Climbing trees

My girls are obsessed with tree climbing. I have to really keep an eye on them when they go outside and play (fenced in yard so I often let them go by themselves while I check on them from time to time). We have a small peach tree that they can scale fairly easily andif I'm not watching they will pack a chair down to it and get on the chair and then climb in the tree. I am okay with it as long as I am there, but they keep wanting to go higher and higher. We have a larger Bradford Pear tree beside it and now they want to climb it. I am tryng to let them get it out of their system by being there while they climb (but I don't think that will happen since most kids love trees), but they are really starting to freak me out...anyone else have this trouble and what do you do?

 

Mine have started climbing the small trees in our front yard (I don't know what kind they are). But they're always surpervised out front, anyway. We only allow them to climb one at a time and while it makes me nervous, at least someone's out there with them while they learn. If we had trees in our fenced in back yard, I'd have to make a no climbing without asking rule, to make sure dh or I are out there with them, although it would probably take some diligence at first to enforce the rule.

 

You have to be clear & consistent with what they are and are not allowed to climb. I think it would be too confusing for them to allow climbing up to a certain height on a tree unless you're going to get a ladder out and physically mark the tree with paint or ribbons or something. What other climbing options do they have to satisfy the urge?

 

We sat Brooklyn in a tree not too long ago(for a picture) and she has decided that she "likes to climb trees" even thought she can't do it on her own yet. I don't know what I will do with her once she can....I guess clear & constitent sounds good at this point. :unknw:

 

It really does work at 4 although if someone had told me that when my kids were 2 1/2, I wouldn't have believed it. They didn't have squat for impulse control at that age. My boys are testers of boundaries with the best of them but they value their outdoor freedom enough to follow some rules. I allow almost unlimited climbing of their swing set (including on top of the monkey bars but excluding on the canvas roof) but they aren't allowed on the fruit trees because their swinging would break the branches. They can climb over the picnic table but not on the deck railings. It's truly not an issue.

 

Oh, I believe you. I imagine once the communication improves (which it already has greatly from 2), that clear and consistent is the way to go. They should be able to understand boundaries and instruction to those boundaries at that point. :good: