My son is 3 years old - and I swear he's turned into the spawn of Satan! I can't leave him alone for even 1 minute or he's into trouble. He constantly gets into the fridge, not because he's hungry, he goes in there - grabs whatever he can get his hands on and dumps it out all over the house (ketchup, mustard, dressings, milk, etc). Then he runs away saying "I'm sorry Mommy". Aarrgh! I've tried putting childproof things on the fridge, but it took him 10 minutes to figure out how to get it off. This is a constant battle. I make him clean it up, he gets timeouts for it, I've even taken toys away from him as a punishment. But he just doesn't care. If it's not taking things out of the fridge, it's taking whatever he can grab off the counters (water, coffee, pop etc.) and dumps that all over - into the dogs dish, all over the floor, etc. I have so few patience lately with him - I don't know what to do! I thought maybe he was bored, so I'd do activities with him and got him puzzles and such that he can do on his own, because he loves puzzles. But as soon as I'm out of the room for a second, he's into something....any thoughts on how to stop this?

Terrify the bejesuz out of him? lol. I usually only use the terrifying factor when the kids are about to run out into the road, but hey...it's a last resort if everything else fails.

I feel for you.
My littlest one steals things out of the fridge and hides them in her room until they go bad. I've lost quite a few bottles of salad dressing to her mischief.
All I can do is be firm about her limits and not leave her in the kitchen alone for more than 30 seconds.

It does sound a bit strange for a 3 yr old to do these type of things...I cant imagine why he is doing it.
However, have you tried reverse psychology? Like getting all his toys, maybe afew new items, arrange them all nicely somewhere and tell him he is not to touch them! Then move your kichen items around so as he cannot get into things so easily and then tell him he can go in there and play, this may be some sort of game where you are the unwilling participant, and if he sees you dont care that he going into the kitchen he will probobly tire of it!...I know it sounds a bit crazy but I have found after years of being a mom, and former preschool teacher, that reverse psychology works really well.
Good Luck, and if that fails, buy padlocks! lol

Zach's Mommy,

I am sooo glad to hear that I am not alone!! LOL about "Satan's spawn"....I have the exact thoughts aboyt my soon to be three year old. He was always such a pleasant baby and then once he turned two all hell broke loose. His behaviour was very distressing and no matter what I did he would just NOT listen. It got so bad that I would resort to yelling and would you know, he would just yell right back at me. He seems to be out growing that phase now but we still have our battles. Hang in there....it is very trying.