We did it all, and honestly, it saved our butts a few times. I lamented the day we took the babygates down around the house, as Eli had full run of the place suddenly. The kicker (and cheapest) was the chain lock on the front and back door, waaaaaaaaaaay up high. These were deemed necessary after we had a few episodes where the kiddos made it out to the front porch. We need to be careful though when are Moms are here as both are short and can't reach the chain. Hmmmmm...
However, we found this to be the most effective method for keeping the kiddos in line.What did you do? What did you feel you wasted your money on?
Covering available plugs was important. Our daughter once, while at a conference with me, headed straight towards an uncovered outlet brandishing a fork. I would say covering the plugs is the cheapest and at the same time most important thing. They really do, to little eyes, look like something to stick a fork into.
ReplyDeleteGate at top of stairs was also important. Ours is still attached as she turns 7 - I use it as a handrail. Other baby gates proved to be in the way and too easily knocked down. But I think there's two ways to go about things -- lock the kid into the one room that's been childproofed and bar access from the other rooms, or childproof the whole house and then don't worry about the gates.
We put latches only on lower cabinets that contained knives or cleaning supplies. However, our latch on our main knife drawer never functioned properly, but was never an issue. Lots of doors and cabinets went unlocked without trouble, as we were never very far away.
Toilet latches? I didn't even realize there was such a thing. Waste of time and money, I would think.
After we found our two year old asleep in his crib, but with dirty feet and sand on the sheets, we figured it best to put a better lock on the back door so he couldn't go out and "play" in his sandbox in the yard in the middle of the night. Our house had two stairways, so we kept the door at the top of the "back" stairs locked at all times with he key only where Mom and Dad knew where it was.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, good judgement and a close watch worked for us!
Every kid is different, and some things, you just have to wait and see if your kid will figure it out. I used to "trap" Tessa so that she could only get into her room and our room in the morning--baby gate blocked the hallway, doors to bathroom & office were shut. She'd come in, grab a cereal bar off the bedside table (so I knew she was up but I didn't have to jump right out of bed), and go back to her room to eat it & play. That was really the only thing we needed to do.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew, on the other hand, once sneaked out of the house, ran down to the neighbor's (a quarter mile away), and was caught in their pasture pretending he was a dog and barking at the cows. He was 2. Where were the parents? Asleep, as normal, in the same room that his crib was in, where the door was shut and had one of those doorknob-thingys on it.
Some kids just "do."