do you allow your children to play with any balls inside the house?

[Tutter]

at all?

ds is 15mo and has been allowed to play with small soft balls. am foreseeing trouble when he gets older and stronger (and, ahem, the balls are bigger) and wonderr whether banning them completely is the way forward?

Absolutely not.

Generally we store big balls outside (and they're "outside" toys, so aren't allowed indoors - an effective ban). We do have some small balls inside though (a beach ball with a world map on it, some small rubber bouncy balls, etc) although there's a ban on throwing things next to the fish tank!

In general though, we just have a blanket "no throwing hard toys" ban which seems to do the trick safety wise. But then again, there's precious little breakable stuff in the living room (main play area) anyway (except said fish tank!).

Boys are aged 5 and 2.

We have soft spongey balls and she can hit them with a raquet in the hall (which is a biggish square room) with the other doors closed. Wouldn't smash or damage anything they hit, so doesn't bother me.

yeah as we've got a beach ball and no high throwing is allowed

My children are allowed to play with small bouncy balls on the hall with the doors closed. Doors closed bit is so that I am not forever retrieving it from under the fridge or behind the TV. The hall has limited furniture and a hard floor so good for bouncing. If they played with the bouncy balls outside they would be lost in seconds. As it is due to the sloping lawn I am forever searching for balls in among the undergrowth.

Also leather footballs not allowed in the garden. They break too many plant pots.

yes. he's 22mo.

I tell him not to throw heavier things and so far it's been ok. I imagine it depends on the child though.

and he's got a full-size football which stays outside.

He can play with mini (leather) footballs inside. We don't have many ornaments anyway

DS is 5 though and can give a leather football a fair wellie. DD who is 2 just has the same rules. The leather football rule was introduced this summer.

4yo DD has always been allowed soft spongy type balls in the house, and knows now not to thrown them high or bouncethem all over. She just plays sensibly with them, normally with daddy. She just got a tennis racket and daddy has been using rolled up socks with her! lol

DS and DD absolutely love playing with their bouncy balls on the hall. They still manange to loose them despite the bare minimum of furniture and clutter on there.

Tutter, I'm sure you can change the rules when your ds gets older if you need to (I don't think I'll be letting ds boot footballs round the house when he's 5 either).

We allow small balls, soft balls, and a huge birthing/exercise ball to be played with in the house. Categorically not footballs. Also, they are restricted to certain rooms and have to stay on the floor except in the entrance hall/corridor, where there's little to be knocked over or broken by bouncing balls. So far it's worked fine. Ours are 6 and 3.

hmmmm i think the damage may already have been done when we encouraged him to play with those little fisher price rollalong balls. he sometimes tries to throw them, as well as other small hard toys.

think we may have to identify one small soft ball which is allowed inside, and banish all others outside. shame, as he can occupy himself for ages chucking his nemo beach ball around.

he also plays with my exercise/birthinf ball, but i think that's different, as he pushes it along rather than throwing it.

Children aren't the problem. It's dh!

DS threw my birthing ball down the stairs and nearly demolished the coat stand in the process.

ditto to hannahsaunt.

mine do

mine do aswell

Message withdrawn

I plan on changing the rules or changing house!

Ideally I'll sidestep the issue by having a house which is an industrial conversion with plenty of space for indoor ballgames. But then thats the crux of the matter. I hope that by the time DS is old enough to cause seriuos damage he is old enough to understand rules like:
we don't throw things inside the house where they might break things or hurt people.

I don't think there's an issue as long as you feel confident about setting rules. I mena at 12 months DS was fed by me in a bumbo in the living room and was allowed to spit out his food- I don't expect him to be doing that when he is 5yrs! (I hope- he won't fit in a bumbo by then!)

I used to give my dd balloons instead of balls in the house, then we graduated to very soft spongy balls. Now she's only interested in proper balls so has to go outside with them. There is one room where nothing much could get broken so she can use balls in there too, but carefully.

Yes and then regret it when it rattles off the tv or the window.