To let dd climb on the bannister?

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

That really.

Do you let your dcs?
Dp used to as a child, I used to. He thinks dd shouldn't as 'it's not a climbing frame'.
She's 9 btw

We had a lovely shiny polished bannister at home when I was little which went around a corner, our favourite game was sticking a fluffy towel over it and sliding down in the mornings before my parents were up.

We ended up loosening the bannister at the base going into the wall, much to my Dad's rage...

So I would say YY if you want your little ones to have lots of fun, no if you're houseproud though!

I let my 4 year old. He loves whooshing down it.

Ww dont allow it as our are steep but they can slide down the stairs in sleeping bags

I don't like my 6 year old doing it but I don't like the footprints or handprints on the wall. DD takes very little notice and at the moment I can't forsee a day when she will stop unless the bannister ripped out of the wall.

I dont encourage any climbing or any other kind of acrobatics on the stairs as a general rule.

My brother and I used to slide down the bannister all the time as children.

We were firmly told not to, on account we'd crack our heads open.

Of course we did. Parents knew. Nothing was said as they never caught us at it (no heads were cracked open. If they were we'd have been in trouble but only after A&E and all the fussing that gets you). Everyone was happy!

YABU

Dangerous!
As are stairs.
I spent time in hospital having jumped down stairs from too high. DH is right

I used to climb up the bannisters on the 'wrong side' as a child - the thought of my kids doing that now makes me feel queezy. Although to be fair ours would involve landing on a sideboard with glass/ceramic and other sharp objects, so not quite the same.

Used to love going down the bannisters at my cousins house - they had four floors!

Yabu
Dont play on the stairs, its dangerous.
And i know i sound hysterical. [bluas]

I did until I spotted that the paintwork was getting chipped on the banisters. Now they're not allowed but still can't resist occasionally and I don't blame them

It's just as dangerous as tree climbing which is actively encouraged

No. Unless they are very strong they could collapse or if spindles are too far apart a foot can get stuck and you have a broken ankle.

My grandparents had a staircase that went around a corner and my siblings and I would walk around the outside edge (the grown ups were too busy smoking and gossiping to notice)

My sons do slide down our bannisters, if I catch 'em I do tell them that's it's really dangerous, however if I'm unobserved I do like to swing myself down the last 5 stairs via the bannisters.

Me and DB used to swing around the railing poles at the bottom of the stairs. They had to be replaced because they were so wobbly and we ruined the holes where the nails went in.

It's like chinese water torture. Once or twice won't hurt, but over time your banister that's not meant to bear the weight of children will break down (and could then become dangerous).

No, it's dangerous and it'll damage your staircase.

At 9 she is more than old enough to understand indoor and outdoor behaviour.

Spectacularly sturdy bannisters are one reason we bought our house (previous one had beautiful but non-childproof ones). Sliding is one of the children's hobbies. They also climb up the outside of the staircase.

Depends on the children and depends on the bannisters. Think you just have to do your own risk assessment really.

Trouble is, if you decide that your own children are safe enough to do this, they might encourage visiting friends to join in, those friends might be wobbly climbers or not so confident, or their parents might be (understandably) horrified.

If you forbid your kids to climb on the bannisters, of course they will do it anyway, but will do it much less and you can pretend you don't know about it.

(I have such fond memories of jumping over the bannisters at my friends house - I jumped right from the top, so a whole storey, quite regularly. I would hate to watch ds1 do that but reckon he could probably do it safely because he is pretty agile already)

We encourage climbing of anything. DH and I were are both keen mountaineers and would rather teach the DCs how to do it safely than ban it.

Plus we have a vested interest in getting them climbing so we can get back to it at some point.