Weeks ago I bought a box of those climbing wall holds or whatever you call'em.
After I finished a few small DIY projects from the honey-do list today, I installed the holds going up the trunk of the biggest maple tree in my yard; its diameter is easily 24" or more. Now I could climb the 10 feet or so to the first big outbranching, and it's a cool place to chill, "you can see everything from up there", etc., and if you want to climb higher the branching makes it easy. Basically a really exciting project and I was proud of it.
But I immediately realized I'd created a huge liability, what with all the neighborhood kids. So then I went on a big diplomatic trip, practically door to door, telling every kid and parent I could find that the kids are welcome to play in my yard (all the kids play in everyone's yards) but the tree is off-limits unless an adult is present.
Not every kid got the memo, though, and later when I was inside with the baby I saw one boy, maybe 11 or 12 years old, start climbing it and I had to rush out holding the baby and "yell" at him. (More like in an authoritative but non-threatening voice tell him the same thing I'd told everyone else.)
So now it's got me paranoid, and I'm kind of regretting putting the holds on the tree. I'm thinking about big ugly gate-like contraptions I can affix over the lower holds that I can lock and unlock and swing aside (sort of like
these things that are used to control access to ladders), and none of that is very appealing.
What's funny is there's a ton of tree-houses in this neighborhood, and I never see any of the kids playing in them!
Anyway, I might eventually take the holds out and at least reinstall them on the side of the tree I can see from the living room. I had avoided that side before because that's the same side where the swing is and I didn't want a scenario where one kid is swinging and one kid is climbing and the swinging kid kicks or bumps into the climbing kid...but I guess that would be better than worrying all the time about who's climbing up the far side of the tree.