the tree and dd wanting to touch it, it could tip at any time!

[sisteeesmama]

In general, I don't want to tell dd 'no' about touching the ornaments on the tree, but I also don't want her to knock the whole thing over!
Our tree was bought very cheaply and is not very well made, but it was the best I could do at the time and haven't felt it was worth it to replace it, it looks great decorated and that's good enough for me, except that dd wants to touch and fondle the tree and ornaments and beside the fact that a lot of them are old and made of glass, like I said the tree is a little wobbly and could tip, esp. if I was in another room.

What have you done to keep the kids from constantly wanting to feel up the tree and what punishments would employ if they couldn't resist time after time?

[MtBikeLover]

This might not be what you want to hear, but I wouldn't have put a tree up that was wobbly to begin with. I try to keep our house as child proofed as possible because I don't have the time or energy to chase after kids asking them to stop touching stuff. That would also take away all the enjoyment that the tree would offer in the first place so I would rather just be without the tree.

I think that it would be very unfair to come up with a "punishment" to keep your child from touching the tree. A young child is going to be drawn to something shiny and beautiful. That is just too tempting. It would be like someone putting a plate of hot chocolate chip cookies in front of me and saying "Don't eat any".

If you can't buy a different tree this year, I'd take that one down and find a different way to decorate for the holidays.

[Chamomile Girl]

We always tie the tree up to a hook in the wall or celing so that it cannot tip. Our cats like to climb it LOL!

[mamazee]

1. Barricade it off

2. Take it down and don't have a tree this year.

It's too much temptation, and potentially dangerous. And do you really want to punish kids over a Christmas tree? Seems kind of Grinchy. I'd just take the tree down for this year. Or barricade the area off, if you have a good way to do that.

[sisteeesmama]

While I appreciate your taking the time to respond, I just don't want to take the tree away, it would take away from our enjoyment of the holiday!

I need to find a way to work with dd to teach her that some things are not for touching, and in my mind it's ok to enforce limits. I mean, lots of things are pretty, but they are not all for touching!

[sisteeesmama]

Originally Posted by mamazee

1. Barricade it off

2. Take it down and don't have a tree this year.

It's too much temptation, and potentially dangerous. And do you really want to punish kids over a Christmas tree? Seems kind of Grinchy. I'd just take the tree down for this year. Or barricade the area off, if you have a good way to do that.

I know, it seems grinchy to me too

I did give her a time-out yesterday for yelling at me when I asked several times not to pull at it and did feel like it was lame to be having this time out over something that I put up to add wonder and JOY to the season!

[mamazee]

Yeah, that's what I thought. It seems like a shame to have problems over something that's supposed to be joyful. Not Christmasy or something.

What about barricading it off? Just until Christmas morning - you could take it away then because the presents will be more interesting. Do you have any way to put it in a corner and then put something in front of it?

[KatWrangler]

What about gettting her a tiny tree to play with as her own?

[SeekingJoy]

How old is your litte one. I am fine expecting my 4 yr old to not touch some things, but not my 2 yr old. Impulse control is so hard for little ones.

If you are unwilling to take down the tree, what about decorating it with unbreakable ornaments for a year or two. Accidents happen with little ones, and I wouldn't be comfortable diplaying fragile glass ornaments within their reach where they could get cut accidentally.

[just_lily]

We have this around our tree.

It's not pretty, and it wasn't cheap, but it does the job.

[rachelsmama]

We compromised. DH wanted a tree, I didn't want to deal with keeping dd and the cat, and ds now too, out of a tree and presents for however long. Our solution is to put the tree up Christmas Eve after dd goes to sleep and take it down Christmas night after she goes to sleep. It's kind of magical and fun because it "appears", but there's only one day of dealing with the tree crazyness. Also, most of our ornaments are unbreakable.

[KatWrangler]

Originally Posted by rachelsmama

We compromised. DH wanted a tree, I didn't want to deal with keeping dd and the cat, and ds now too, out of a tree and presents for however long. Our solution is to put the tree up Christmas Eve after dd goes to sleep and take it down Christmas night after she goes to sleep. It's kind of magical and fun because it "appears", but there's only one day of dealing with the tree crazyness. Also, most of our ornaments are unbreakable.

Oh my, that is alot of work. I am absolutely exhausted by Christmas night. No way would I have the energy to take the tree down too.

[rachelsmama]

Originally Posted by KatWrangler

Oh my, that is alot of work. I am absolutely exhausted by Christmas night. No way would I have the energy to take the tree down too.

LOL. We have very laid back Christmas, and a very sparsely decorated tree.

[LynnS6]

Tie the tree to the wall or invest in a decent, non-wobbly tree.

And then work on the "1 finger touch" - she can touch it, but only with one finger. Stand beside her while she explores the tree. If she can explore it thoroughly once or twice, the novelty will wear off and she'll be more able to leave it alone.

But remember that toddlers are sensory learners. It's unreasonable and unfair to expect a toddler to not be able to touch something as appealing as a Christmas tree. Developmentally, they have to explore physically.

[onemoremom]

Secure the tree to the wall or ceiling so you're not stressed about having it fall over, and put the breakable ornaments up high out of her reach.

That's the only way I've ever seen it done with little kids The tree gets secured with some kind of fishing line and hooks or something (wise in a house with cats anyway!) and the top half of the tree gets the breakable, sentimental ornaments while the lower half gets the little stuffed animals, cardboard, non-dangerous stuff.

She'll learn that there are some things she can't touch, but I never wanted the tree to be a point of contention between my son and I. He's only 5 now and at this point, he doesn't even really need to be spoken to about not touching the ornaments because he's capable of doing so appropriately so he has a great time rearranging them.

Some kids might need to be a little older than that, or if I had more ornaments I'd be devastated to lose he might not have so much freedom yet, but it's not too many years in a kids life that it's a concern.

So that's my family version of childproofing the tree....they get to be near it, it's so exciting, and they don't end up spoken to/corrected all the time. Unless they try to climb it or something

[philomom]

I ran a new mom's group for 7 years... here's the advice I gave.

Less stuff on tree or less breakable stuff on tree.

Tree should be tethered to wall on the backside so it doesn't tip.

Tree could be in a room sectioned off with baby gates. The formal living or dining room with baby gates.

Tree could be table top size this year.

Outside tree with bird treats on it.

[mkmb129]

If you can't move the tree, tie it to the wall at least. Move breakables to the top or take them off & get non-breakables for the next couple of years. What I do with mine is tell them to look with their eyes, and it surprisingly works (most of the time). I'd remind Colin when he was smaller (and still have to sometimes) to look with his eyes, not with his hands and then he'd put his hands up to his eyes like binoculars and look (which is just precious!). I allow some touching & exploring, with me right there in hopes that that will satisfy their curiosity some (it's upstairs on the little landing before the hallway to the bedrooms so we can see it, but they don't have ready access to it). Usually once or twice a day they'll get to touch it, take some ornmanets off, put them back on. I think making it less of something they CAN'T touch is beneficial. They can, and do (with me there) so they're not dying to to touch it so much that when they are around it they're ripping ornaments off & pulling on it.

[sisteeesmama]

Ok, I really appreciate all of the great comments.

Here is what I think I will try:
I will remove the breakable/special ornaments that I would not want lost or smashed.
I will tether the tree with some sort of fishing line situation.
I will get out the littler tree that we have and find her some ornaments that she can put on and take off of it and have that be her tree to do with as she wishes.

Thank you all for your input!

[lonegirl]

Do as I did with my cats and continue to do with my son....tie it to the wall. I also put a gate around it when he was 1 and 2 and now I don't gate it. Oh yeah...the lower half has non-breakables...christmas stuffies and wooden and plastic ornaments