Climbers

My boys love to do nothing but climb all day. They scale every piece of furniture they can, and try relentlessly to scale the ones they can't. I had to put packing tape across an opening in our entertainment center because they try to hook their feet in the opening and climb into the entertainment center all the time. They have now taken to stacking toys on top of each other to try to get on top of tall piece of furniture they know they aren't supposed to be on. My living room looks so bare except for the truckload of toys everywhere. We have a sofa, a recliner, an ottoman and an entertainment center. I have had to store end tables (with glass tops), extra decorative chairs that they would turn over all the time and try to climb, dining room chairs, a wine rack, floor lamps and on and on. Most of these things we can live without for a while, but the climbing is starting to drive me insane. :wacko:

We recently built an enclosed play area outside with a Little Tikes climb and slide castle, a sandbox, a small plastic picnic table, tricycles and a bunch of smaller toys. I am hoping getting them outside more and more will cut down on the climbing, but I have to say that I'm skeptical because of how much they love to climb anything and everything. And talk about trouble if we ever go to other folks' homes. They climb and climb and climb. And even friends with little kids don't have their homes kidproofed for my little rock climbers. My favorite part is when I go to someone else's house and one or both of them start to climb up on a sofa or coffee table and stand there proud and triumphant, and the person gives me this look like "Do you raise your children in the woods? How undisciplined they are!"

To those with climbers, how do you manage all the crazy climbing inside the house? I have tried time outs, distractions and deflecting to other activities, taking away the toys they try to use as step ladders, taking away their favorite cartoon of the day. Nothing is working and the climbing is only getting worse. Any and all advice is very much appreciated!

 

Oh how I understand! Only one of mine is a climber, but we often say if he put his mind to it, he could scale a flat wall!
There isn't much that works for us (sorry!). We just continually distract. It has gotten better over the last couple of weeks. Timeouts and such don't work for him.
We've done what you have done with removing just about everything from our livingroom. When he gets real motivated and we can't get outside, we'll stack pillows and blankets and chase him around the house. He loves it and that usually helps. He also does this when he's hungry or tired. Sometimes we'll give him a bath as a distraction aswell. Sorry not much help...but a whole lot of empathy!
Also, when we go to other peoples house, I don't freak out but just treat him the same way as at home. Which means sometimes I'm chasing kids around someone else's house (so at least they know where he gets it from!) Lol. Good luck!

 

oh ugh!! I had to put the barstools in another room. for the dining room chairs, mainly they leave them alone, but there was one specific one that they kept moving... I actually took a thin rope and TIED one of the legs to the table leg!! you just have to make sure that you don't trip over it. It kept the chair from being able to be moved to the bar which is where they wanted to get to.

we have their two chairs at their little table that they would try to move over to the bar... can't remember why they wanted to get to the bar? probably b/c it's the highest counter and I can store all the "don't touch" items up there... anyway, I (again) tied their two chair legs together and under their little table to keep the chairs at the table and not able to be moved across the room.

anything else I did really move... as for the couch, ours climb all over... trying still to break that habit.

I had to draw the line from them jumping off of the couch and onto their grandparents carpeted floor... our floors are hard wood so they don't tend to try it there... we do allow them them to jump on to the couch... from the grand parent's coffee table. it's the only table they are really allowed on, and truthfully the grandparents 'used' to think it was CUTE! so ha ha for them, the kids are still climbing on it... I gave up... and just tried to implement the no climbing on tables at our home...

sorry for the book... oh the other thing was this past summer, I actually brought the small Little Tikes climber inside the house... that gave them a specific spot to climb that they were allowed to.

 

Ha! This reminded me that before we removed the dining room chairs completely, we thought about putting a bunch of bungee cords together all around the chairs to keep them under the table so they wouldn't drag them out to try to climb on top of the dining room table. I'm in the process right now of trying to find a good indoor climber of some kind to help deflect the climbing onto something more appropriate. Wish me luck

 

My boys are just like yours - they climb on everything! Toys, laundry baskets, empty boxes, stacked pillows and couch cushions - you name it -they use it to climb and reach for things they know they can't have... ALL DAY LONG!!! (Luckily, they haven't managed to climb out of their cribs... yet!) Most recently, they have learned how to climb up the kitchen cabinet pulls like a ladder and can get up onto the counter top!! I have considered taking the handles off all together! We also tie our chairs to the table; otherwise they'd move them all over the place! Smart little buggers! Now I can tell my husband that we are not the only ones dealing with this! Never thought of an indoor climbing toy; great idea! I will have to look in to that! I have no advice on how to stop it, only sympathy!! Good luck!

I see your boys just turned 2... Happy Birthday Andy and Will! Mine are 2 tomorrow!

 

My boys are the same way! As PP's mentioned we have a small indoor little tikes climber gym that they use and I usually end up building forts or caves out of pillows and blankets on a daily basis to deflect their need to climb on other things!

 

My 15 month old is a regular old mountain goat God help me as his gross motor development continues.

 

My 12 yr old started walking at 7 months so by the time he was 10 months he was walking as good as he is now. A baby sitter quit on us because he scared her by climbing. He once climbed on the table and swung from the light fixture landed on his butt and tried to do it again laughing all the way! At 2 our deck was gated off and I used to let all of my boys play out there with the door open while I washed dishes well until I caught Dawson walking on the railing like a tight rope walker (it was about 8 ft high). When he was 4, I looked out the window and he was in the top of the tallest most scrawny tree in our yard. I have no idea how he got up there but he had no trouble. I thought I may have to call the fire dept to get him down. Matter of a fact, I went to get the phone and when I got back he was almost down. :wacko: . Honestly nothing curved his climbing. To this day he is not afraid and will climb anything. the only thing I know to tell you is to keep doing what you are doing and hopefully they will at least slow down!