I'm having this trouble with my 10 month old. She discovered a week ago that she can climb into the sofa. And I can not do anything else but to watch her. The second I turn around....she is up again. Should I remove the sofa from the family room? Where are we gon'na seat then? If that was the solution no house in the country would have a sofa by now..........what to do????
Good luck on trying to stop her. My daughter has been doing it for ages and in the last month she has learnt to push one of her walk along toys to where she wants it and climb on it to get stuff of the shelf, if her high chair is near a seat she climbs on the seat and then trys to get on top of her high chair. THe other day she climbed on the table where the TV was and climbed on top of the TV. She knows that she is aloud to climb on the couch but anything else she gets told off and sat on the floor and keep doing until she learns. But she should grow out of that stage soon.
I've been having the same problem with me son, but unfortuantely, you're going to have to build up some patience and get a big cup of coffee bc realistically, you shouldn't remove the couch, but just keep removing your child. You need to say the same thing EVERY time you remove your daughter, like, No, we don't climb inside or whatever. This of course may go on for an hour today or go on for the next week but eventually she will get the hint. She may not necessarily completely stop doing it... its up to your child's own personality type, but she will eventually understand that she is doing something that she is not supposed to be doing. Howeve,r removing the couch, is unrealistic bc you can't always remove the temptation from her... instead, especailly as she gets older, you have to remove her away from the temptation. I don't remember where I read it, I think it was a parenting magazine, but it said something like we repeat the same things on an average of 2000 times before our kids begin to understand.
You stop her from climbing on sofa .... she'll find something else, so don't even bother. And you can't stop her from doing it anyways. Just make it safer AROUND so when she's up there she can't hurt herself - that could be anything, like remove stuff from shelfs she could possibly reach, make sure she can NOT get to the window. And you can buy those little rubber cushions for coffe table corners in case she tumbles down.
Teach her how to climb down. That way once she is up she can safely get down on her own. If you are really paranoid by a padded mat to put along the base of the couch. But falling off the couch isn't going to kill her.
This is a new discovery for her. You need to encourage safe behavior. When she gets up there, you need to turn her around show her back touches the back of the sofa. When it is time to get down...you need to move her so that she knows to lay on her belly and let her feet down first. Yes it is scary as a new mom....you just have to show her how to do it safely until she gets it. I know you want to protect her from everything but really our job is to teach them how to look out for themselves. This is just the beginning. You can't remove everything that is dangerous out of her life...you need to teach her what to do about it.The only things I removed from my living room for the sake of my children were burning candles. Even knick-knacks should stay in their place so that you can teach her that they are not to touch. Believe me this will come in handy when you visit some one who has not baby proofed their house. Good Luck!!!!
