Funny Valentine's Day Poems to Give Your Kids
Modamily Site Helps You Find Someone to Have a Baby With
Perfect Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
‘No Child Left Behind’ Screeches to a Halt
Brave Girl Won't Let Rare Disease Steal Her Childhood (VIDEO)
Pink Ribbons Hide the Real Truth About Breast Cancer
Would You Wear These Fang Shoes?!
Mom Delivers 15.5 Pound Baby Boy (VIDEO)
Heart Cookie Pops Perfect for Valentine's Day
Obama's Marshmallow Fight at the White House (VIDEO)
7 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prevent Cancer
Beyonce Trademarks 'Blue Ivy' & Starts a Celebrity Trend
5 Great Gifts for Your Techie Valentine
Angelina & Brad Are Letting Maddox Do What?!
Should the Department of Education Be Abolished?
Photo by saramomofthree
Lenore Skenazy is one of my favorite bloggers. You might remember her as the mom who let her 9-year-old ride the subway alone. I love her "Free Range Kids" philosophy of raising children -- that we should stop all the hovering, directing, and overprotecting and let our kids be kids.
In a recent post, Skenazy talks about babyproofing fanatics who are not only obsessed about insulating their toddlers from dangers in their own homes, but in other people's houses, as well. Skenazy writes,
"Now of course, the idea of a kid getting into someone's cabinet and chugging the Palmolive is very disturbing. But so is the idea that the world has to be baby-proofed. You can't lock every cabinet and cushion every corner, and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't even try. At some point -- and I do mean point -- a child learns: Corners hurt! Steer away! And thus begins a lifetime of trying to avoid careening into things."
When I was pregnant with my first, I was paranoid about our radiators and was determined to build covers for them. I had terrible visions of my
little toddler crawling up the burning hot metal rungs and getting third-degree burns. Well, life takes over, and we never made
the covers. To this day, our radiators are exposed, and somewhere along the
lines, through trial and error, I suppose, our kids did learn to stay away -- without a trip to the ER.
What about you? Are you a baby-proofing fanatic or are you like Skenazy?
Comments (8)
I believe strongly in house-proofing the child, not child-proofing the house! I can't expect everyone's house to be childproofed either so I make sure to train my kids what's ok to touch and what's not. Through trial and error and an occasional flick on the back of their hand, they learn what "no" means.
Plus, how can I expect them to deal with temptations out in the world without first training them to deal with temptations inside the home? It drives me crazy when somebody, especially if they're visiting MY home, starts putting my stuff up and out of the way so my kids can't get at it...
I think I take a middle of the road approach. When my twins became mobile I took my cue from them. We put plugs in the outlets, put a lock on the cabinet under the kitchen sink, put a gate at the top of the stairs, and closed some doors. They were free to move about the upstairs as they pleased and could explore without me having to worry. Friends would come over and go crazy trying to keep their kids out of the kitchen. I'd say "hey, don't worry, there's nothing in there that can harm them. let them explore" My guys were really fascinated with the cabinets at first but those lost their charm soon enough and now they hardly touch them.
As they got older I started opening doors, saving the bathroom for last. By the time they were 15 mos they had the run of the entire upstairs. They have yet to play with the toilet and eventhough they have stools and know how to push them over to the sink, they don't. They've learned when we stand at the sink and when we don't. I did have to remove some lamps off bedside tables and couldn't put the dog's water down but they eventually learned and those things were able to be put back.
They're 24 mos now and I've been leaving them to go switch laundry downstairs or steal a minute or two here on CM without worry. It doesn't hurt that I can hear them very well no matter where I am in the house and I know that if it's dead silent, someone is doing something naughty but that doesn't happen too often.
Well I dont baby proof I shut the door to my bedroom and the bathroom because she does try to get in the toilet.. The kitchen has a gate sometimes but not all the time I dont mind her playing in the cabinets I put plug covers on the outlets but she likes to play with them (the covers not the out lets) and she takes them off!! She could care less about the outletsOther than that we just tell her no and steer her away and she is pretty good about it though she is only 15 months and knows what is ok and what is not. Now if I could just get her to stop going behind the couch!
Hmm, definitely a middle of the road approach here too. We did babyproof when the alternative might mean serious injury or worse. We have a series of baby gates throughout the house, but now they are pretty much all open except the ones at the top and bottom of the stairs. Outlets were covered, and poisonous substances were put up and out of reach. We installed a wood stove this year, and we didn't put a gate around it. First of all we chose a stove with a built in safety feature - it's a box stove, so there is a big "box" that the actual stove is encased in, and the outer frame doesn't get scalding hot. You'd really have to press a part of your body against it intentionaly to get a burn. But, we have raised him to have a good understanding about the way to behave around hot things, like wood stoves. We have never even had a close call with our stove, I'm happy to say, and he will say things to me like "Watch out, Mama! The stove is hot!"
The only baby proofing I have done is outlet covers, cabinet latches for under the sink and where there is glass, and I close his brothers bedroom doors and the bathroom door. They are off limits unless someone is with him.
I agree w/ dovetailthreads - I teach my kid to respect the things around him instead of locking everything up for the forseeable future. When he attempted to play w/ electric cords, I stuck a MR YUK sticker on one and he know's anything w/ a MR YUK sticker is HANDS OFF. That said, we've put a gate up in the living room now that we've got the tree up, mainly b/c I don't want the dogs on the couches, but also b/c I have a very valuable (sentimentally) nativity set that I dont' want to catch him playing with like Little People toys.
We spent a pretty penny buying all the door knob protectors, cabinet safety latches and outlet covers. The only thing that has proved itself actually 'childproof' is the outlet covers. My ds quickly learned how to work the door knob covers and the safety latches for the cabinets only proved a danger for MY fingers (lol). The best thing I have found to keep him out of my cabinets is an elastic scrunchie. On the double doors underneath my sink, the knobs are parallel. I just wrap the scrunchie around the knobs tightly. He can't get in them and I don't peel the skin back on my fingers trying to get in them....lol
What is wrong with that woman???? In this world letting a 9 year old ride the subway alone! Does she have a death wish for this poor child? As for baby-proofing. I did it. I had three kids and the house was safe for all of them. Why put our children at risk. They are so darn quick. Turn your back and they can be into anything. When my 33 year old was 3, he ate a bottle of baby aspirin and fed some to the cat. I had put them high on the windowsill in the bathroom not thinking he would climb up on the toilet seat! Some syrup of Ipecac and a trip to the hospital and everyone was fine. Thank the Lord. Baby-proof those houses, Mommas, and never underestimate your children's curiosity.