ds launches himself off slides and stairs - tips on encouraging him to sit down

[toomuchtooyoung]

apart from the obvious!
ds, 15 months will, if I don't stop him, step straight off a step at the top of the stairs, same with the slide etc. I stop him, get him to sit down, tap his bottom and say sit, his sister shows him how she sits at the top of the slide/stairs but it still hasn't sunk in. It's more like he likes launching himself to see what happens which would be fine if it weren't in dangerous places.

he wants to climb everything but then either can't get down or will hurt himself badly someday

if he'd only been doing this for a few weeks I could understand but 3 months later and he still wants to launch rather than sit.

or is it just a boy thing?

You have my sympathy and it sounds like you are doing the right thing by teaching him. Get him to Tumble Tots or something similar ASAP so at least he will be climbing/running/jumping in a safe environment and having others reinforcing the 'right' way to do stuff.

My kamikaze toddler has turned into a very confident 7 year old who will have a go at anything and not be discouraged if it doesn't work out (physically, academically and socially). He has always had great coordination, helped I think by not sitting still at all once he learned to walk at 10 months and his motto in life seems to be 'Why walk when you can run, why run when you can jump (and possibly 'why jump when you can fly'). He now loves gymnastics and diving and anything else physical and wants to be Lewis Smith or Tom Daley.

• we have been rather regular visitors at A&E over the years though.

It doesn't get better I have two like this, expect lots of mini heart attacks and having to drag them off the top of monkey bars to stop them back flipping off.

My 16 month old DS launched himself down our extremely steep stairs a couple of weeks ago - I nearly had a heart attack. We came out of the bathroom and as I was closing the door he lay down on his tummy on the landing, pulled himself forward using the top step and went down the stairs like he was on a skeleton bob. I just have this memory of running down after him as he turned on to his back, then his side then tumbled to the bottom. Of course, he was fine, I was a total sobbing wreck. Little sod.

Ironically, he still hasn't learnt how to actually come down a flight of stairs properly...

At age 2 he will be signed up for the local gymnastics club plus anything else I can find that involves crash mats!

DS2 due in February. Oh crap.

oh no, was so hoping this was a phase! just had a look for some kind of class for ds but none that works with dd's classes this term. also nowhere apart from wacky warehouse where I can take a 3 yo and 15 mo. maybe I'll have to start something

My dd is 18 months and has always refused to go down stairs on her bum. I think the problem is that she sees everyone else walk down stairs so that is how she thinks it should be done. No amount of teaching her otherwise will her convince her. We have now got to the stage where she will wait at the top of stairs and walk down holding my hand but it still terrifies me.

Sounds like you're raising an adrenaline junkie, and this just might be a facet of his personality! Expect bungee jumping at 18!

Well he probably quite likes the launching feeling! Our two little boys love being thrown around by daddy and pushing their physical boundaries. Have managed to get 14mo ds2 to slide down slide though, I think he mostly followed brother, but we encouraged him to sit by tapping slide and getting him to sit rather than allowing him to launch, holding hand on way down. If you keep letting him launch rather than encouraging otherwise he will keep doing it!

hopefully my post didn't imply that I actively let ds launch himself off dangerous places, that would clearly be stupid!

of course I continually get him to sit down but was hoping that he would have started to do it willingly on his own

obviously that's not going to happen and I'll just have to invest in a crash helmet

Hah, don't worry, didn't get that impression :) I actually thinking launching into mommy or daddy's arms is fun! I guess my automatic thought is that sliding down a slide would be obvious as to what to do but now I don't think this is necessarily the case... especially if a more exciting way is found! So they do need to be shown what is appropriate and where, even when it may seem obvious to us adults.