I'm turning our family room into a jungle gym.

[gatorsmom]

Yep, I've decided to move out the furniture and replace it with some of those Little Tykes jungle-gym type thingies. Every. single. day Cha Cha makes a house from all the cushions in that room. Including decorative pillows, there are 11 pillows/cushions in there. And every day he pulls off all the pillows and stacks them in houses, cars, spaceships, race tracks, and obstacle courses. And everyday when I ask him to put the cushions back he says they are too heavy for him to pick up (admittedly, some of them are heavy). So I do it. Why do I bother since the next day (or hour) they will be pulled off again. And I"ve put him in time-outs over it, physically put them back while he's in the process of building, and even taken away favorite toys of his but he just can't stop. So, I give up. I'm putting up jungle gyms and moving out the furniture. It'll save me as well as Cha Cha, some time.

[tarabenet]

Awesome! Cha Cha sounds like a fun kid (says someone who isn't having to clean up after him!).

[maestramommy]

Wow, that sounds pretty cool actually! Our family room is the kids' main playroom, so if the girls started doing like Cha Cha I'd seriously consider it myself!

[ThreeofUs]

Sounds like fun - especially during a loooonnnggg winter!

Our pillows suffer the same fate. It's the chair and sofa cushions that get me excited - but I've got two boys, I should just be planning on a complete reupholster, shouldn't I?

[bubbaray]

ACtually, DH wants to turn our never-used dining room into a playroom for the girls. We have a 4000 square foot house and a huge storage/playroom downstairs that we thought they would use. They are still too little (IMO) to be playing down there on their own. Plus, we both WOTH FT, so when we are home, we would like them to play where *we* are. Currently, they use our family room, but I'm sick and tired of it always looking like a bomb went off. At least if it was confined to the dining room, I could shut the door.

We could have Christmas dinner on their train table. LOL.

[hellokitty]

I told my DH to remind me next time we buy a new sofa set to get one where the pillows are ATTACHED to the sofa. Ours currently are not and my kids take the pillows off of the sofa all day to build stuff or just to jump on them. I feel your pain. I'm so sick of picking up pillows. What really annoys me more than anything is that they kids have their own playroom (sunroom), but they insist on bringing their toys from the sunroom into our family room and making the family room a big mess.

[HIU8]

Good luck! DS and DD do the very same thing to my family room. It drives me INSANE!!!!! However, we do not have a playroom. All of their toys are in the family room, so what else can I expect I guess....I cannot wait to move and have a room that can be dedicated as a playroom (hopefully within the next year to 18 months) :cheerleader1:

[KrisM]

I want this: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=crazy+forts

[MontrealMum]

Can I send DS over to play at your house?

We are going through a furniture-climbing phase and pulling him off things is totally wearing me out. But if all the cushions are on the floor at your place it sounds much safer and I could just let him climb :)

Sorry you're so frustrated, and hoping he learns to put them back on his own soon!

[niccig]

DS does the same. All the pillows come off the sectional, he moves the coffee table and then pulls the sofa bed out. I was having a shower one day and he came in saying he needed help to get the bed out..I had no idea what he was talking about until I walked into the family room. Sometimes we pull everything off, pull the bed out and play like we're having a slumber party.

Oh, and I've been known to leave things out as they'll get played again the next day. DH and DS made a fort out of a play tent and blankets in half the family room. I left it up all weekend and we had to walk around it for a few days. I figured it was easier to just leave it then to clean it up and rebuild the next day.

[elliput]

You need one of these- Skyward Summit (http://www.step2.com/product.cfm?product_id=1546)

[Dcclerk]

:hug:

Does it help at all to think of it as great, open-ended, creative play? ;) Initially it didn't help me at all, either, but over time it totally has. I just started changing my expectations and it saved me from a lot of frustration. (Which is actually exactly what it sounds like you are doing with the plan to convert to a jungel gym!) My kiddos do that all the time, too, but I now honestly think it is fun. I totally remember LOVING to create forts with blankets and cushions, and I want them to have the memories that I have. One thing that helps me is that I insist that the kids clean it up before moving on to the next game/toy/etc. A couple cushions are hard to get back on, so I help with those, but it honestly just takes me a minute or so. Our rule is that if you are too tired to put it back, you are too tired to take it off. It took a few times of enforcing that rule, but now it is just a given. They even do a pretty good job of "fluffing" the decorative pillows just right now, too :P

Whatever you end up doing, I hope that it stops being so frustrating. And, that it will make for good stories when ChaCha ends up being an architect!

[o_mom]

I have the plastic climber in our playroom. Doesn't help. They find all the throw blanket and pillows to make a fort on and under the climber.

How about a playhut set? We have two that I found at garage sales so they can cover half the basement with forts and tunnels. They fold away very easily.

[lizajane]

I told my DH to remind me next time we buy a new sofa set to get one where the pillows are ATTACHED to the sofa. Ours currently are not and my kids take the pillows off of the sofa all day to build stuff or just to jump on them. I feel your pain. I'm so sick of picking up pillows. What really annoys me more than anything is that they kids have their own playroom (sunroom), but they insist on bringing their toys from the sunroom into our family room and making the family room a big mess.

ha ha ha!! we just did it!! sofas with the pillows attached! it is AWESOME!!!

and yes, we also have a basement playroom that they won't play in. dylan goes down there, and he takes friends down there. but schuyler WILL NOT GO DOWN THERE TO PLAY. even when i go down there WITH him, he wants to come back upstairs pretty quickly! mine are 4 and (almost) 6, they are old enough to play down there alone.

[gatorsmom]

:hug:

Does it help at all to think of it as great, open-ended, creative play? ;) Initially it didn't help me at all, either, but over time it totally has. I just started changing my expectations and it saved me from a lot of frustration. (Which is actually exactly what it sounds like you are doing with the plan to convert to a jungel gym!) My kiddos do that all the time, too, but I now honestly think it is fun. I totally remember LOVING to create forts with blankets and cushions, and I want them to have the memories that I have. One thing that helps me is that I insist that the kids clean it up before moving on to the next game/toy/etc. A couple cushions are hard to get back on, so I help with those, but it honestly just takes me a minute or so. Our rule is that if you are too tired to put it back, you are too tired to take it off. It took a few times of enforcing that rule, but now it is just a given. They even do a pretty good job of "fluffing" the decorative pillows just right now, too :P

Whatever you end up doing, I hope that it stops being so frustrating. And, that it will make for good stories when ChaCha ends up being an architect!

You know, normally I wouldn't care if the pillows stayed off because I know he enjoys it so much and it's good exercise for both the boys to climb and stuff on the pillows. But the problem I"m having is that the twins, who are still wobbly walkers, want to climb too, or try to walk over the pillow but inevitably fall and hurt themselves. Or, the boys start to wrestle on the cushions or jump on them and don't always watch for the twins when they are jumping.... and then there are injuries.

I am usually laid back and can take the mess (to a point) but why does there always have to be screaming involved??

[alexsmommy]

I just try to focus on the excellent exercise I get replacing the cushions daily and the fact that at least he's using his imagination and engaging in physical/imaginitive play while we are cooped up in the winter. Don't get me wrong, it drives me batty, but I really try to focus on this.
I am also extraordinarily glad I listened to my gut and did not get the really expensive sofas I loved, but went with mid-priced ones and told DH we can get the ones I love when "everyone who lives here is civilized".
If you do change it over, lemme know when DS1 can come for a playdate... then I can sit on my own cushions while he's having fun at your house.

[purpleeyes]

Here's what solved this problem for us:

http://www.threesisterstoys.com/c-78-waldorf-playstands.aspx

They are expensive, but totally worth it. We have them set up in the basement and he can make them whatever he wants. (except for a jungle gym, of course) Today it was a firehouse and a camping tent. The other day it was the snack shop for our indoor winter carnival. I used some sheets and decorated them to look like a pirate ship and a space shuttle, but I also like how open ended it can be.

When he tries to play with the pillows or the toy bins, I totally stop him and send him downstairs! I no longer feel bad about squeltching imaginative play!

[infomama]

We turned our formal dining room into a playroom...no regrets.