What do you do with a climber??

[Indadhanu]

Jazz is a climber, and a daredevil (jumper, lol)...

She started by climbing on the coffe table, and now its everything she can climb on... highchair, couch, dining chairs (um, actually ANY chairs), cot! everything...
And then she jumps! Anywhere, anytime! She jumps, throws herself backwards, forwards, head first, bombdives EEP! On to whatever the ground is... grass, carpet, tiles, concrete...

I'm not really sure what to do... at the moment, I've got the couch and coffee table surrounded by pillows! With a mattress as a landing pad! But obviously I can't surround everything with pillows. And I've thought about wrapping Jazz in bubblewrap but just can't see that being very doable Obviously she's always supervised, but she can climb and dive and 5 seconds flat... just long enough for me to see her and have a panic attack!

And as I write this... I just looked up to watch her climb on the couch, ran across the couch, fell forward, and flipped off the side. And laughed her head off, she thought it was the best trick ever, so she got up and climbed back on and is now trying to replicate it by throwing herself on her knees at the edge of the couch. I don't know that I can ever be calm watching her do that!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Parents of climbers... what do I do? I think she's enjoying it way too much for me to say "No, you can't do that you might hurt yourself"... I've been teaching her to climb down, which she CAN do, but jumping is just waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much fun, plus I doubt she fully gets what 'hurt' is... Taking her away from the situation or distracting her just seems to make her want to do it MORE... And its not like I can take everything away, because she'd need to be in a bare room to not have something to climb on.

Do I just leave her to climb and jump? Is there anything else i can do? I'm sure i just need to be CALM and know that SHE'S A KID and KIDS DO THESE THINGS... but every time I see her jump I loose my breath and her life flashes before my eyes!!!!! LOL!

What have you done for a climber?
Enrol her in gymnastics?

[Rouge]

I have a daredevil, a climber and a houdini.

When he was 18 months he got out the side gate, climbed up a tree and sat on the branch so he could pat the "pussycat" I died. It was a blink of an eye I could hear him talking so I thought he was fine, then I realised the voice was coming from the front.

He has climbed on everything, when he was 10 months he used to climb up on to the dining table and I'd find him dancing! He still has to jump OFF everything and he loves "doing tricks" I even caught him once imitating parkour on the wall.

We never enrolled him in anything, probably should have we just never did. You just have to have eyes in the back of your head, and quite honestly don't allow anyone to judge you because she does something or escapes or whatever because the amount of judgement I received until people had him in their care and saw what he was like. He even climbed out his bedroom window at the IL's house in December last year, up until that point I think they partly thought I was just neglectful

[Glamourcide]

I'm seriously thinking about the gymnastics thing for Munchie... she is all balls, man. No fear whatsoever. Her favourite activity right now is dragging things over to the chest freezer so she can climb up on it to reach the top of the fridge. That, and pulling out the kitchen drawers so she can get onto the benches and into the cupboards up the top (where we keep, amongst other things, lollies and medications as there is nowhere else in the house that's 'safe' - although now that place isn't 'safe' anymore either!).

As far as jumping off couches/coffee tables etc, yeah... I pretty much just let her have at it. Sure, every so often she takes a stack (yesterday it was headfirst off the edge of the couch and into a box of nappies!), but so far we've been lucky enough not to have had anything more than an egg on the head and a few tears, or in another case from yesterday, a huge scratch on her bum from falling out of the kitchen drawer and scratching herself on the corner of it. Maybe the falls have given her brain damage because it certainly hasn't discouraged her from doing it again five minutes later!!

But yeah... I'm kind of at the stage now where I just ignore her climbing/jumping and let her figure it out for herself what her limits are as far as pain goes (eg - couch to floor = bump. kitchen bench to floor = OUCH), give her a cuddle and a band-aid if she has a bad bust-up and try not to have a heart attack when I realise she's reached new heights
It's all part and parcel of being a toddler, and while it's still 'fun' for them I just don't think there's any way you can stop them doing it. It might get boring for her soon, or boring when she realises you're not freaking out over it any more (although, this hasn't worked with mine yet... I don't know what to do!!)...

Anyway, not one bit of that was helpful, so instead I'll just offer you some sympathy and let you know you're definitely not alone!!
Oh, and if she can get onto kitchen benches, it's handy to get into the habit of turning your stove/oven off at the wall... Munchkin and I learned the hard way that the knobs on the stove = PAIN lol

[{sarah}]

Essentially with my climber I just hope she doesn't hurt herself!! She loves climbing up the lounge & sitting on the window sill to point at the birds! I tell her to be careful & generally she is ok. The other day she fell from the lounge & is sporting a nice bruise on her forehead. She drags her little chair around everywhere & uses that to get up on things too. And yep she jumps too, not so much onto the floor boards anymore cos she realises it hurts, but she looooves the beanbag.

As long as whatever she's doing isn't dangerous (like climbing on the kitchen bench because of taps, knives, stove etc) I let her go & just make sure I have lots of ice!! I don't want to crush her adventurous streak & if she falls she learns pretty quick what she can & can't do. She has also learnt to fall really well so as not to hurt herself too badly.

Oh & we do have a rule of no feet / bottoms on tables so she doesn't climb on them.

[Indadhanu]

Hehehe, thanks.

Thanks Rouge! The things she does, she's quicker than lightning sometimes i don't even realise she's climbed on top of something until she's jumped off! And she's already worked out the baby gate we have... all she needs to do is get taller so she can push the button and lift it up

Donna, good to know we have similar girls! Jazz has serious balls, very much a fearless daredevil!! Dunno how, with me as her bio-mum, I'm the queen of worry and caution!
Oh, and thanks for the tip on the stove!

Sarah "I don't want to crush her adventurous streak & if she falls she learns pretty quick what she can & can't do."
Yep, thats about it, she has so much fun that I don't want to keep pulling her off things, and then watch her turn into a kid who just sits there or stands there not exploring...

[rhyb]

Aidens my daredevil climber. I have every chair in the house lying down so he cant get onto the table/bench/freezer. He hurts himself often just little bumps and bruises but gets more upset when I hover over him stopping him from doing things. Hes learnt what really hurts (eg climbing into his pram and throwing himself over the back onto cement, plenty of tears there from mummy and Aiden) and doesnt do it more than twice (saying once would be a lie I think boys *need* to do it twice for it to fully sink in lol).

[aussienic]

Honestly!! I just close my eyes. I do tel her no not to jump but most of the time I have decided to just close my eyes to it and it has lessened off a bit because I don't react anymore

good luck.. We have our first climber out of 4 kids. so its all new for us too

[Tinks]

I had a climber too, she actually taught her older brother to climb lol. She's 10 now and STILL climbs. It did my head in when she was younger. I also just closed my eyes I got so sick of running after her

[mrsmac]

DS is a climber and jumper, I just let him go cause he rarely hurts himself and when he does its just a bump and it slows him down a bit (can you tell he's the 3rd child LOL?) I have found that he mostly knows his limits and has probably had less bruises than his more cautious sisters (except the broken arm at 18 months but that was a simple fall on the sloping driveway!)