March 15, 2010

Baby Proofing... Not Just for Babies

The other day I was shopping for a baby gate. I had to laugh at the age recommendation "0-2 years old." Does that mean my four year olds are too old for this stuff?
I still have my outlets covered. In truth, though, I sometimes forget to replace the covers and the girls have left them alone. Maybe I can remove those.
I still have locks on my cabinets. From the beginning, the locks have been more of a sanity-saver than a safety issue (except for the lock on the cabinet with the cleaning supplies, of course). As toddlers, my daughters felt any cabinet was an open invitation for play. Any pot? A drum or cymbals. I don't regret putting a lock on each and every cabinet within their reach.
Baby monitor? Still use it. Their room (nope, the big split still hasn't happened, give us a few weeks) is at the opposite end of the hallway from ours. I'm a deep sleeper and rely on the monitor for alerts to nightmares and vomiting.
Back to the gate... I was in the market for a gate with a swinging door. I still put a gate at the top of the steps at night and I'm tired of climbing over it. It's becoming a safety issue... for me! In the middle of the night while getting up for a drink I've nearly taken dives down the steps trying to get over that thing. Having a gate with a door is so much more convenient. So why not ditch the gate? About a month ago I went into my daughters' room for their "final check." Roo woke up and needed to use the bathroom. I watched her stumble down the hall (she was practically still asleep) and had I not been there, I'm confident she would have fallen down the steps. She staggered by the staircase, lost her bearings and I had to dive to catch her. She forgot about the incident by the morning, but it has stuck with me. The "accordian" gate went up that night. In my defense, that's the only gate we still use.
Am I the only one with a preschooler (or four) who can't bear to give up all the baby proofing?

6 comments:

MaryAnne said...

We have no stairs in our house (slab ranch with no basement), but I have a gate that I get out JUST for play dates - we block off the bedrooms so they can run freely through the rest of the house!

Stephanie Barr said...

Even before my two year old was born, we kept a gate at the top of the stairs. After my son pushing any and all friction ones down the stairs, sometimes riding it like a surfboard, we invested in a permanently mounted swinging gate one.

It is the best and strong enough to take a kid careening into it at top speed.

http://www.amazon.com/Cardinal-Gates-MG25-T-C-Duragate/dp/B002CGRSV4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=baby-products&qid=1268673248&sr=1-5

Roman and Tiffany said...

We hardly have any baby proofing in our house. There are a few outlets that are covered but those are outlets we never use so that is the only reason they are still there.

We stopped using the gates when Ry was about 2 and got good with the stairs. We never put locks on our cabinets because she never tried to play in them as a baby.

Do what works for you. It shouldn't matter what age they are.

Quadmama said...

My girls have, fortunately, never been interested in climbing gates, although that was always a fear of mine. I know eventually they're going to wonder why we have gates up and no one else does. Oh well.

Jacqueline Miller said...

Mo knows how to open all the "babyproofed" cabinents and door handles and the fridge lock. I took down the babygates when Curly started climbing them and Mo figured out how to collapse or open them. They seem to take my babyproofing efforts as challenges.

Quadmama said...

Yikes! I've always worried that my girls would try to figure out how to get around the babyproofing, but they seem to just accept it. Thank goodness.

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