What are your rules about throwing stuff in the house?

[Judegirl]

I mean anything - balls, toys, food...what are your house rules?

Thanks!
Jude

[m448]

He can roll a ball in the house. No throwing toys or food. He hasn't thrown food in a while but that's because we really started "listening" when he was done. So if he threw food we said, "okay I see you're done" and cleaned up.

I make an exception for catching bean bags pretty much like the ball (underhand, low throw and only when someone is going to actually catch it). I'm a GCM momma.


Marielle


Ian - born 10/03
&
Ryan - born 01/06

[KrisM]

We have "water balls" made for the pool that he is allowed to throw in the house. Nothing else is thrown. Other balls are only rolled. He does like to throw other things, but he is warned once and then the object is put away.

[Marisa6826]

Balls can be rolled. Nothing can be thrown. Period.

-m

[lisams]

Rolling balls inside is allowed (and it's a soft Gertie ball). We have bean bags that I let her toss into a basket, but they are in a closet and I bring them out when we can play together. Nothing else is allowed to be thrown for safety reasons. Thank goodness we're past that stage!!

[slknight]

We do throw balls in the house. Nothing else though. And balls can't be thrown *at* things (like the dog or the tv). They can only be thrown to someone (like Daddy) and DS must say "Ready?" before he does it. We had a problem with him throwing balls at us when we weren't expecting it. I should note that all of these are pretty soft balls. We live in a very small house, but it's a ranch so it has a long hallway. DH and DS have spent hours playing "baseball" in the hallway with a soft bat and soft ball. I don't think we could make it through our long winters here without doing that.

[kath68]

We have a toddler basketball hoop in our living room, so uh, yeah. We allow throwing in the house. :)

Charlie is so into throwing and balls I can't imagine having a rule forbidding it! We have a bunch of those ball pitt balls, and direct him to those for his throwing needs.

We quickly confiscated any ball that wasn't safe in the house. We have reinforced that the only things that are ok for throwing are balls. If he throws something else, we take it away and say "____ is not for throwing. Balls are for throwing." Now that he is older, he has to put the flung toy away himself. That has seemed to work. He rarely throws anything else now.

He used to fling food off of his high chair tray, but that has stopped now, thank goodness.

[kaylinsmommy2]

>We have a toddler basketball hoop in our living room, so uh,
>yeah. We allow throwing in the house. :)

Hey, we have a basketball hoop in our master bedroom! :) DH grew up with a nerf basketball hoop that hooks over the door.

I think the rule will be soft/nerf-type balls only. No food, no toys, etc.

Caroline
mommy to Kaylin 6/5/04

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/bunbunadb20040605_-9_Kaylin+is+now.png[/img][/url]

[s7714]

>We have a toddler basketball hoop in our living room, so uh,
>yeah. We allow throwing in the house. :)

Same here. But honestly my DH and any male family members who come over are more apt to be caught throwing the ball from across the room trying to score a basket than my DD is. She still prefers a human catcher vs. a net. ;)

We have tried to teach our DD that it's o.k. to throw soft things, but we don't just restrict it to ball shapes. Reason being is that we don't want her encountering a hard ball (like at a park or playdate) and thinking that it would be o.k. to throw it simply because it is a ball. We also employ the no throwing at animals, people, etc. rule.

Jennifer
Mommy to
DD 3/03
DD 6/05

Calling fellow BBB SoCal moms...we'd love to meet you!
(100 posts & BBB member for 3 months req'd)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/babybargainssocal/

[JElaineB]

We allow DS to throw soft balls in the house if he is playing catch. He and my DH play a game they call "bonker ball" where they throw 3 nerf-type balls at each other and "bonk" each other. They have a great time together!

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[miki]

My rules are no throwing at all unless it is part of a supervised game. DD is not a big thrower. The rule is mainly to benefit my dogs, one of whom is losing his sight so he can't always see a projectile coming his way.

But my SIL used the rule that her daycare uses. You may only throw soft things in the house. Hard objects being thrown result in an immediate time out.

[barbarhow]

We throw balls in the house, too. We have the ready rule like Susan. No throwing other toys-that's an automatic removal of the toy. It happened a few times but the loss of the toy is waaaay to costly for him to chance.
No throwing of food except for Anna's latest trick of swiping her tray table onto the floor when she is done. :-(
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
and Anna 5/12/05, my little Yankee fan!

[brittone2]

DS has never been a big thrower but recently is testing this a bit. Not a whole lot, but definitely testing the waters.

We do allow him to throw soft things like playsilks, the dog's toys, and soft balls. My dog is OCDish about lots of things and we play with him in the house to work off some of his anxiety sometims, so it was hard to tell DS no throwing *at all* since we throw the dog's toys.

When he first started throwing he definitely didn't get soft vs. hard. For the most part, up until recently, he's been fine w/ figuring out what can and can't be thrown.

If he does throw something inappropriate, I just take it away. Usually it happens when he's super excited about something else.

An idea I think I read on GCM is to have a "throwing box" that you can substitute when an inappropriate item is thrown. You redirect them to it. I definitely want to do this now...in it, you put things like beanbags, cottonballs, a nerf ball, a playsilk, whatever soft things you are okay with being thrown. So when DC throws something inappropriate you redirect to what is okay to throw.

I read this ages ago but never did it as it wasn't really a problem for us. Since he's been more into throwing lately, I think it would be worthwhile.

[hez]

Rolling balls is acceptable. Occasional putting is acceptable ('cause Daddy sometimes practices in the basement).

Throwing, batting and kicking are outdoor activities. Now, if I could get DH to be as consistent as me with those rules, we'd be golden, but he breaks them here and there and drives me nuts.

[kijip]

Light balls (like little vinyl wiffle type balls and plastic bouncy balls) are OK.

Throw anything heavy, especially at someone? The wrath of mommy descends ;)

[crl]

No throwing anything in the house.

At around 18 months, DS was throwing hard things at people (like me) and it hurt. We tried no throwing at people and no throwing hard things and it just didn't work. I think the rule was too fuzzy for him to get at the age. So we went to the bright line, no throwing. Worked a lot better for us.

BTW, we are almost the only people I know IRL with this strict a rule.

[ErinMC]

I'd prefer NO throwing in the house, but DH is a sports nut, so he's been teaching DS to throw since he was 7-8 months old. Like a PP, we have a ranch house with a long hallway, so they have spent many cold winter days throwing balls down the hallway - no hard balls, just the softer, rubber balls. Now that we have a baby who is occasionally in the line of fire, I'm trying to get tougher about it, but DS has been good about throwing only the balls, and only when someone is playing with him.

Erin

Mom to Chase Feb. 04
... and Baby Logan! May 20, 2006

[erosenst]

Small balls can be rolled or tossed upstairs; larger ones can be rolled or tossed in the basement only. Things can only be "thrown up at the ceiling/sky" in the basement. We have a zillion beanie babies - those can be tossed, too. We really haven't had a problem with her throwing those inappropriately.

Thrown food immediately means the meal is over - and she fully knows that. Inappropriately thrown toys mean the toy is taken away - but that's almost never an issue any more. (Wait - it will be tomorrow now that I said that :)).

[Aunt to sweet baby boy]

Avi also has a toddler basketball hoop and is allowed to throw balls. Thats it, we tell him that he can throw balls and not anything else. If he throws something else 1x he is told that he can throw balls but not cups, books, blocks etc. If he throws something two times it gets taken away/put away.

Avi is still throwing food from his high chair and we are working on it because he will say all done and 1 second later start to throw food. He also will throw food in the middle of his meal. When he starts he gets out of his high chair.

Ilana, aka Nana to my sweet nephew Avi

http://lilypie.com/pic/060403/hfNw.jpg[/img]http://b2.lilypie.com/h2bbm7/.png[/img][/url]

[Saartje]

If Ish throws anything other than a ball: "No, don't throw that. Where's your ball?" And then we play catch. But we don't have any balls that would hurt someone, even if they hit you in the face; and any breakables already have to be put in a location from which they can't be knocked off anyway (we have cats), so there's nothing to damage by playing with the balls in the house.