Hellobee Boards

LO is young and short right now, and likes to stand up on the couch to see what's behind it. It makes me nervous when he starts walking or jumping around, so we tell him to keep his feet on the floor in those situations. I don't think there's anything silly about saying that jumping on the bed or couch are against the rules.

You can always come up with a safer alternative, like building a pillow mountain to climb in the living room. They won't really be able to jump on it (or off of it!) but it fulfills the need to climb and keeps them busy as they try to figure out how to make it as tall as possible. They shouldn't be able to get it high enough to be dangerous, and if they do you can just stop them and say "that's enough, we need to be safe".

My son climbs on to the couch and even beds by himself. We constantly discourage him from it because he'll run on them and he has taken a couple bad falls but it's one of those things I think we really can't avoid. To be honest, his worst fall to date was down the stairs and it was truly an accident where he slipped. We just do our best to watch him, discourage dangerous behavior, and hope he learns from experience when he falls. I can't gate everything.

Yes. C is not only 17.5 months and still stumbles often enough. She knows she isn't supposed to stand on the bed or couch because she will say "no no no no" when I catch her. She can't climb up to the bed yet but can get on the couch by herself. I just keep telling her to sit or hold on to the back of the couch but it makes me nervous.

Our cushions are attached so I can't take them off. I just take her places where she can climb as much as I can!

@mrbee: it's a lot of work for us but a lot of fun for them.

I never worried until DS broke his foot jumping off our couch!

I don't have a lot of house rules, but one that we have and enforce is that you do not jump on the furniture of any kind, couches, chairs, tables, beds, etc.

1 reason is for safety, the other is respect for our house and things. My son gets plenty of exercise in other avenues, so I am not worried he's a couch potato or anything.

LO broke his arm falling off the back of the couch on hardwood. I wasn't there (dh was) but I don't think he was jumping. It can happen so easily/quickly!