how many of your toddlers were climbers?

[caedmyn]

I've got 80% going so far...4 out of 5 of mine have climbed everything.  I'm sure #6 will follow in his brothers' footsteps.  Sigh.  How many/what percent of your toddlers were climbers?

[ktgrok]

All four of them. Current toddler is driving me bat guano crazy with it. Every two minutes I'm pulling her off a table. Or she's standing on a chair, holding on to the back of it and trying to make it rock back and forth...ugh. Or using a stool to get to the counter to grab a bottle of ibuprofen. Such is my life. We no longer have bar stools due to the first few, kitchen chairs lived in the garage for months with the third, but at this point I NEED those chairs for the kids doing schoolwork, so she just climbs and I catch her and we do that the whole gosh darned day. 

[happypamama]

At least two. Maybe two more. One of them not at all. 

[SKL]

My kids weren't very adventurous as tots.  One of them did climb/fall out of her crib once, but never tried it again until I lowered the rails and instructed both to get themselves in & out.  I also had to teach them how to go up & down stairs because they just didn't care.

So different from my family of origin, who wore bruises constantly due to the unending quest to the top of something or other.  ?

[fairfarmhand]

Four of four. It’s from my dhs side of the family.

[Sneezyone]

1 of 2. The younger started climbing the pantry shelves before he could talk. The older would watch.

[Arcadia]

All including my nieces and nephews but they climbed up pianos instead of kitchen drawers. Somehow they liked sitting on top of our upright pianos. 

[Holly]

All of them.  3 of them are wrestling on the floor behind me as a type, so I guess some things never change. 

[Mom22ns]

100%, but that was just 2/2. My oldest was a climber and a jumper! My youngest climbed more to get places, not just to get high so she could jump. 

[alisoncooks]

None. (Out of 2)

[Loowit]

None of them that I recall.

[JustEm]

5 out of 5.  

[SeaConquest]

I was 2 for 2.

[Rachel]

0/3. I mean they all climbed out of their crib eventually or tested boundaries but none were out of control. 

[AimeeM]

One. The Marvelous Flying Marco ? These days (he'll turn 6 in a couple weeks) he's more of a jumper and bouncer, but he could (and did) climb EVERYTHING when he was younger. Even before he could walk, he would monkey his way up things that were too high for him to safely maneuver back down, lol. 

The other two kiddos, not so much. Middle DS (9 years old) had medical issues that prevented it, but his personality just isn't much of a risk-taker either. He was always (still is) more relaxed and likes to keep both feet on the ground ? DD16 enjoyed getting into mischief as a small child, but not of the climbing variety very often. 

[cjzimmer1]

2 out of 6

[ktgrok]

Not only were ALL the kids climbers (I actually can't imagine a toddler not climbing on everything and anything.....the idea boggles my mind), but even one of my DOGS was a climber!!

[lavender's green]

3/3. But one was especially bad. He'd sneak downstairs at about 18 months while I was pregnant and exhausted, push his plastic workbench over to the pantry, and shimmy all the way to the very top shelf of the workbench, which is very precarious. His head height was above mine at that point. Then the little stinker would STEAL MY CHOCOLATE.

[wendyroo]

1 out of 4, but I nipped it in the bud pretty quickly.

None of the boys were particularly prone to climbing, but from the time Audrey was first able to pull herself up on a chair, she has been on a quest to climb, climb, climb.  Actually, she is just on a quest to be big like "her boys", and climbing was just one way of achieving that goal. 

Ain't nobody allowed to climb on my tables, so I cracked down on inappropriate climbing right from the start and redirected her to more appropriate climbing options; we have a climber with a slide, rope ladder and rock wall in the basement for goodness sake - climb those!! 

I haven't had to pull her off a table in about a year now, but today at the park my heart stopped a few times as she scaled up the really tall ladders right along with her brothers.

Wendy

[Spryte]

Two of three.

[ktgrok]

And now I’m wondering how on earth one cracks down on a baby. I certainly don’t allow the climbing and firmly say no, sometimes yell, firmly remove from their perch, and have even swatted a diapered bottom in the past to zero effect. They eventually get older and lean to mind but at a year old and non verbal? Nothing worked. If cracking down immediately stopped it I doubt they were really big on climbing to start with.

[Lawana]

0 of 2. 

[rebcoola]

2/2 I really can't fathom a toddler not climbing I would think something was wrong with them.

[wendyroo]

50 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

And now I’m wondering how on earth one cracks down on a baby. I certainly don’t allow the climbing and firmly say no, sometimes yell, firmly remove from their perch, and have even swatted a diapered bottom in the past to zero effect. They eventually get older and lean to mind but at a year old and non verbal? Nothing worked. If cracking down immediately stopped it I doubt they were really big on climbing to start with.

Two of my parenting strengths are focus and consistency.  Audrey was committed to climbing, but I was even more committed to not allowing her to climb inappropriately.  As soon as she showed a propensity for climbing onto the table, I made it my mission to never allow her to make it up there, knowing that every time she managed it would reinforce the bad habit.  I made sure that she was always close enough to me that I could notice and redirect as soon as the thought of climbing onto the table even entered into her head (and, yes, she was only a year old and completely non-verbal just like all my kids are for the first ~3 years). 

It took a period of constant vigilance, but I agree with Charlotte Mason that it is always easier to prevent a bad habit from forming than it is trying to break one that is already entrenched.

Wendy

[ktgrok]

4 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

Two of my parenting strengths are focus and consistency.  Audrey was committed to climbing, but I was even more committed to not allowing her to climb inappropriately.  As soon as she showed a propensity for climbing onto the table, I made it my mission to never allow her to make it up there, knowing that every time she managed it would reinforce the bad habit.  I made sure that she was always close enough to me that I could notice and redirect as soon as the thought of climbing onto the table even entered into her head (and, yes, she was only a year old and completely non-verbal just like all my kids are for the first ~3 years). 

It took a period of constant vigilance, but I agree with Charlotte Mason that it is always easier to prevent a bad habit from forming than it is trying to break one that is already entrenched.

Wendy

Honestly, that sounds like what I do, for the most part. I mean, she's made it on the table twice, but immediately been taken off. She's always taken off or made to sit if she stands on a chair (she is allowed to sit on them). She is never out of my eyesight. She is told no and removed every single time, as I've done with all of them. But I honestly think they all just outgrew it, I don't think I was successful. I'm not always in arms length though...sometimes I'm up to my arm pits in laundry/dishwater/raw food and it takes a second to get her. Maybe I just have obstinate children...given my own nature that's possible.

 

[MistyMountain]

They all would climb a little as babies and toddlers but only 1 of my 3 I had to worry about. I could no longer use the crib at 13 months and I would turn around for a minute and he would be on the counters. He had to be watched carefully at playgrounds then too. 

[wintermom]

I can't remember exactly out of the 4 who was and who wasn't climbing. I was usually on the play structure climbing along with them. And sadly, I'm the one who was injured from a fall while climbing the backyard tree and fence last month!!  ?  I'm surprised I wasn't injured long before now, as I was a demon climber in my youth (and into my adulthood, it seems). 

[Lecka]

Two out of three.  The other one would scoot chairs around and climb on them to get things, but never climbed stuff outside or climbed onto counters or tables.  

For my two climbers, one mainly climbed inside to get things.  The other one climbed things outside, whatever he could see to climb (the way I remember it lol).  

[Targhee]

All! Inside the grand piano, on top of the upright piano, 4' up wire pantry shelving (at 12 mo), kitchen counters, up the dresser (pulled it over and thank God a drawer sticking out prevented it from crushing her), the stone fireplace, the rhododendron trees, the outside of the SUV... 

[Frances]

Zero out of one, but based on family history, we thought for sure we would have a climber. Both sets of our parents gave up very early on keeping either of us in a crib. My mom says I used to even climb the drapes. We were both complete daredevils who regularly visited the emergency room, but our son was nothing like that at all. Maybe because he was an only, and we were both trying to keep up with an older sibling.

[caedmyn]

2 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

Honestly, that sounds like what I do, for the most part. I mean, she's made it on the table twice, but immediately been taken off. She's always taken off or made to sit if she stands on a chair (she is allowed to sit on them). She is never out of my eyesight. She is told no and removed every single time, as I've done with all of them. But I honestly think they all just outgrew it, I don't think I was successful. I'm not always in arms length though...sometimes I'm up to my arm pits in laundry/dishwater/raw food and it takes a second to get her. Maybe I just have obstinate children...given my own nature that's possible.

 

Some kids are just more persistant than others.  I have 3 that are probably a 9 or 10 on a persistance scale of 1-10...2 are strong-willed, one is not.

Unfortunately 2 of my parenting weaknesses are focus and consistency...combine that with highly persistant children and it's a bad combination.

 

[SKL]

I don't believe I ever had to tell one of my kids not to climb.  Which I think is weird.  Like many of you, it seems like all tots should be trying to climb.  I was sort of looking forward to it.

Other things my kids never tried to do - getting into cabinets and stuff.  I told them which cupboards they were allowed to dig through and which they weren't, and that was that.  Also they never tried to play with the Christmas tree ornaments because I told them once not to do it.  They never tried to open the door and go outside alone.  Never got curious about the electrical wires.  All these things I thought every warm-blooded human child would do, my kids didn't.

[gardenmom5]

2/5.  2dd .. . was a nightmare.  but looking at her, you "knew" she wasn't going to fall.  we joked she was a tightrope walker in another life.  she was amazingly stable.

I remember the day I went in search of her because she was crying.   we were in a rental, and I had to put both girls in the same room - so dressers were in the closet for space.  her's was chest high on me.   she was standing on top of it.  the drawers were all closed- she'd scaled the "lips" without opening even one.   she was crying because she still couldn't reach the baby wipes on the closet shelf.     she was 20mos. . . . I gave up on having her in a crib (she'd just climb out) - so I put them in bunk beds.   she was on top due to her lack of fear of heights - 1dd was on the bottom becasue she was very afraid of heights.  (didn't have room for two twins).  I watched her get off - she crawled to the end - put her hands on the footboard and threw herself over.   then she'd drop and feel for a foothold and climb down.  she didn't like the ladder.

later I was able to get her into gymnastics.  she climbed the rope the first day.  her challenge was climbing it twice in a row.  

when she was a teen, the teens did a " teamwork obstacle" course where they had to help each other.  one of the challenges was climbing a 10'? wall.  the biggest guys got her high enough to grab the top so she could pull herself up (the only one both light enough and strong enough)  - then she could help the next person so they could get every one up.

1ds . . . fell 18' out of a tree when the branch broke . . . . . and he wasn't as "bad" about climbing as her.

[lovinmyboys]

Only one (of 4) that required us to put kitchen chairs up on the table and buy an oven lock and put the mattress on the floor in his bedroom with literally nothing else in there. 

 

[Sneezyone]

5 hours ago, lavender's green said:

3/3. But one was especially bad. He'd sneak downstairs at about 18 months while I was pregnant and exhausted, push his plastic workbench over to the pantry, and shimmy all the way to the very top shelf of the workbench, which is very precarious. His head height was above mine at that point. Then the little stinker would STEAL MY CHOCOLATE.

 

Yep. Only mine would steal Welch's 'fruit' snacks and hide the wrappers.

[Desert Strawberry]

Just one out of 5, though Luna does climb a little bit. 

[Barb_]

Out of seven, five were climbers and two were more cautious. My 24yo gymnast recently confessed she would walk tightrope on the crib rail at age 2.5 to entertain her baby sister. That gave me retroactive heart failure

[Rosie_0801]

Both, though one was a bit late coming to it. Well, compared to his older sister, anyway, who was climbing slides at 18 months and sitting up on the clothes line before she was 3.

[mom@shiloh]

What?!  There's such a thing as a toddler who isn't?!  I'm 10/10 over here, although some were worse than others.  I remember watching my oldest dd's T-ball game one time, keeping my eye on my 2 yo, and suddenly realized they had stopped the game.  I'm clueless for a few minutes, until I realize they had stopped the game because my 4 yo was at the top of the backstop about 20 feet in the air. Parenting fail #679.

[historically accurate]

0 out of 3. Now I know that the 2 oldest have a mild form of low muscle tone, so it's not surprising they weren't climbers. I guess the youngest never saw anyone do it, so never tried it. 

[TheReader]

One of three; surprisingly, it was our preemiest preemie that was the climber, and he could climb stuff before he could walk, which was insane. In fact, he used to use those tripod stand-to-walk toys to climb stuff. He'd turn the toy around backwards, push it against whatever thing, and climb up it. He would knock books off of bookshelves just to make a pile to climb to reach the next shelf. My older 2 had bunk beds.....he made it to the top bunk once before we caught him. That boy is the reason I get almost a near panic attack when DH gets all nostalgic and "don't you wish we could go back to when they were little??"  No. No, I definitely do not, and don't you dare threaten that again. I mean, yes, he was cute, but his baby/toddler/preschoolhood was not fun for me, at all. 

[TheReader]

18 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

Yeah, I’m completely convinced it’s a personality thing.  Some kids just never even try and others seem to not be able to help themselves with all the pickles they get in.

 

Agreed. There is not a darn thing I could have ever done to dissuade my youngest; all the redirection, correction, etc., in the world would not have worked. We even put one of those toddler playscapes in our living room, which he did climb....but not to the sudden exclusion of everything else. But, he was so strong willed that I laughed in sort of a "you've got to be kidding me..." way when I read the book, "The Strong Willed Child," and the example of this really, super strong willed kid used in the book looked like a sweet, compliant little baby next to my son. 

[SKL]

Well my most un-adventurous kid used to fall on her face just from walking down the hall, so maybe she just knew her limits, LOL.  (Of course it wasn't funny at the time - kid always had a fat lip from faceplanting randomly day after day.)  My other kid had some funny sensory issues.  She didn't like walking on surfaces that weren't perfectly flat.  Hated swinging until she could pump the swing herself.  So maybe again, she had a legitimate feeling that climbing wouldn't be very fun.

[gardenmom5]

tbh- the one that was scary, was dudeling - didn't climb. he'd open the door and go down street.  he even put my purse in the neighbor's garage.

I put a double dead-bolt on the door so he couldn't open it.  we had the key on a springy 'chain' hooked at the top of the door frame out of his reach even if he got a chair to stand on.  (about as high as he'd climb.)

I was a kid who was always climbing up on counters and getting whatever was on top - or climbing the biggest tree in the backyard (even though there was one set of branches 1/3 way up the doug fir tree that I couldn't reach - and my brother would boost me up) and getting pitch in my hair, even went up on the roof a fair bit - so it didn't bother me as much when my kids did it.

[readinmom]

One of three.  He pulled out all the kitchen drawers when he was two to make a ladder to get up on the counter, try to make me coffee. Once he learned this skill it was impossible to keep him in the crib.  There wasn't a tree or wall he did not attempt... 

[Selkie]

My three all were climbers.

When I was a toddler, I had a tall dresser and was climbing up the drawers when the whole thing fell over on top of me.

My Catahoula dog climbs more than my kids did. He is always climbing up on counters and tables and plopping down for a nap. When I work at my desk, he climbs up and lays right next to what I'm working on.

[caedmyn]

4 hours ago, mom@shiloh said:

What?!  There's such a thing as a toddler who isn't?!  I'm 10/10 over here, although some were worse than others.  I remember watching my oldest dd's T-ball game one time, keeping my eye on my 2 yo, and suddenly realized they had stopped the game.  I'm clueless for a few minutes, until I realize they had stopped the game because my 4 yo was at the top of the backstop about 20 feet in the air. Parenting fail #679.

 

Clearly there's some sort of genetic component when climbers run in families.  There must be one to crazy children in general too.  It's always my children who are climbing up the outside of the tube slides, letting themselves over the edges of the tallest play structures, hanging upside down by the knees from a moving merry-go-round, climbing the basketball hoops and the sides of the playground swingsets so they can lay on the top...  They're the ones who regularly inspire other moms at the playground to tell their children NOT to do what mine just did.  They climb the walls in our hallways and stairwell and the doorframes and walk along the edge of our privacy fence.  We went to a large science center last week and all the other toddlers were playing in the toddler area with the play equipment...mine was the little tornado trying to rearrange everything, trying to climb IN the water table, trying repeatedly to drink out of the fountain in the water table, and generally not doing anything the play area was actually intended for.  He's an adrenaline junkie too.  He wasn't much more than 12 months old when he started climbing on a low closet shelf to do face plants onto the padded mat underneath.  Apparently this is great fun as he keeps expanding his repertoire of things to do face plants off of and on to.

Thankfully we haven't had any worse injuries due to climbing than a couple of sets of stitches and two concussions.

[rutamattatt]

1/2.  But that 1...whew.  He made up for any peace I had with his older brother.

We were at the neighborhood park one day when DS was maybe 2.  I was RIGHT NEXT TO HIM.  I turned around long enough to call to his older brother, and the child CLIMBED THE TENNIS COURT FENCE.  All the way to the top where I couldn't reach him with outstretched arms, and the weaving of the fence was too small for my feet to fit. I just stood there asking (demanding then begging) that child to climb down while he hung up there and cars drove by and slowed down to watch the frantic mother and the toddler at the top of the ten foot fence.  I seriously contemplated calling the police to help me get him down.

He climbed down when he was good and ready (it felt like dog years).  It was the talk of the neighborhood.  I acted like I didn't know it was me when the story was repeated in my presence.  

[Murphy101]

All of mine. 

But 3 were climbers without any caution. 

Rose is a petite 22 lb 19 months old.  And she knows no fear. She will push a mound of toys into the kitchen next to th counter just so she can jump off it. And she doesn’t look to see if anyone is going to catch her either. Like she just assumes there’s a waiting bat to catch. 

Just climbs on the bunk beds and does the same thing. 

We say no and stop her and redirect her and 98% of the time she has a guardian on duty to prevent her. But dang. She’s fast for a little pipsqueak.  Yesterday she leaped with abandon off my 4ft from the floor bed.  I turned away to put laundry in a drawer and in that time she came in the room with a step stool and climbed on up and leaped. 

*shrugs* Kids do stuff like that. It’s not a parenting problem usually or means there’s something wrong with the kid. Some kids are just born explorers. 

[MinivanMom]

0/5

I can't imagine toddlers doing some of things described. Holy cow! My kids have all stayed safely on the ground. I don't think any of them ever even tried to climb out of their cribs - which is why I kept them in the cribs for as long as possible before moving up to a toddler bed.

I'm also raising a family of kids who prefer dance, baseball, hiking, & swimming to more adventurous/high-energy activities like gymnastics or soccer. My kids have not cared for soccer. They were just blown over by the energy and aggression of the other kids. Baseball/softball have been more their speed. Really, sitting by the side of the baseball field while reading a book has been more their speed.