how do you handle toddlers on furniture?

[dukie41181]

The cat food thread got me thinking about my own mischevious toddler (22 months old). She LOVES to get on the couch, stand up and throw herself down or run across it. There's surely no gating off furniture! How are others handling this? At this point its a daily frustration and battle. She is gwtting some physical toys for Christmas (Rody and her own big girl chair) for the living room...I'm thinking those will at least be things I can redirect her too.

[Dream]

DD does it too, having her own chair hasn't made a change. I try to stop her and manages to get her down jusy saying she'll get hurt if she falls but then its just temporary.

[HIU8]

We allow the kids to jump on the couch. One couch, in the family room. We do this b/c DS is a sensory seeker and per his OT we need to provide outlets for him at home (we have other things like a trampoline and heavy boxes to push etc...). The kids are not allowed to climb on anything else (no counters etc...). We used to redirect when they did that. Now they are punished (take away fav toy or sent to their rooms). They now very in frequently climb on anything except the one couch.

[edurnemk]

Frankly, I have a zero tolerance rule. If I catch him running or jumping on the couch, I calmly say "the sofa is for sitting, not standing/jumping/etc" and grab him by the waist to make him sit down. I'll offer alternatives if he insists: "DS, why don't we roll and jump over on you mat?"(we have a large play area set up on one end of the family room with a large mat, big pillows, etc) I do that every single time and lately he's been doing it less.

BTW he has fallen of the sofa on previous attempts to break the rule.

[MaiseyDog]

We do not tolerate any climbing or standing on furniture. I tell them no and redirect to a more appropriate place. I try very hard be consistent and I not let them do something that if they were older I wouldn't allow. For example, if I would not allow a 12 year old to jump on the couch, I'm not going to allow a 2 year old to jump on the couch.