climbing on couches-- help!

DS is climbing all over the place and now on the couch. He can get off
by himself, but I'm am so terrified of him falling down on the sides or if he climbs to the top (we have tile)
how do you keep them off??? If I say no, he just laughs and does it even more....

 

when mine first started doing this, it was sooo stressful, i was constantly worried they were going to fall off and hurt themselves. now in just a couple of months' time, they are pro's and rarely fall. if they do fall, they manage to land in safe ways. i've just considered it a lost battle. they now stand up on the ottoman, the sides of the couch, etc and have yet to hurt themselves. they've developed a great sense of balance.

 

The best you can do is make it a learning experience and show them how to get down. Be patient and gentle and the couch will not seem so fun. :hug: It is stressful when they start climbing!

 

This is what I'm working on with my boys. DH made the mistake of letting them jump off the couch onto pillows, and have been wanting to go headfirst ever since then. So now I say "do you want to go down?", then turn them around, put them on their hands and knees on the couch, and slide them down onto the ground. Then I cheer. They're starting to get it, and Nate even used this method by himself this weekend to get off of a box that he had climbed onto.

Good luck!

 

Yeah, I don't think you can really stop that, short of moving the couch out of the room. You could push the couch to a wall to stop the climbing/falling over the back problem. What we did was put a few pillows and folded blankets around the couch for a few weeks until they learned to get down.

Welcome to the climbing club. My boys are crazy climbers: chairs, tables, window sills, over the superyard, you name it, they scaled it. (Well except their cribs, shockingly.

 

lol my girls are so creative with trying to push up and pull up on stuff to get even higher... i'd love to see them on one of those climbing walls to see what kind of skills they have, it's pretty entertaining to watch.

 

I just caved to their climbing abilities too... ours like to climb on the short table by the easy chair my ILs ... and then go and do it again... endless hours of fun for them.

 

I know I can't cushion everything around them, but I took the cushions off the chair they climb on and put it in front of the chair in case they fell off and it wouldn't be such a tough climb. Then I added some pillows to the sides. It worked well. Cameron loves taking dives off the armrest of the chair and lands on his head all the time. If it weren't for the cushion of the pillow below, he'd probably hurt himself. He loves it so much he'll do it over and over and over again. I think it's cute as long as I'm watching. DH hates it and panics every time he sees Cameron take a dive. Believe me, I understand his concern. I just know these things are going to happen, and if I can prevent the really bad falls from happening, then I'll do my best. In this case, I wasn't going to stop him. This was not a battle I was going to win, since I have no where else to put that chair, so I just made it so if he fell, then the fall would not hurt him. Accidents will and do happen, you just have to try to make things go easier.

Maybe try removing the cushions of the couch when you are not sitting on it and put them in front of the couch so he won't fall off it so hard?

 

if you cant beat 'em, join 'em??? LOL

My 2 climb anything and everything, and I let them fall. Granted I put things around like pillows and stuff, (I have hardwood and carpeting) and watch incase they get too crazy, but I found that if I kept trying to stop them, they'd keep doing it. And if I stopped them from falling, they'd keep making themselves try to fall off. I try to stop the headfirst deals, but if the go down on the side, they see that it's not fun.

Oh, and my mom bought them a sliding board that goes inside and out and that's REALLY helped with the climbing on the couch.

 

I did the same...they do grow out of the fascination with daredevil stunts off the couch. Now mine try it in other areas of the house.

 

Going through the same thing myself. It drives me crazy. They know how to get down safely, but it's when they are acting crazy, running back and forth that scares me. I try to just ignore it and hope they don't get hurt. They have now learned how to climb up and over the arm of the couch and get down. They can also climb onto the end tables and from one couch to the other. It drives me bonkers some days. I think the more I try to get them to stop, the more they do it and laugh. I can see why people just give up. I just try to make it as safe as I can.

 

I agree with PP's about showing them how to get off safely. It almost gives me a heart-attack when they're up there and playing so dangerously and makes me feel like going [sigh]. Also, we recently moved to a place with pergo flooring throuought the living areas [kitchen, living, dining area] and I had the same fear that they'd fall from above and break an arm/leg/neck . So to avoid that type of situation we put the couch up against a wall in the living room. My DD1 knows how to climb up and get down from the arm of the couch.. silly monkey, lol.

 

Right there with you...last night I actually rearranged the family/play room because DS was trying to launcgh himself over the back of the couch. Now all of the furniture is pushed against walls so that helps a little, but he also figured out how to scoot up onto the arm of the couch to get to his favorite book (a pop up that he'd destroy) on a high built in bookshelf...so I even rearranged my books! I was up until 2 am RE-baby-proofing for these crazy climbers! I'm thinking about bringing in my little climber/slide for the winter, too...at least them I can tell them there's a place they're allowed to climb, right? GL!!!