Hellobee Boards

Most of the time it scares them when they hit something or fall, not necessarily hurts. Think about it when you take a corner wrong and hit the wall - you usually yell out, but it's because it shocked you and didn't necessarily hurt.

Instead of coddling, we usually say something like "oops! you fell! that was scary, huh? you're okay!" If she keeps crying after a few seconds, then we cuddle (or if she crawls to us for cuddles). We don't rush over to her at all (unless she's obviously HURT or she fell far)

First: in no way are you a bad mama. Period.

G is a daredevil, too, though in a slightly different way. Mostly,she wants to climb up, not dive down. She really likes pulling up on our dining room chairs, which are lightweight ones from Ikea. Once, she squarely held on to the back of it with both hands reaching up as far as she can go, and she and the chair fell straight backwards. That was awful. She cried and cried...until she got distracted by the dog. So yeah, I feel you.

I know that kids bounce back super quickly, but it is hard not to hover. I think our worst moment was when she touched our radiator in the split second we had our head turned. And it's not like we can block those completely. That felt awful, too. But again, she just seemed to forget about it after a few snuggles and some milk.

I have no answers, sorry. But sending so many :hugs: your way

@Mae: haha, yeah, good luck! And once Xander learned how to walk, he immediately learned how to run and jump!! He's a lot better now, but when he first learned to run, he was always tripping over his own feet and falling. You kind of get used to it (hopefully).

Oh please, this is totally normal! My son regularly split his lip open and got black eyes during this phase. But each time he would learn and eventually he got really good at avoiding the bumps and bruises. Don't beat yourself up since there is little you can do to protect them during this phase

My daughter is constantly climbing onto furniture and then doing trust falls. So far we have caught her every time but we've had some close calls. One of these days we are not going to make it in time.

You're not a bad mom! Or, if you are I am too? You know Blake is a wild child too. Like sometimes he has legit bruises on his head because he's crazy and/or following Alice but doesn't really have the balance or stability to be crazy. And he has no instinct to protect his head so I mean he just topples over some times. Obviously I'm not just like "let him fall!" but I also just can't catch him every time, either. I have to change Alice's diaper too, or make bottles, or occasionally pee. When MIL is over she hovers over them both and won't let them just sit there without her hand on them. I don't think that's any way to live, you know? I want them to be independent and want to try new things, even if their perfect little heads get bruised occasionally. I am terrible about coddling him when he falls down, though. I can't help it! He has the sweetest saddest little cry and I just have to pick him up and give him ten thousand kisses every time.

Offering commiseration. My son is a daredevil as well. He definitely doesn't think before acting. The more dangerous it is the more he wants to try. We also notice the more we say not to do something the more he wants to do it. He constantly has bruises. Heck he trips over air and falls all the time. Daycare called us one day to say he fell out of his chair and he's 3. We have definitely learned to roll with the punches but it took us time. But I would definitely say we hover a lot too. I don't know how to find the balance.

We were at the peds so often because of my daredevil kid I thought they were going to call CPS on us.

She burnt her finger - blisters and all - at 7 months because she stuck her hand in a bowl of my mashed potatos.

Then there was the time she stacked her toys under my living room window and tried to make an escape for it.

She's been walking since 9 months, so that was fun.

Rolled off the bed, climbed out of the crib, stacked all her toys and blanket in the corner to use as a trampoline & climb back out after we lowered it to the lowest setting, jumped off our deck (instead of walking down 2 steps), tried to climb a tree, got her finger stick in the fridge (that one required xrays), fell off her bike.....

She's also tried to skateboard, turned our bathroom sink into a swimming pool for her dollies & slipped off the wet stool, and used the kitchen chair to unlock our patio door.

It basically gets worse as they get older.