Rough-housing: how much do you tolerate?

Jumping on the bed. Climbing on the furniture. Wrestling on the floor. How much rough-housing do you tolerate?

I'm usually telling my kids to quit it the second I see them doing something I think is unsafe: jumping from the ottoman to the sofa. Sitting on top of one another. And the all time classic of jumping on the bed. I do it more out of fear they'll fall and bash their heads in on the coffee table. I just don't really relish trips to the emergency room. Luckily my kids don't rough-house too much.

But I sure was surprised to read that research now shows jumping off the bed increases bone mass in kids. So now I'm thinking I should promote jumping. But maybe just standing long-jumps on the floor.

How about you? Are your monkeys frequently found jumping on the bed? How much do you tolerate, and what do you absolutely forbid?

Comments

[Hope]

At our house, furniture is for sitting on or laying down on. Absolutely no jumping. We bought "joeys"(big ball the kid sits on and ears to hold onto for support) for the kids to bounce up and down the hallway and around the living room with. If I catch them jumping on furniture, I remind them that if they want to jump, it's time to go get the joeys. And they do - every time. Once they get a little bigger I think a trampoline is in our future. Wrestling on the floor depends on what kind of mood I'm in that day. Luckily the little one usually starts to cry shortly after they begin so I use that as my excuse to stop it.

[Heather]

Like Hope, we don't allow jumping on any furniture. I don't want them to get hurt, but mostly I don't want wear out the furniture. A friend had a good solution for this -- she threw an old mattress onto the floor of the playroom for the kids. My kids do a little rough housing, but inevitably someone gets hurt and that's the end of that!