I saw a compilation video of kids climbing fridges. This doesn’t seem to be on YouTube, but there are individual videos. In these videos, the adults don’t seem to mind, and some are even encouraging.
To me, it seems like a VERY bad idea for kids to be climbing fridges. Besides falling from height, there’s the greater danger of the fridge falling on them. Now you might say kids aren’t heavy enough to tip a fridge, but they are heavy enough to open a door, and the weight of the door+kid might be enough. Even if nothing happens, I still think it’s a bad habit, at least because now you have to childproof your house to the ceiling, not just out of the child’s reach.
I think it’s a bad idea. And if I had ever tried to climb our fridge when I was little, I would have gotten one helluva ass-whoopin’ with “the belt,” which was conveniently kept on top of said fridge.
:eek: Horrible idea. My mother would’ve smacked me silly if I’d ever attempted such a stupid stunt. They sometimes used the top of the fridge as a convenient place to put things they didn’t want me getting at, come to think of it.
All of these videos were recorded by a person (presumably an adult), not a security camera, and they seem rather proud of their child’s fridge-scaling abilities, so I wanted to know if I was overreacting thinking that was dangerous.
We played fairly crazy games of hide-and-seek when I was a kid and I remember hiding on top of the refrigerator (you’d be surprised how often nobody thinks to look up), being spotted by an adult, and nobody caring. Other popular spots were up on top of bookshelves, the entertainment center, climbing over the washer and dryer, etc.
The only two spots I remember anybody getting in trouble for were underneath the minivan, and inside the dryer. And climbing out a window onto the roof of the lean-to.
Nobody ever got hurt, but looking back, it probably wasn’t a great idea. My family was very strict in other areas so I’m not sure why that was so laissez-faire. I would not be so with my own future kids.
I can see why there’s a certain amount of parental pride in watching your kid do any seemingly-difficult thing, but fridges aren’t meant for climbing. I’d be concerned that the door hinge might get damaged - the hinge is designed to hang a fairly lightweight door, not the additional weight of a human.
I don’t think it’s particularly dangerous. Kids could break something like a handle, but the doors are designed to hold a lot of weight, refrigerators are very heavy, and are usually installed with cabinets above that would prevent tipping.
Even if YOU have a certified climb-safe fridge, chances are pretty good that most people you visit won’t want your toddler climbing theirs. An across the board no fridge climbing policy is the easiest way to reinforce that.
I don’t recall my son every trying to climb a fridge, which in hindsight kind of surprises me.
While I remain firmly against it, fridge climbing doesn’t seem like the most dangerous thing a toddler could find to do these days.
While the fridge we have probably wouldn’t tip, not only might other people’s, but we also have bookshelves which most assuredly *will *tip. So tolerating - or worse, celebrating - a fridge climb is setting a bad precedent. I prefer to train my children that climbing is best reserved for trees and jungle gyms, so we just have a blanket “no climbing higher than your head in the house” rule. I guess. I’ve never actually had to articulate it before, because my kids aren’t [del]idiots[/del] daredevils.
I think it’s a bad idea, but what do I know? When I questioned if it was a bad idea to encourage your children to play in the street (driveway-end basketball hoops) I was accused of hating children and not wanting to hear their melodious voices. No, I just don’t want to see them run over, and I don’t want to see a fridge drop on them either.
People are weird about their kids. They fear the wrong things (predators snatching them up and running off) and aren’t sensible about the right things (fridges, traffic, bears, Uncle Chester the Molestor).
I submit that more children are snatched by predators than are harmed by falling refrigerators.
I’ve done a brief search and haven’t found a single reference to a refrigerator harming a child by being tipped over. I did find someone hit by a fridge that was tossed off a balcony, but he wasn’t a child.
