# I NEED them to stop jumping on furniture



## Lisa1970 (Jan 18, 2009)

DS7 and DS4 will NOT stop jumping on furniture for anything. The whole thing is massively out of control. Every chance they get, they run in to my bedroom and rip every blanket and pillow off and jump on my bed. Twice in the last couple weeks, they had friends over and repeated. I do not even want their friends in my bedroom let alone ripping apart my bed and jumping on it! My mattress is pretty well destroyed and I am having back problems. I do not dare replace the 5 yr old expensive mattress because I know they will just keep jumping. Then last night, again, ds4 was jumping on the couch and I removed him and the moment I turned away, he jumped up laughing and got on to the back of the couch and fell off, hard, on to the wood floor. He ended up with a huge bump on his head and I am shocked he was not hurt more seriously. But guess what? He was back to jumping on my bed today. Also, the couch is 1.5 yrs old and already has little tears on it.

DH wants us to spank. I just want all this to end without spanking. Help!


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## orangefoot (Oct 8, 2004)

Do they have other opportunities for bouncing and jumping around? if you can offer them other times or places they can jump then you might have more luck enforcing this boundary.

We have a little trampette in the garden, the ones you get for doing exercises on from sports shops; do you have room for one of those? Are there walls to climb near your house or things to jump off in a park? Lots of boys just need to bounce or jump or feel physically challenged.


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## Lisa1970 (Jan 18, 2009)

We have a nice big backyard, but they do not want to go in it. There is no reason really. They claim it is boring. In reality, there are some kids next door that are not good kids. My sons see them playing and then want to go play with them. My children cannot play with them, no way. Not allowed to happen. So they beg to play in the front yard where they can be around the bad kids. We do not allow this. We no longer have a swing set because my dh thinks the metal ones are tacky. But the wooden ones I have seen from Toys R us always seem to decay and fall down within a couple years and I do not want to spend that kind of money on something that will need to go to the trash so soon. We live in the south so the wood decays quickly. Our backyard is slanted anyway so I do not think we can have on. I think we would have to get one of the very expensive, several thousand dollar sets, so that they can set it up on our slanted yard. All the instructions I have seen for the sets that are less than $2K say you must have a certain area with no slant. I was considering trying to hire a landscaping company to come in and make our backyard more interesting. DH is extremely picky about what he will allow though.


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## Eman'smom (Mar 19, 2002)

We have a small indoor trampoline,that is where they jump. That way if they need to jump they have an appropriate place.


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## Chinese Pistache (May 29, 2006)

Setting aside the issue of needing to exercise and jump around, I would figure out some logical/natural consequences. We've actually had to do this because of jumping and the seams on the couch starting to unravel. We don't really have problems with this any more because we told the kids that couches are for sitting and if they couldn't treat them properly, they wouldn't be allowed on them at all. A few times, the jumping kids had to sit on the floor while everyone else had a place on the couch. The other thing is talking about how much work and money it took to buy a piece of furniture like a couch. We explained how that works and how we prioritize our money and that if we have to spend money to replace a couch they've ruined, it means no money for fun things we like to do like go to the movies or <insert whatever thing your children enjoy>. I really don't think a 4 and 7 yr old are too young to understand taking care of property. And if my kids were tearing up my room, they would have to remake it all before they got to do anything else. It's just basic respect.

That said, it sounds like your kids are bored. I'd honestly spend whatever money I needed to to make the backyard more appealing, even if it was "tacky" or if it might fall apart later. You could even check craigslist or freecyle. How can your kids see the neighbor kids from the backyard? Is there not a solid fence?


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## TinkerBelle (Jun 29, 2005)

Lock your bedroom door. That would be a start. Then give them consequences for jumping on the couch. No TV or having friends over, or something.


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## NiteNicole (May 19, 2003)

First, I'd lock the bedroom door. Problem solved. If you can't trust them not to go in, keep them out till they outgrow the jumping.

I'd also minimize the time they spend in the living room with the sofas. If their toys are there, move them somewhere else. If they're watching tv and jumping, find something else for them to do.

It sounds like it's well established that like jumping on the furniture and you don't want them to so short of making it all-out war, maybe it would be easier to just find more fun alternatives?

And they do sound bored. What kinds of things do you have for them to do outside? It's all well and good that most of us grew up outside entertaining ourselves, but we also had a lot of neighborhood kids and a lot of ground to cover, we weren't fenced in our own backyards.

Popular outside toys at my house:

water/sand table
teather ball
hiding things for each other to find (like an egg hunt)
chalk and sidewalk paint - we chalk and paint everything, the rain takes care of it
small wooden swingset (holding up fine, we're in the south too)
lots of water stuff when the weather is nice - small pool, slip and slide
hammock

My kid won't sleep unless she's exhausted so I'm all about taking her outside and wearing her out. I mean, letting her play


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## queenjane (May 17, 2004)

Your kids have clearly communicated to you the need to jump (the very normal, typical kid need, btw)....what have you done to meet this need? Its not very fair to say "NO, dont jump THERE" without following up with "jump HERE instead"...

You can get a mini trampoline (sized for one person to jump, will fit in your living room, kitchen, etc) for around $20-30, check out walmart, kmart, etc...or your local craig's list, on mine i saw about four for sale very cheap. You could get each of your kids one so they can jump at the same time.

If they dont want to play outside...are you just sending them out there ('go play outside') or do you help them find fun and interesting things to do? A "blank" backyard CAN be boring, if there isnt fun and interesting things to do there.

Can you get a cheap old couch and put it somewhere (dont know how much room you have...living room, family room, basement, one of the kids' rooms, backyard, wherever) and let them jump jump jump to their hearts' content? Or do the same with an old twin mattress? Heck, even a crib mattress might do if its springy enough, and that would be easy to store away. I bet if you ask on freecycle, someone would give you an old couch or mattress for free, or you could get one VERY cheap on craigslist.

You can drive yourself crazy with their "bad" behavior and trying to stop it, or you can try to provide a more attractive alternative.

Katherine


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## Aubergine68 (Jan 25, 2008)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *queenjane* 
Can you get a cheap old couch and put it somewhere (dont know how much room you have...living room, family room, basement, one of the kids' rooms, backyard, wherever) and let them jump jump jump to their hearts' content? Or do the same with an old twin mattress? Heck, even a crib mattress might do if its springy enough, and that would be easy to store away. I bet if you ask on freecycle, someone would give you an old couch or mattress for free, or you could get one VERY cheap on craigslist.

You can drive yourself crazy with their "bad" behavior and trying to stop it, or you can try to provide a more attractive alternative.

Katherine

We have an old twin mattress in the playroom that gets a LOT of use as a jumping place. My boys also like to jump off of a stool onto a pile of couch cushions that I scrounged from a couch we got rid of and sewed pillow covers for. It all stacks away in a corner when not in use.

This has solved the jumping problem in my home.


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## MtBikeLover (Jun 30, 2005)

I agree with locking your bedroom door.

We got a little trampoline for about $50 and the kids love it!!!

Here are some other places/ways my kids like to jump:

Off the stairs onto the floor or into a big pile of cushions. My son can jump down 5-6 steps. I close my eyes at this one because it nearly makes my hear stop.

Off the toy chest into a pile of pillows.

The other day, both kids and a friend were doing a "high" jump. Two kids held a rope while the other jumped across. Every jump they made successfully, the rope got higher. It wasn't really a rope but the Indiana Jones whip toy so it was really soft and would fall out of one of the kids hands if the jumper touched it.

I do let them jump on my bed, but it is really old so I don't think they can do any damage to it. I can see why you don't want them jumping on your bed, but can they jump on their bed?


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