climbing help needed!

[simple life]

We have Paul who's about 2 and a half, and he is a climber, he can actually use his toes to climb the side of the cabinets and get on the counter!

We are having a hard time getting it across to him that he can't go up there, and besides greasing all the cabinet doors we are totally at a loss as to what to do. We can't block off the kitchen because the living and kitchen/dinning are all one big room. I would like some positive ways to deal with this as I can at the end of my rope. I can't go to the bathroom without him climbing up there (I'm 8 months pregnant so this is OFTEN!). I can't even think of anything to redirect him too! The counters are more interesting now I guess (I do think we are going to work on taking everything off of them this weekend to make them less so, just have to find a place for it).

Anyone else have a big time climber? What worked when there wasn't a redirection option?

Thank you so much for ANY thoughts or btdt's, ideas....

Julie (a little disclaimer, we do not have the net at home and I have random access at the library, so it may be a few days before I can respond or expand on any questions someone may have).

[mysticmomma]

Is he getting hurt? My kids are great climbers, and as long as they aren't hurting themselves regularly and seriously or hurting our belongings, I just let them climb.

[ssh]

My DD is a climber. We have some furniture and things she could climb on and places that are designated dangerous. We'd say that's dangerous climb on xyz instead. At that age, really from 20 months on, going to a park with climbing areas really helped a lot. If we were in the house all day she'd have to climb on something.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

We moved everything off the counters and let her climb. Now, at 4.5, she uses a step stool. I guess the novelty wore off.

[foreverinbluejeans]

We have long toes in our family that make climbing easier. My youngest was the worst. When he was two he climbed on top of the fridge! My kids had broken bones and stiches but I can only remember once that it was from climbing and he was 6 or 7.

[simple life]

Originally Posted by mysticmomma

Is he getting hurt? My kids are great climbers, and as long as they aren't hurting themselves regularly and seriously or hurting our belongings, I just let them climb.

Thank you everyone! He isn't getting hurt at all, Paul is a very good climber and really seems to know his limits. Usually has a purpose, like getting a spoon from the thing that holds the cooking utensils. The only thing he does is getting into the soap, which is a mess. I do worry about the stove though, but he is also very good with 'hot'.

We have kind of taken the route many of you said, just let him climb. Usually he has a purpose and that's all he's going up there for. I have been letting him help rinse dishes and that seems to help too.

Thanks again, and nice to see that we aren't the only ones with a crazy climber!

Julie

[~PurityLake~]

Originally Posted by simple life

We have Paul who's about 2 and a half, and he is a climber, he can actually use his toes to climb the side of the cabinets and get on the counter!

We are having a hard time getting it across to him that he can't go up there, and besides greasing all the cabinet doors we are totally at a loss as to what to do. We can't block off the kitchen because the living and kitchen/dinning are all one big room. I would like some positive ways to deal with this as I can at the end of my rope. I can't go to the bathroom without him climbing up there (I'm 8 months pregnant so this is OFTEN!). I can't even think of anything to redirect him too! The counters are more interesting now I guess (I do think we are going to work on taking everything off of them this weekend to make them less so, just have to find a place for it).

Anyone else have a big time climber? What worked when there wasn't a redirection option?

Thank you so much for ANY thoughts or btdt's, ideas....

Julie (a little disclaimer, we do not have the net at home and I have random access at the library, so it may be a few days before I can respond or expand on any questions someone may have).

My kitchen/dining/living is all one open area, too, and really not all that large.

Sophia caused me so much stress in this area. Both my girls were walking well on their own by 10 months and climbing everything by a year. Sophia still gets on the counters and scales the front of the stove and she's just over three years old now.

I've been given tons of advice, most of which did not a damn thing. I even removed the door handles and put locks on the oven. She unlocks the locks and even without the handles, scaled the stove in 1.2 seconds flat. I give her a chair to stand on as I cook, but then she's in my freaking way and I can't reach the counter, so I found it easier to let her sit on the actual counter, which is already too tiny to work with, then she touches everything and makes a big mess and stresses me out that I'll chop off a finger cause she's so damn quick. The only bit of advice that worked at all was when someone recommended I use my toddler harness that I owned but never used and put it on her when I needed to use the bathroom. It did work the couple of times I did that.


It is so tiring being a repetitive broken record.. get off the counter, don't climb the stove, get off the stove, get off the stove, don't climb on the counters .... over and over and over again. I think today she's climbed the stove twice, opened the pantry door to get at uncooked noodles three times while refusing to eat the food I cook and serve (every freakin' DAY... that is actually both girls ...), and has climbed the counters several times, oh and gotten in the fridge several times claiming she wanted her leftover rice, only to purposefully dump the contents of bowl all over the floor I already swept three times today.

[prothyraia]

Originally Posted by mysticmomma

Is he getting hurt? My kids are great climbers, and as long as they aren't hurting themselves regularly and seriously or hurting our belongings, I just let them climb.

:

Although it makes it harder to find places they can't reach to store the candy.

[olien]

holy cow!!

My 14mo has been a climber for some time now. Today he really went bezerk climbing on things he never has before. I did a lot of furniture rearranging today. OMG to read these posts. The kit counters, stove, fridge

So, this is what I have to look forward to for quite a few more years, huh??

[~PurityLake~]

Originally Posted by olien

So, this is what I have to look forward to for quite a few more years, huh??

Yup.