Problem with new trailer, or is it the grandson?

Bird Freak wrote:
Throw him a brush and a bucket with soap and water. Tell him every time he climbs up there he has to scrub the roof. ...

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
...I'm with Bird Freak. I would give him a scrub brush and a bucket of cleaner and tell him he gets 5 bucks if he cleans my whole roof. :)

THEN .... after he cleans the roof, you can hang his wet cloths on the clothes line! :B

As a kid, I would have LOVED that job. Well, at least the first time I did it. After that the thrill might be gone. :)

Ok; I'll be odd man out.

So what's the problem with an 8 YO up on a roof?

My daughter was 4 when she was up on the roof with me fixing a few things. I told her to stay away for the edge and she will be fine. She was.......and now knows how to fix a broken shingle on a roof.

When she was 5 I taught her how to safely handle a gun and she went shooting with me. A cop friend of mine continued that on and let her shoot his AR. She had a great time and now knows how to handle and shoot guns safely.

Two weeks ago she wanted to start driving my 9 second race car. I put a throttle stop on it and off she went. She did great for the first time out in a drag car.

My point is this: No wonder child obesity is out of control and is killing our kids. Kids can't climb anything because they will get hurt. Kids can't play sports because they can get hurt. Kids can't go swimming because they might drowned.

Do what you want. I'm with Bird Freak. I would give him a scrub brush and a bucket of cleaner and tell him he gets 5 bucks if he cleans my whole roof. :)

Throw him a brush and a bucket with soap and water. Tell him every time he climbs up there he has to scrub the roof. He won't go back up.
Seriously I see no big deal with him climbing up there once to look. Tell him he knows what is up there now and stay off the ladder. If he does it again swat his butt.

Great idea here!

Wrap the ladder steps and side supports with many layers of barbed wire, or better yet razor wire. Wrapped thusly, a kid will not put his hands on the ladder to climb!

If you did not want the ladder anyway, why not just remove it?

RSD559 wrote:
Brought home our new trailer yesterday. Three of our grandkids showed up today to check it out. Our 8 year grandson discovered the ladder on the back and sure enough he was crawling around up on the roof. What do you do to keep grandkids and other folks off of your ladder? Product info would be much appreciated. And yes, he got a swat on the butt from his mom when he came down.

Was there any reason for him to know that he shouldn't climb the ladder? Is he a problem normally, is he a problem product of his parents? If not ask him if he saw anything up there that you should be concerned about and explain the safety aspects of the roof resort. I've been known to sleep on the hardtop of my cruiser anchored in the middle of the river and I recommend it to others, fresh air, no bugs and hope the rails prevent you from rolling over the edge. Grandparents and 8 year old kids should have a symbiotic relationship, helps make the ages blend. If the kid's a basic pitha then Gramps probably has a problem with child rearing and nothing posted here is going to help. No mine are not perfect but I accept that.

toedtoes wrote:

Lantley wrote:
Somehow I expect the kid to recognize the RV was not a playground and the ladder was not a set of monkey bars. Did any of the adults climb the ladder?
Could the kid not comprehend that the family was checking out grandpa's RV and that he should stay with the adults vs. going off on his own. The kids was 8 not 3. At that point he is old enough to comprehend the situation and understand right from wrong.
I guess everyone was raised differently. I guarantee my kids would have not behaved that way and neither would I.
But at the end of the day maybe I was disciplined and raised to adhere to a higher standard.

Yes, he's 8 not 3. Why would he need to stand at attention at his parents' side all that time? He was just looking around.
How is that wrong? How does that equate to him not being disciplined? How does that equate to his not knowing right from wrong?

Somehow I doubt that the majority of folks on this forum would have known at 8 years old that a trailer ladder was not for climbing up to walk on the roof. And I doubt most would have thought they were doing something so obviously wrong by doing that.

But then I'm not 188 years old with a brain so wizzened it can't remember being a kid.

I certainly remember being a kid. I just had more discipline and common sense that I knew better than to climb up the ladder to the roof of the RV.
If my young mind even thought of it, all it took was a look from my parents for me to grasp that it wasn't a good idea.
It didn't take me until I was a teenager to understand right from wrong I knew an RV was not my playground:S

RSD559 wrote:
... but we have 13 other grandchildren who we will be traveling to see in the next few weeks. ... I don't dare step on the thing. ...

If you will not be using the ladder yourself, but yet it's already installed on your camper, they why not put it to "work" for you.

Not only an easy solution to detour the kids from climbing on it, but also has many other functional uses. Anyone who has read my posts and comments very long knows that I am a very strong advocate for having items in the camper, and all camping gear that serves multiple purposes. For example, a pair of meat cutting scissors is all you need in a camper because it will also cut metal wire, paper, plastic, thread, cloth, rope. So why carry a dozen different types of scissors that takes up room that needed for something else, when one single set of good butcher block knives (with the scissors) will do it all? Not to mention, why carry a hammer when you've got one already built into a hatchet head? You get the idea?

So, with your ladder, you have a lot of options for things you could use it for, and all of these serves a double purpose. Not only for holding something, but as a deterrent for the kids climb on it. Here's one that's easy, easy to remove when traveling, and DEFINITELY something you'll find comes in VERY VERY handy .... especially with 13 grandkids coming along! If I had a ladder myself, I'd make one of these in a heartbeat! With 13 grandkid along sometime, your going to need clothsline space! I guarantee it, especially the first time you let them go swimming! Not to mention all the towels you'll be going through for showers, muddy feet, bed-wetting, and who knows what else!

We do a lot of camping at Indiana State Recreation Areas (as well as state parks). But most of the Recreation Areas are along bodies of water and the attraction is for boaters. Campsites are usually bigger to accommodate a boat and a camper. Over the years, I have seen many, many, many boat campers use a variation of this (photo below) to hang swim suits and towels on. (and those that don't, hang them on the sides of their boats, over the boat windshields, all over their picnic tables, in the trees, and everywhere else they can.) So, it really is a useful modification.



The other thing I'm seeing more and more of, more with trailers that don't have ladders, are folks attaching something like this to their trailer bumpers. If you did this, it would block the ladder, plus give you that clothsline space. Easy to remove when traveling, and serves a pretty good purpose.

Do the same thing you did when you were raising your grandson's parent... when they do stuff they shouldn't be doing, tell them to stop doing it. If they don't listen, discipline them.