wrestleing

[katarn]

so i babysit for two brothers 5 and 8.. they love to wrestle.. but the younger one often gets hurt (he's very sensitive and cries often)

I let them wrestle saying

no hitting.
no kicking
and if someone cries take a 5 min. breather (no touching)

just wondering what others do about wrestling

[LoveBeads]

If I were caretaking other people's children then I would not permit wrestling at all and I would have the mother make it clear to them that they are not permitted to wrestle when the babysitter is there.

There are way too many opportunities for somebody to get hurt for my personal comfort level.

[abac]

I don't mind wrestling, but I keep a close eye to make sure the children know how to set and accept limits. Which means if someone says, "Stop," or gets hurt, the other child needs to stop.

I wouldn't worry about the younger child getting hurt as long as he is a willing participant. I'm sure if he's been hurt before, he knows he can be hurt again. Children take risks, just as adults do.

[ShaggyDaddy]

If the younger keeps getting hurt but still wants to wrestle, I would probably try to teach them the actual rules of wrestling (at least the ones designed to keep people from getting hurt). With a a rule structure, and even a points structure, I could see the wrestling getting a lot more fun and a lot more safe... of course there is a chance they will hate the structure, but it is worth trying IMO. There are also different styles of wrestling, some of which are very injury resistant,

Greco Roman does not allow you to use your legs for any hold or contact with the opponent except for incidental contact related to positioning (basically you can only use your arms and arms are a lot weaker than legs).

Freestyle is primarily based on "throws" and rolls, if TV style "professional wrestling" had a real world equivalent, Freestyle would be the closest to it, and it is definatly the most dangerous.

Collegate wrestling is the most common in high schools and colleges, it focuses on pins and holds (the only way you can get points is to pin or come close to a pin). This is a compromise between freestyle and greco. Still more dangerous, but much easier to understand than greco, but loads safer than freestyle.

There are other styles of course, such as samba, but that is even more dangerous than freestyle (but even cooler hah).

[QueenOfThePride]

Since my DH owns a Brazilian Jiujitsu school, there is a heck of a lot of wrestling going on around here.

ShaggyDaddy has some good ideas about implementing rules.

I always explain to kids that want to wrestle for fun that the rules are that all participants have to agree to wanting to wrestle; no trying to wrestle with someone who doesn't want to. You can't actually try to hurt people. And that it's OK and fun to play rough, but when you play rough, you might get hurt a little. I encourage them to make their own decisions taking into account the risks of getting hurt.

[mamaduck]

Dh used to do Judo, and he has taught our boys some of the rules too. That helps. We have a house rule that if someone says, "Stop," then the other person needs to listen and stop. If they cannot speak to say "stop," then they should tap the floor twice with whatever body part they can. In Judo, tapping twice means, "I'm done." The kids respect that.

I don't worry too much about them getting seriously hurt -- they are like puppies and I don't think I could stop the wrestling if I tried. But sometimes, if its really grating on my nerves, I'll say, "This is grating on my nerves. You need to take it outside or else stop now."

Also -- in the evenings before bed, its really not a good idea. So I generally step in and remind them that they are winding themselves up too much, and are going to have a hard time relaxing. If I suggest alternate activities -- they usually comply.

Oh -- and mommy doesn't like to wrestle. I make that very clear. And no wrestling great-grandmama either.