Emily and I had a big 'fight' the other day (she's 3) I wanted to put her in playcare so that I could workout, but she refused ...after trying all my tactics and she was screaming I took her home and told her she needed to stay in her room while I did pilates. She continued to scream for about 1/2 an hour in her room but I was too mad to be around her so I let her scream. When it got quiet I went to check on her and couldn't find her anywhere, I looked under the beds and in the closet and in the toy boxes and then I heard a little snore. I was looking at the wrong level, I found her asleep on the window sill! We live in a basement suite so our windows are about 6 feet off the floor! she used a few boxes and a shelf to climb up. I woke her up and put her in her bed and she says 'mommy I look for you outside' I guess when I told her I was going to do pilates she thought I was going to my class!
Now I'm terrified to leave her in her room alone, she could have gotten seriously hurt climbing that high up, she already had a broken leg from climbing in a kindergym. She often wakes up earlier than me and plays quietly. What would you do to prevent this happening again?
climbing toddlers
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Tue, 2005-04-05 00:11
#1
climbing toddlers
OMG so scary.
i'm an extremist. on top of constant little talks about NOT climbing because she could get hurt really really bad, i would move the boxes to a place she couldn't reach, or make them too heavy for her to move at all (and not stacked, if you make them heavy. because then, personally, i would freak taht they would fall and hurt her), and move the shelf away from the window. and then talk, again, about not climbing on anything that isn't a toy because if it's not a toy it could hurt her really bad."
GAH.
About the climbing, prevention is probably the only thing you can really do. I have a climber who is 5 years old she never outgrew it. She climbs like a monkey and has amazing upper body strength.
I think that 30 minutes is a pretty long time out for a 3 year old. While the dangerous climbing is the immediate problem, the core prob was that she was left alone and didn't really understand what ws going on. I think it's awesome that you recognized you were angry and left the room so as not to lose your temper, but I really think 30 minutes is a long time for a kid to be alone. I don't beleive in hovering over kids while they play, but maybe a quick check-in would help.
I agree with BCPR, if this happens again, make sure you check on her and definitely let her know that you wouldn't just leave her. Did she need to be in her room? Maybe putting on a kid's cd and giving her some paper and crayons would be something that she could do. I would imagine that it could be quite worrisome for her to think that you just left her. I mean, she was looking outside for you - I think she might be a little hurt.
Tenzin is three as well, I got him a cheaper little yoga mat that I put beside mine when I do pilates and he does little stretches too. He thinks it's pretty cool. Another thing I will do is have him eat lucn in the living room where I'm doing pilates so that I can keep an eye on him and so he's not all alone. Generally though, when he needs a time out he sits on his bed for 2-3 minutes and then I go in and talk to him about what happened and why that led to him sitting on his bed. He's really into 'shaking on things' these days, so we'll discuss him not doing the things in question and then he'll want to shake hands. It usually works out. You can always put the pilates on pause, or whatever, but I think that your daughter needed a bit more security.
What about working out while she's napping or something? Three year olds, in my experience, are tremendously smart. I think you might need to talk to her about things a bit more. She needs to understand that you both need time apart, and that a playgroup can be a very fun experience.
About the climbing - well, you're probably going to have to remove stuff. We had to do this with Tenzin's toys..not so he wouldn't climb, but so he wouldn't stay up and play when he clearly needed a nap. It's worked quite well.