I posted earlier about Mary climbing the outside of the stairs somewhat regularly: I'd say a couple of times per week (but often several times in a row when she's doing it and is determined). But she climbs the counters multiple times per day, which is driving me crazy. I can no longer be in the adjoining den and let her wander into the kitchen alone to play. I am now making my best effort never to leave knives or pizza cutters out on the counter because she climbs up in a flash and makes her way for the kitchen sink.
This photo is a reenactment: Note the stuffed animal perched on the edge of the upper landing. Mary has climbed out on that a couple of times, walking out as far as she can so then she's facing a fall almost all the way down the stairs. It really stops my heart when I turn around from folding laundry on the bed and see her there. I have talked to moms much about this and there seems to be wide variety in how supervised their children are at different ages, and depends tremendously on maternal temperament, kid temperament, layout of the house, ages of kids, number of kids, and other factors. Some people still have baby gates up well beyond two years old and the toddler is never out of eyesight. Some people have been letting their toddlers play upstairs or downstairs alone with the other sibling(s) for months by Mary's ripe old age of 21 months old. I am lengthening my leash and very much wish I could let Mary go play with John out of my earshot, but I don't feel entirely comfortable because she has a daring attitude and lack of judgement--as evidenced by climbing out on the stairway landing!
Oh, yikes. Wow. I see there are worse stair setups than ours. Our landing at the top has a stucco half wall, so Theo can't climb out to where the bear is on yours. But we still worry because he tries to climb the half wall...and if he succeeds, he could fall all the way down to the first floor. We've been pondering how to deal with this for months and haven't come up with a good solution. I hope Mary's guardian angel keeps watching over her!
ReplyDeleteBTW, Theo fell down the stairs recently. He was walking down and holding the banister, but he lost his footing and grip and tumbled all the way to the bottom. Thankfully, we have carpet, so no harm done. But he keeps saying, "Stairs! Fall!" so I know it made an impression. I have a lovely scar on my face from falling down a full flight of stairs at age 2, so they do make me a little leery.... (Funny thing is, everyone thinks the scar is a dimple. I used to get compliments on my "cute dimple," and it's really a scar from a stair fall!)
She sounds so much like Paul! We had the counters blocked and then one day, over a year ago (a little older than Mary) we just gave up. It was too much of a fight, daily, hourly at times, to keep him off. So we put child locks on the upper cabinets and cleared the counters of all things not safe, and took the knobs off the stove (and adventually the sink!). We just let him climb. Now, he's older and he goes up there to help us or get his own drink of water/cup.
ReplyDeleteThis would terrify me! I am just getting used to be able to climb the coffee table and it's really low! Yes, lots of prayers for safety and protection from her guardian angel! She's so much braver than I am for sure!
ReplyDeleteKatherine, they do sell mesh bannister covers to make it so kids can't climb over a railing. If you secured it tightly enough down past the edge of the floor on the outside edge of that upper railing perhaps she could not get a grip with her hands and feet? You could do the same thing on the bottom railing as well. Kate was a big climber but she never continually tried to climb onto the counters and tables. I don't know what makes some climbers follow the "rules" and some not. Good luck!
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