmares about toe nail cutting!!!

My daughter is exactly the same, when she was younger she loved the hoover and would happily sit and watch me hoover. Which was great!!

Then for some reason at around 6 months she started screaming when i got the hoover out, and even now at 14 months she wimpers whenever she can see it, and screams the house down if i get the cord out or start to use it.

Have managed so far by getting friends and family to take her for a walk so i can clean, but hav just started to leave the hoover in the living room so she plays around it. This doesn't seem to help.

But don't worry!! I live in hope that she will grow out of her fear once she understands it wont hurt her.

This is quite unusual but you should be able to help your daughter overcome her fear. For the next few weeks don’t use the hoover while your daughter is within earshot – maybe it would be best to do this when she is out of the house (or asleep as long as the noise does not wake her up). During this time get your daughter a small dustpan and brush and encourage her to help you sweep the floor, gradually encourage your daughter to put her dustpan and brush away in the same place as the hoover, don’t draw her attention to it, just treat the whole thing with complete indifference and normality. When you feel she is ready you can move the hoover out into the room while she is playing, sweeping etc. Let her play around it, touch it, talk to it even dust it! From here you can gradually build up to unwinding the lead (with her help) to plugging it in (not with her help!). The next step is to turn it on when she is out of the house with another close adult and watch you with the hoover through the window! You will need to do a bit of play acting – smile, wave, let her see that you are happy with the hoover even though it is on! If you think she can cope ask the other adult to bring her in while the hoover is still on but turn it off while she is still happy. Keep using this technique until she is happy for you to bring the hoover out, and use it at any time of the day!

You can use this technique to overcome most fears that very young children have, the important thing is to understand that something has made a child afraid (and many of us irrational fears!) and to respect that child’s feelings. Don’t belittle them, but don’t encourage them either.