Children are people with great variation in disposition, and people have different ‘stuff’. I have noticed that working moms do not child proof their house as much. If I didn’t take those steps, I would have had to keep an eye on my child at all times and being a stay at home mom, I just could not handle that. I did this so I could take a shower during the day without worrying what my baby was choking on or breaking something. I completely baby-proofed my living room and set up gates so my dining room could remain a baby free zone and “adult” area with all my dangerous adult knick-knacks I was not willing to box up. I did not install a toilet lock but I did install locks on the bathroom doors so I didn’t have to put all my medications away. I used outlet covers on outlets I did not use because it was just a very simple fix. I installed locks on my cabinets because I didn’t want it to be a constant battle in my house. The bookshelves and anything heavy enough to kill if fallen were anchored. I child proofed certain things in my house while ignoring others and it is all about the level of risk and the level of supervision I was comfortable with. My parents smoked around me constantly and “I survived” but when I took a drag off my first cigarette at age 13, I didn’t cough. I have heard this same excuse from parents that insist on smoking in the car with their children inside (sometimes with the windows closed). Knowledge is power and over the years we have learned things that we should think about implementing in the future rather than ignoring them because “we survived”. Just because you survived under certain circumstances does not mean anything at all when it comes to your kid’s likelihood of survival. I also do not like the excuse of “Well I survived so my kid can too.” While that works for some things, it doesn’t work for all. The fact that you have had no major accidents is more likely attributed to a little bit of luck and a lot of supervision. Kids that young are not capable of reasoning things out. I reject the notion that you can “teach” a baby not to touch certain things. While kidnappings are very rare, accidents in the house are not. It is all about what sort of risk is acceptable to you. I tend not to judge people for minor things like this but I am not going agree with you that your child is perfectly safe in a house that is not child proofed because you “taught” them. They are huge, heavy, and act as a room divider, and our thought was that a visiting adult could knock them over and get injured just as easily as a child.Īre we doing something wrong by not child-proofing our house and our life? Am I putting my child in constant danger? Until I got the dirty look a few days ago, I thought we were doing it right! Our one concession to childproofing was anchoring our bookshelves. She has never once tried to stick something in a power socket. She understands that the things she is currently too young to touch, she will be taught how to use as she gets older. She knows what can and cannot be played with in our house. She is independent and curious about her world. She simply said “I taught you.” Though according to her, we did come close on the “burning the place down” thing a couple of times. I asked her how she kept us from losing limbs or burning the place down. It was an 1800s farmhouse with sharp corners, gas stove, steep steps, woodburning fireplace – the works. All I could do was sort of mumble “It’s safer.” And, “Aren’t we supposed to?”Īt this point, my mom reminded me that the home my siblings and I grew up in wasn’t baby-proofed at all (we were all born in the ’70s). I mentioned (rather apologetically) that we still needed to baby-proof the house. We had been there since our daughter was nine months old and hadn’t yet managed to unpack everything, let alone install highly complicated locking mechanisms on our toilets. My mother had just come to visit for my older daughter’s first birthday, and it was also her first time in our new home. She looked at me like I was a monster!I can remember when I made the decision not to lock my fridge, cover every outlet, and baby-proof every cabinet near the floor. And that I actually don’t really believe in it. Dear Free-Range Kids: I’d love to get your input on this!I recently mentioned to an acquaintance who also has young children that my house isn’t baby-proofed.
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