It appears that there is a battle royal going on about the value and message of childproofing a home. I just spent a couple of hours reading thoroughly depressing online comments of mothers and fathers who were in full fury at grandparents, neighbors, and members of the general public who didn't or wouldn't childproof their homes. According to this particular set of mothers and fathers, the main task of parents is to protect children from any and all harm. The sites where I found these defensive rants against a hostile world, were selling childproofing products. Paranoia encouraged by marketing!
I believe in childproofing. Yes, indeed I do. Put the sharp implements out of the way. Until you are ready to oversee use of the stairs, put safety gates up. Lock up the chemicals and the meds. Get the breakables out of harms way until you are ready teach the child(ren) what they may and may not touch. (Note all the “until[s]”) And last, know your children and grandchildren well enough to add the extra things necessary for the special needs of a particular child.
Having said all that, I believe first and foremost, in Montessori's practice of making it possible for the child to manage and navigate her environment safely and successfully.
I've selected two excellent examples of safety products which help accomplish that goal The first company has designs for two different kinds of hand rails.
This is KidCo again. The PeaPod travel bed I wrote about earlier is a KidCo. product. This company has someone at the helm of the product design department with good sense and good taste. You can get both of these designs at Amazon for a reasonable price.
There were several other good products shown at KidCo. Rather than describe them all, I'm putting in a link so you can look for yourself. Be sure to check out their products for stoves and their various cupboard and door locks. I don't think you need many but you may want locks for the cleaning supplies and the tool cupboard etc. The two products that they sell which I think are absolutely pointless are the bedrails which only get in the way of kids trying to get to the toilet in the middle of the night, and toilet locks. Honestly!
Here's the other big winner. Instead of shutting your grandchild out of the kitchen, the Learning Tower gives a child a safe way to work with Grandma and Grandpa at counter level. Note that floor of the tower can be changed as your grandchild grows or when s/he stands at a counter of a different height. This, plus some terrific Montessori kitchen equipment, has all the necessary ingredients for a fascinating toddler/preschooler investigation. This product has other interesting uses as well.
Other Sensible products.
For 2nd story decks, we bought flexible netting from a hardware store to go around the deck rail and put a sturdy old stair gate in front of the the spiral stairs. The stair gate will stay up until the children's legs are long enough to safely get from stair to stair and their arms are long enough to comfortably reach the rail. The netting will stay up until we have no more 1 month to 24 month old babies. If the deck were at the first floor level, we likely would not have gone to all the trouble. By time Tav was 2 years old, he was successfully jumping from first floor decks and porches to the ground.
I did run into a bathroom emergency door lock release that would have been handy in a different life time for hauling drunks out of the bathroom at parties. I'm not sure it's a necessity for child safety but it's definitely worth a thought for gatherings where Uncle Jake drinks more than is discrete.
This is a good point to start a discussion about how to help young children and babies stay safe without limiting their need to explore and experiment . If you've found other products that help provide safety while allowing an infant/toddler/pre-schooler to better control her environment, please jump in and tell on.
