How do you teach them?

[Willbearsmom]

So my son has figured out how to climb on the couch and that is totally ok with me. What isn't ok is that he runs to edge and I swear, tries to fall off. I catch him everytime and put him on the floor and tell him no. Then he cries and throws a huge fit. Someone suggested that I should just let him fall but I'd rather avoid that option.

[byronsmom]

lol byron does the same thing, he hasn't fallen yet. i just sit on the couch with him and pull him back and firmly says no. if he continues i put him off the couch and tell he needs to play elsewhere then take him into him room to play. just be consistant, he'll get the idea.

the falling option suck if you ask me, byron learns by doing. just take a deep breathe a be consistant.

[moonemaiden]

I swear that for a whole month the only words you heard while passing my livingroom "Couches are made for sitting, floors are made for standing" as one of us took our son and sat him nicely back down on the couch or stood him nicely on the floor. We actually never said no, simply because he hears that word all too often. We decided to take a different tactic and just reiterate the proper procedure as a reminder, along with the movement that was appropriate. It worked for the most part and he quickly outgrew that phase when he realized that it wasn't going to get a rise out of us, only the same mundane line over and over a gain.

[big-mouth-burgher]

Moonemaiden is right. Just keep saying the same thing over and over in the same, almost bored, tone of voice. Little boys are somewhat like cave men and the shorter your sentences, the better. I'm not trying to be offensive to men, I have 2 boys, they just don't develop communication skills as quickly as girls. I'd usually say Couch . . . sit (and sit him down) Floor . . . stand (and stand him up). It was an odd little game we played for a few weeks, but they eventually got it. That is until they started to jump off the couch during wrestling matches, I'm still working on that one and dad is no help, he's part of the action.

[byronsmom]

lmao moon and big, i just said to byron this morning couch sit butt, see mommy sits on her butt. then he patted my butt. i swear he'll get it one of these days.

[big-mouth-burgher]

I can't wait for the day that willbearsmom or byronsmom is on here saying that they decided to play superman and try to fly off the back of the couch. he he

[odimauro]

When one morning Jack was slithering on his tummy towards the edge of the bed and then down, I couldn't believe my own eyes.
He used to try to dive down head first (giving both of us a heart attack). We even started calling him "Mr. Lands on head" for that.
But one of teachers in day care taught him to climb down. I'll ask her how she did it. She deserves a medal.

[wright1212]

I would definetly go for the teach them how approach. Them him how to get safely off the edge. Also try to find his purpose: is it to be up higher, to look over the edge, because he wants to climb, or your attention....trying to find the cause can lead to the solution.
My son has been a climber since 7 months old ( now 7 years old). He still climbs the kitchen counters to explore what is in the cabinets and climbs to get food from on top of the fridge. Every day sometimes every few minutes we are telling him to get down. But for the most part we dont get upset-we know he is never ever going to stop. He has fallen plenty of times and thankfully only good looking bruises as a result. We work hard on teaching him to ask for food instead of climbing and giving him plenty of chances to climb or jump so he wont feel the need. That is about all we can do.