Anyone else have a timid kid?

watercolor5

Sophia is smart as a whip, but extremely timid when it comes to physical things.  The kid still asks for help when she wants to climb up on the couch.  She was scared of the baby swing at the park, and refused to go in it until she saw Julia do it. 

Is there anything I can do, other than frequent playground trips, encouragement, and showing her how to do things herself, to help her become more willing to explore her physical environment?  Anyone else have kids who don't like to climb?  We don't have any gyms around here that I know of- I'd love to do baby gymnastics or something like that.

BeebopandBuddy

Maya is timid and, frankly, lazy. In some cases. She has done a lot more things on her own since Ethan does them and since seeing her friends at preschool do them. We just keep encouraging her. We make a deal of praising when she tries things and a huge deal when she's successful at something she was wary to try. She still won't participate in things without a lot of encouragement and sometimes she just says "I can't" and flat out refuses to try.

elizabethwig

my kid is cautious for sure. the other day, i was making the 'springy' car thing at the park wobble and she kept saying 'careful, mummy! careful!'

i love that she's not a climber (crib for lyfe!), but i do try to encourage her whenever there's something that looks fun but is just outside her comfort zone.  i won't force her to try something that scares her, but will do it myself to show her i had fun.  along with watching that you're not sending the wrong messages (e.g. you're terrified of heights and the kid picks up on it... doubt very much that's it in your case... couches aren't skyscrapers), it sounds like you're doing fine. some kids are just cautious. DD is generally timid (socially as well), so i just think that's who she is and that's cool with me if it's cool with her.