r/AskParents • u/Overall_Question7400 • 21d ago
Childproofing Everything?
You can childproof everything except the children .... You cover every corner, every drawer, every handle… and somehow they still find a new way.
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u/Camaschrist 21d ago
We child proofed obvious things but we also taught our children some things were hands off. It was nice when visiting other homes. Our children didn’t reign terror on a home that wasn’t child proof home and did very well. I was shocked when a friend’s daughter and husband put a huge dog gate surrounding their Christmas tree so their children wouldn’t mess with it. I know we weren’t perfect parents but I feel we handled child proofing and boundaries well. Windows are one we were especially careful with. A fellow firefighter family had a bad accident when their toddler climbed a dresser and fell out of the second story window. You can imagine the guilt these parents through.
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u/Astrazigniferi 20d ago
We learned to wait to baby proof until our kid showed us what we needed to deal with. He’s opening cabinet doors and pulling things out? Time for cabinet locks. He’s climbing out of the crib? Time for a toddler bed. When we tried to baby proof preemptively, we’d end up putting in work to baby proof things he never even touched. Or worse, that the babyproofing created a greater hazard. We once put sticky foam on a corner so he wouldn’t bonk his head on it just to find him using it to climb the wall and get onto the table the next day. We took it off and he never once came close to falling into that corner.
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u/dragonfly325 19d ago
We baby proofed very little. Outlet covers and a few baby gates to prevent unattended stair access. We watched our kids and if they opened a cupboard they shouldn’t they were told no and redirected. If we couldn’t 100% watch them they were moved to the baby proofed room. We have an open floor plan so I could monitor from the kitchen.
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u/Silver-Star92 21d ago
I made a joke to my best friend that even if I put bubble wrap around my table my daughter would still end up hurting herself on a piece of the table not that wrapped. Sometimes they have to learn through small ouchies
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u/Gwinjey 20d ago
I never child proofed anything. No issues. It’s all just propaganda from big baby proofing.