I have an honest admission. I did the bare minimum when it came to child-proofing my home for both my children. Even with #1 when practically everything else made me neurotically protective, I somehow didn’t feel the need to change the look or layout of our house. The truth is, I didn’t want to look at foam bumpers everywhere… And thank goodness we have not had any crazy head smashing accidents… yet. (me: knocking on wood as I type)
But, I did put plastic covers on ALL of my outlets and ’til this day, they are still in tact.
Because dear friends, things like this happen on a daily basis…
And they happen in a split second.
This photo (which almost gave me a heart attack) was taken by a dear friend, who stayed at the Montage Laguna Beach with her husband and three gorgeous children this past winter when they visited from New York. Their kids are amazingly well mannered, but they are kids none-the-less and she took this photo in her hotel room and texted it to me saying, “This is us right now. Leaving hotel soon.”
Two seconds. That’s all it took. She literally looked away from her 2 year old for 2 seconds to tend to her youngest.
THANK GOODNESS there was that plastic piece on the head of that key!
So when child-proofing your home, go nuts and do as much as you feel necessary to protect those darlings! It’s such a fleeting amount of time that they are so little. Those awful edge bumpers and corner guards won’t be there forever. But if you are like me and don’t really want to child-proof everything, in the barest of minimums, please, please, please, cover your outlets. And throw a few plastic outlet covers into your bag when you are traveling.
Other musts when childproofing:
- Safety Gates (installed securely) at the top and bottom of staircases. Sometimes as in our case, also at the front door because we had a runner/escape artist and we live on a very busy street.
- Locking mechanisms on cabinet doors and drawers containing hazardous products. They sell ones that can be mounted to the inside of the doors/drawers so you don’t even have to know they are there! (like these)
- Secure laundry and other chemicals out of sight and out of reach. I know it sounds stupidly obvious, but I’m totally guilty of leaving Costco size tubes of Clorox Wipes out on counter tops. We are past the ‘put everything in the mouth’ stage, but it’s a good habit to maintain. Put them away!
- Bolting Bookcases and drawers to the wall. And please, take the few extra steps to find a stud. There is no point in drilling into crumbly drywall which will support nothing. (IKEA Malm drawer tip-over lawsuit)
- Secure medications in out of reach, preferably lockable medicine cabinets.
For me, the number one greatest tip on child safety would be – talking and warning your children about the dangers around the house. I truly believe this is what has prevented me from having to transform my home into a padded asylum. From a very early age, the boys knew what absolutely, without compromise, was off-limits and why. Knowledge is power right? The more they know, the smarter they can be when making choices of what is appropriate to play with, on or around, jump off of, or what can be consumed and what things are strictly a no-no because of the potential life threatening dangers. Or more like the wrath of the tiger mom.
Keep those kidlettes safe and healthy!
-K