Dear Wiggles: My Toddler Won’t Stop Climbing

Your toddler doesn’t want to play with the furniture - they want to conquer it.

In this Dear Wiggles episode, Simon is joined by John and Caterina, who are both right in the thick of toddler life, to talk about the climbing stage: why toddlers suddenly seem drawn to every couch, chair and cot rail, what’s worth changing at home, and how to respond when your little one is determined to keep going up.

HOST
Simon Pryce

GUESTS
John Pearce
Caterina Mete

PRODUCERS
Produced by The Wiggles and Mylk Media
Madeline Joannou
Nick Webb

To submit a question for the ‘Dear Wiggles’ segment, email us at [e-mail] or head to thewiggles.com/podcast to send in a voice note.

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About The Wiggles' Podcast - Wiggle Talk

Think you’ve got parenting figured out? So do Simon and Lachy - until the toddler throws a curveball. On Wiggle Talk - a podcast for parents, Red Wiggle Simon Pryce and Purple Wiggle Lachy Gillespie tackle the tricky, funny, and unexpected moments of raising little humans.

Simon, dad to son Asher, and Lachy, father to twin daughters Lulu and Lottie and stepdad to Jasper, share the highs and lows of parenting in the early years. Alongside their own stories, they welcome guests - from parenting experts to well-known personalities - who bring fresh perspectives and practical wisdom to the table.

Each week also features Dear Wiggles- where listeners send in their questions, the things that keep them up at night, or the dilemmas they’d love another parent’s take on. Simon and Lachy talk it through with honesty, and when needed, they call in expert friends to help provide thoughtful advice and reassurance.

With decades of experience in children’s education and entertainment, The Wiggles bring their trademark warmth and playfulness to conversations on everything from sleep and routines to tantrums, play, and the big feelings that come with family life.

Two dads, no filter, figuring it out as they go.

About The Wiggles

For over three decades, The Wiggles have been a beloved cornerstone of children's entertainment, captivating and educating millions of preschoolers—and their parents—around the world. Known for their high-energy performances, catchy songs, and colourful characters, The Wiggles have built a global legacy rooted in the power of music and movement to inspire early childhood learning.

With a mission to make education fun, The Wiggles create content specifically designed for pre-K, preschool, kindergarten, and nursery school age groups. Their unique blend of music, dance, and educational content not only entertains but also helps children understand the world around them. Generations of fans who grew up watching The Wiggles are now sharing that same joy with their own children.

The Wiggles’ impact is truly global: they’ve achieved billions of music streams and YouTube views, and have sold more than 30 million albums and DVDs, along with eight million books worldwide. The Wiggles continue to dominate the preschool entertainment scene, connecting with new generations through various platforms. Their live shows consistently sell out across three continents, and their videos are enjoyed on countless broadcast and digital platforms in over 190 countries.

The Wiggles continue to dominate the preschool entertainment scene, connecting with new generations through various platforms. You can watch them on ABC Kids, Netflix, Prime Video, and Stan, and stream Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles on Prime Video. Stay connected by visiting www.thewigg

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Wiggles acknowledged the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia
and their connections to land, see and community. We pay
our respects to elders, past, present and emerging.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Welcome to Wiggle Talk, a podcast for parents. I'm Simon,
I'm the Red Wiggle and I'm also joined today by
another Red Wiggle, Caterina Today and Purple Wiggle John. Great
to see. How's a go? I like that? Did you
used to get pulled up a lot when you were younger?
About speech?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Always? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (00:41):
My parents both retaining so English was their second language.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
So we used to say, and we're.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Probably probably accidentally still saying, they open the TV, close
the light because they didn't say switch, switch on. So
I have to sometimes remember, oh no, you don't open
the TV, because that's how they knew it.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
The circuit I think closed the Circuitlo.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Yeah, actually I think it's been How about you?

Speaker 5 (01:11):
I think my biggest problem was talking really fast. I
still have this problem. Me and Lenny, my twin brother,
we mumble really quickly. I can understand what he's saying,
but we can be fast, like we're wrapping like twister.
Oh yeah, really whack and he just like a minion,
like minions, minions.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, your mum's Filipinos.

Speaker 5 (01:31):
Just Filipino. Yeah, and she didn't really help ask her
for help.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
How about you? Sorry?

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Did you?

Speaker 4 (01:38):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
With my family? Is more about that. Don't slouch? I
think because I was tall, you know those things?

Speaker 5 (01:42):
Yeah, I still do that.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
You know, my nan always wanted to make sure I
was wearing a singlet. Yes, and it's like it's thirty
five degrees. I would never say that to her because okay, yeah,
go and put my single on. But she was always
obsessed with that, whether I had a single or not.
I never quite understood that. I never quite got the
purpose of you but you know, not your fashionable single.

(02:05):
It's like your bonds are talking about the bonds, the
bond single you're there for. They're there for a purpose
I've never quite or is it to soak up sweat?
I was prepared, but they just made me sweat. So
I never understood. I never understood the purpose of the singlet.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
But yeah, we always had to wear a singlet too.
We were children always I don't know, and always like
I'm sure your parents just say that. Don't stand close
to the TV or you'll you'll go square.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
You'll get your square, you don't get mine.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
You just like all these things that our parents lies.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
You figure you had a lot of fun with your
mum though on socials. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
Yeah, My mom's hilarious, just so unpredictable like me. She's
just you don't know what you're going to get if
you just throw a question her way or whatever, and
it's always going to be something ridiculously funny. And she's
got a very strong accent because she grew up in
the Philippines and prioritize learning English. Here she prioritized learning English,
but it's still kind of broken. You can tell. It's

(03:06):
just very funny when you get her to say funny
like normal words like hippopotamus. Hey, Mom, can you say hippopotamus?
He's like, sure, hippotop whatever. It's a funny way to say.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
That's so funny because when I was using baby names,
I had to test amount of my mum because I
was like, is she going to be able to say it?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
So I remember I liked the name Shiloh, and Mom,
can you say Shiloh? And she said Charlah, and I
was like, she would.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
Have called her Charlotte, and she my mom actually loved
the name. It's so funny. She keept saying you should
name one of them Carlotta. And then she's like, like
the princess. And I was like, oh, she means Charlotte,
but Carlota is Charlotte in Italian. Okay, you didn't know

(03:54):
that Carlotta. Was like, Mom, We're not called Buck the
girl Charlotte.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Maybe we need to get both your mums on the podcast.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
Bring her in his mum just just picking a package up.
Just sit her in here.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
Good wiggle talk, talk Talk, wiggle talk. It's Dear Wiggles,
authorized by s I'm unlucky. Maybe Caterina, I'll get you
to have a read of this question.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Okay, this is from Ali and it says, deer Wiggles.
My toddler has started climbing everything, the couch chairs, even
trying to scale the cot It's like we're living in
a tiny parkour gym. Do I treat this like a
safety baby proofing problem? Or I need to teach boundaries problems?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
M that's from Ali? Yes, so Ali, that is I mean,
I do remember this from This is something I do
remember from because Asher was and he still is non.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
I would feel like it would have.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Syst and he would climb and jump on everything, the
back of couches and you know, he was all over everything.
We baby proof the apartment we're in at the time.
We had cushions taped to cabinets in front of TV.
We had the whole actually our whole floor. Those are
interlocking gym mats about an inch thick, and we had

(05:23):
a polish concrete floor and our whole house it was
gym matts of course across the whole floor because it
was such a hard floor, and so the whole it
was actually quite nice. Yeah, the whole apartment was because
it was all polish concrete was gym matts.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
That is fantas.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Just want them to explore to you don't want to
stop them.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
It's hard, isn't it because you have to give them that.

Speaker 5 (05:47):
To take risks.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
So what are your girls, like, kiddy, what stage are
they at?

Speaker 3 (05:53):
They are at the climbing stage.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
And it's funny they know that they're not meant to
because I had somebody look half the monday and they're like, oh,
they climbed the couch, but they looked at me.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Like, we're not meant to be doing this.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
So they obviously know, but they still climb up on
the window sill and luckily our TVs. I've only got
a little TV and it's very light, but they can
climb up on that bench, so I don't feel too
scared about that. But yeah, it's just all the climbing
and I keep saying, we are not going to hospital today.

Speaker 5 (06:24):
Time for that.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
You know when you buy a NIKEA cabinet and you
always get those bits you never use, which are the
bits that drill it into the walls. Have a time
that you realize why they're there. Pulled down a bookcase,
that pulled down a cabinet, and Haw's Henry.

Speaker 5 (06:42):
You see, he's climbing on everything. Lately, we've had to
mount the TV. We had a mirror that was free
standing that was resting up against the wall. Yeah it's
quite heavy as a fifty kilo mirror, but yeah, we
had to finally get that mounted up. Yeah, the wall
onto the jip rock walls probably going to rip out,
but we hadn't done properly. But we just got to
be super careful and also want him to keep climbing
because we wanted to build those gross motor skills and

(07:04):
to be able to climb and feel like what it's
like to feel like you want to living life on
edge a bit. Yeah, but we're just trying to. We
just got a helicopter a bit. We bought one of
those I was telling you before the what do they
call those toddler towers in the kitchen because he's always
at what's that? It allows them to stand up and
watch your cool called there because they're always in the
kitchen and he's always at the ankles trying to cry,

(07:26):
carry him and hold him while you're cooking, which.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Is from and then they start climbing, climb out of.

Speaker 5 (07:32):
What he's doing to get rid of it.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
So this is this is loss of influence being an
ex gymnast as she went to gymnastics, which which is
actually great because it's all about climbing, it's all about
gross motor skills, and it's a soft, padded floor and
so you can all you can do anything at all.
But you get that sense of play, in that sense
of swinging off things and jumping off things and everything,

(07:55):
which is obviously you know all children that particular age
you want to explore and wanted to so gymnastics was
actually a great thing for that. It probably just encouraged
more to do it at home.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
I know, my girls are climbing the pram now they
climb up, but they have learned now how to get
in the prep for a walk, and so they will
jump in the pram, turn around, sit down, it's coming.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
Yess what's going to happen now?

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah? It is that tricky thing. There's a balance, isn't
there of wanting to encourage it but knowing Okay.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
This is kind of dangerous, dangerous.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's funny that the helicopter term is such a feels
like such a negative. But I don't know what the
options are, you know, for them, you're just gonna sit
back or what you know, or even a playground where
they're climbing something, you're just going to let them figure
it out. I mean you can't, can you know?

Speaker 3 (08:53):
And playgrounds are really scary.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
We had a bad full of the playground and thankfully landed.
Ashual landed flat on his back and didn't hit his head,
but it was from a good few meters. Okay, this
is where we're.

Speaker 5 (09:08):
They had that tartan floor. Some of the playgrounds have
the titan. Yeah, it was a kind of softy.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It was like I didn't actually see it, but she
just ages relived that. You know when you relive those
moments and you see that in your head and the
poor little thing.

Speaker 5 (09:24):
Oh g, the preventable of the helicopters.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
I'm ready. So it is tricky, I mean, Ali, it's
really hard. I mean we did basically set up a
park or gym at home with all that packing and everything,
just because Ash was such a busy child, and so
maybe it really does depend on each individual child. We
had other friends of ours who had a daughter who

(09:53):
would just sit in color in. We went out to
dinner once and we thought, okay, this is in prime
time where you've only got a small window of time.
We got there and there's a big group of us.
We were the only ones with children, and this other
family with their little girl and they sat down and said, okay,

(10:15):
pre dinner drinks. We're like, are we just ordering? We're
just ordering food? I mean, and their child sat there
for like two and a half hours. Wow. I was
running around. There's a play area at the place we're in,
and so I'd be there at the player and come back,
have another bottom mistake, and that their child just sat

(10:35):
there for hours. So I get you know, it really
depends on the sort of child you have, that's true.
But in saying that, you do have to do your
normal baby proofing things like the corners and.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Their sockets for the aliens getting all those locks. And
it's always hard though when you go to someone's house,
isn't it there obviously don't have and you're constantly chasing
your child. Say to people, so much harder out of
home because you're set up everything.

Speaker 2 (11:04):
It's probably tricky to with grandparents.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
Got ornaments everywhere, and then also.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
You get the more ornaments and then I find grandparents
let them do anything.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
Yeah that's okay, that might break.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Oh that's okay.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Yes, we never were allowed to do that, No, I know.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean the grandparents are just like the just for
funn give a bit of ice cream. There was even
a Blue episode the other day as she was watching,
and it was about going to the grandma's house, and
they love going there so much because they all they
was watched TV. It's just like.

Speaker 4 (11:42):
That when I say to my girls, do you want
to go visit Nonna, which is grandmar entertain and they
both go ice cream because.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
I know that's what they're going to get.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
And that's the job of a grandparents.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
And look, Allie, maybe there's some in thinking that we're
all going through the same thing. Yes, that's right at
that particular time. I don't know how. You know, it's
just a case of managing it. But everybody is going
through that at that age, is going through the same phase,
and you hope you get out of it as unscathed
as possible. Exactly. It's kind of that's the aim. There
will be bruises, they might be the odd trip to

(12:19):
the hospital, but hopefully it's it's nothing ever too serious.
That's it for d Wiggles today, and once again a
big thank you to John and Katerina for coming on
wiggle Talk. One of you two read this one oh question.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
If you're okay, you've got a question, send us an
email at podcast at the Wiggles dot com dot ay.

Speaker 2 (12:37):
We might get a question from your mum's.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
Possibly love.

Speaker 5 (12:44):
Actually we'll get a record one.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yeah, do the voice memo. I'll do it. Actually, that'd
be pretty funny. But thanks thanks again guys for coming
in and everyone, thank you for listening to Wiggle Talk.
It's a podcast for parents, so