Standing on the couch

Just wondering if we are picking too big of a battle here. We allow the kids to sit/loung/flop/whatever on the couch, but do not allow them to stand. If they stand up, we take them off and do not allow them back on the couch.

As you can imagine, this often results in a game. What do you do in this situation??

 

For us standing on the couch was a pretty quick phase. At that age we allowed it if we were sitting on it too, if not then we all sat on the floor and I would pull them down.

 

We also have the no standing/jumping on the furniture rule here. For me, it's two things, the first is safety. I have seen a child break his collarbone falling off the sofa while jumping on it. And I found that if I let them stand on it, jumping on it was not far behind. The second is that I can't really afford to replace the furniture because they have ruined it by walking & jumping on it all the time!

 

I let them stand as long as they're leaning on the back.. otherwise I tell them to sit down. Jumping will definitely not be allowed though.

 

Nope, ours are allowed to flop, crawl, sit on the couch but no standing. We tell them to sit down and if they don't we sit them down...if they stand up they get one more warning then they are on the floor---until they climb back up anyways!

 

Odd one out I guess-we do allow them to stand, climb, flop, ect on the couch. For us it would just be a complete and utter losing battle! They have both only fallen off once. We plan on replacing the furniture once they are a bit older anyway.

 

No standing allowed here either. DH and I just had a simple command, "Sit" Eventually they got it but before they did, we would take them off the couch. I did not want to be replacing furniture (our furniture already looks awful though) nor did I want the kids to get hurt.

 

Wow, you guys are really good. We let the boys climb all over the couch. Stand, sit, flop around, even crawl along the back of it (it's really wide up there). It was just one of those things we didn't feel was worth the sweat of constant "no's" about. And after "The Battle of the Coffee Table" we felt it was a losing battle with the constant no's and lifting them off and them thinking it was a game. We removed the coffee table by the way.

And we can tell, they don't want to fall off either. That's not to say they won't, or that they haven't (although usually from a sitting position I should add), but we figure, that's how they are going to learn. One of ours figured out how to crawl onto the TV stand and we found him up there, hanging onto the TV for dear life. I know we were lucky he didn't pull the thing down on top of himself but basically he got a fright and there has never been a repeat performance.

On the whole they are really good boys, so this one, we let slide.

 

This is what we do too. We use "on your hiney" and if they stand up, they have to get down. When they listen I give lots of positive reinforcement. They aren't big enough to climb up on their own, so it hasn't been that big of an issue yet.

 

We went through this phase and it drove me crazy. Luckily, it didn't last too long. They've now moved on to other things to drive me crazy. I would try to make them sit and take them off, but eventually gave up. They always win!

 

They are allowed to stand on the couches but they are not allowed sit on the arms. This has led to them usually just sitting on the couches rather than standing. I think they are finding the couches a little tough to stand on becaue of balance issues and when they are standing, they tend to lean on the backs of the couches for support. Since they are holding on/leaning on the backs, we allow them to stand on the couches. However, they have fallen while sitting on the arms (after first being told not to sit on the arms due to my fear that they would fall) and I was too slow to reach them before they fell, so we do not allow them to sit on the arms. Now when they want to "test the boundaries", they make certain we are looking and gingerly sit on the arms and wait to be told to go into timeout. You really have to love their creativity.

 

Going thru this phase now....I let them stand on the couch ONLY when i am in the living room with them. They LOVE to crawl onto the couches, it's like a game with them to see if they can make it up there. They like to look out the windows as well. They have not done any jumping on the couches "yet", we have a rocker that they are only allowed to sit in, if i catch them standing I will put them in a sitting position and explain to them "no standing in chair"...I also worry about them when they get near the arms, they like to lay on them facing the floor, I pull them off and explain to them why. I think i've gained a few more gray's just from them now able to get on the furniture... :rotflmbo:

 

Not here. Furniture is for sitting NOT standing.