I feel some days like all I do is yell at my son (17 months) and tell him no. Constant time-outs, pops on the behind (don't villify me please, that is a method of dicipline we choose to do!) and tell him to get out of things, get down etc. He is a very active little boy and very strong willed. I know he knows what his boundaries are at this point!

Anyway, I was reading about how I should ignore many of the behaviors unless they are unsafe. I feel like most of the things he does that he gets in trouble for are things that are unsafe. I would, however, like to choose my battles a little for both our sanities. Any ideas?

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Well, I definately abbid by the "pick your battles" method, that our doctor recommended. Sometimes he dumps his snack on the table and eats it off, it use to irritate me, but, then I say, "does it really matter??"
also, he will chase the dog with his toys, she runs and he laughs, she is fine, so it is okay. Um, when he is done with dinner and we aren't, we now let him get down and go watch his movie or something and we finish dinner, I have learned that most 2 year olds only last 5-10 minutes so he is average.

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Maggie - Nanny to Nephew - Mom to Caitlyn Marie!!

I try to pick one or two things to work on at a time and remove the other obstacles. I've even moved pieces of furniture to another room or out to the garage for short periods of time to alleviate that temptation. Consider if there is anything you can remove from his environment to alleviate the temptations. Also, consider how each battle fits in to the scheme of things. Is it something that could escalate to a bigger problem? Could it cause physical? Is it a behavior that I want to squelch right away or something he will outrow in time? Toddlers change so quickly at this age that some of these battles may disappear on their own with time.

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Homeschooling Mom to Daniel (12 Years), Andrew (9 Years), Stephen (7 Years) and Emily (3 Years)

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I agree with picking the battles. My DKs are 17 and 16 and I still pick my battles. Sometimes things just are not worth the battle of wills. Especially at 2 years old. I tried to find the things with long term effects and fight those. DD cries over having a certain toy in the bathtub. ok she can have that toy, DS wants to plug the lamp in the outlet obviously, he will not win that fight. I wish things were that simple still. Now it is boys over at the house when only her brother is home and telling her they cannot be there ,or his turning his phone off so I cannot reach him when he is out for the day. Good luck and hang in there!

Having 4 boys, I definetly pick my battles. As long as its is not hurting/damaging anything or anyone else, sometimes its better to let a couple things slide.

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Anything potentially harmful to your child or to others.
Issues of respect (I can't stand it when my girls get an attitude and try and talk back to me. IMO this is a habit that needs to be stopped right away or I would end up with a girl that acts like the girl up the street---totally disrespects her mother) .
Anytime they are doing something that could break a toy or an object of mine.

It is hard not to just say no all day. When I can I word it differently. When she asks for something I'll say "not now maybe later" or "possibly tomorrow we can do that". This cuts down on a little on the number of times a child hears no in a day.