If I could sum up baby proofing in a nut shell I would say it is not for us. There are aisles of locks, magnets, fasteners and other things, in every store, to keep your child from falling, bruising, climbing, and the works. Essentially you can try to turn your home into a safe bubble for your child to live in. But once again, it really isn’t for us.
I recently had someone tell me they didn’t even bother unpacking most of their stuff when they moved into their new home. They just assumed the baby would get into it all so why bother. I’ve had some say they are just lazy at home and would rather not worry about their kid getting into anything. I guess we take a different approach. I would rather my baby learn what is hers and what is not. What is a “pretty” and what is a toy. What is a “no-no” and what is not. Sure, it is a bitch teaching her these things but I don’t want my home to be void of shit for the next couple of years just so she can have the run of it. Plus, she doesn’t pay the mortgage, I do and I want my nice crap on the shelves.
Also, I want to go to another persons home, with my child, and not be mortified by her throwing their pretty items around because she has never seen such things. Basically because people have had their kids do that at my home. The parents go around “baby-proofing” like they are completely appalled I would own a picture frame.
We did a few of the basics. When we built our home, we put in safe outlets, so we don’t need the covers. There is a gate at the top of the stairs that goes to the basement. We put cabinet locks for the under the sink cabinet with all of the poisonous stuff. And just the other day I had it with her pulling out the drawer under the stove and smashing her fingers so I put a lock on it. Otherwise, I have candles and pictures frames out, dog food bowls at her level, and lighters within her reach. Okay, I’m kidding on the last one there. And the candles aren’t lit, just for the record. There have been a lot of no’s and a lot of redirecting but she is getting the hang of it. Sure we may have to add a few safety things here and there (like the stove lock) as times goes on but I refuse to turn my house into a bubble.
Sometimes she opens the cabinets and pulls out bowls and Ziploc bags. Sometimes she bounces her head off the tile floor in a tantrum. And gasp, we have objects with sharp corners. But all that shit exists out in public, or at friends homes, or hotel rooms. I can’t put my kid in a bubble wherever we go.
Maybe there are parents reading this saying Oh, just you wait. Maybe one day I will be running the aisles of Babies R Us and purchasing every safety device possible. For now, I think she is learning.
How far do you go in the baby proofing world?
Through My Mistakes 
We are just like you on this!! We may change our approach at some point, but for now it works for us do that’s what we are doing.
Haha that is awesome! I’m sure things will change as we go but its good enough for now.
I was like that with my two. But my mother-in-law would let my son carry the said pencil or picture frame up and down her stairs (my son was always falling when he was walking). Now that I was very pissed about. She couldn’t understand why I would have a problem with that.
Haha mother-in-laws never seem to get it!
And the best part she was a school teacher!!! Yes she still drives me up the freakin wall!!
Happy to see I’m not the only one that did not go crazy baby proofing. We have outlet plugs and that is about it. Figure, she has to learn what no means and what is okay and not okay to play with.
Yes we are similar. I ended up moving more things than I wanted to off our TV stand after Wyatt broke one thing and kept chewing on a picture frame. Other than that, we’ve got a baby gate, baby safe outlets and that’s it. I still need to invest in one or two cupboard locks for the kitchen. Most will stay unlocked for now as I purposely made sure the lowers have nothing sharp in them. I use hair elastics to keep the bathroom cabinets closed right now.
The hair elastics are a great option! My sister pulled out that idea with a 2 year old that visits often and just refuses to stay out of the cabinets. Cheap and easy!
Right now we have only baby gates on the stairs. And, honestly, they are pretty much there to keep the puppy off of the upstairs carpet and out of the baby’s toys. H is a crawling machine and soon will be walking. We need to put plug covers on the outlets as he’s starting to try to put things in them. We have cleared an expensive heirloom bowl off of our coffee table because I cannot bear him grabbing that and sending it to the floor. But our coffee table has sharp edges and he’s bumped himself on it a couple times. A few tears but he is now more careful around the table. We need to mount our tv though as he has tried, on numerous occasions, to grab it. When I’m there to tell him “no” and redirect, it works. But sometimes mama will have her back turned for a brief moment and we all know that’s when the tv will take a tumble directly on top of him. I’m exactly like you though. I want him to learn his boundaries. I want him to learn that when mama or daddy say “no” it means “no”. Of course, right now, when we say “no” we get a cheeky smile while his chubby little hand reaches towards the item we are saying not to touch. But he will get there. when we go to my parent’s place, they have tons of amazing things all over from all of their world travels. One or two things I remove from his fat little fingers, but everything else I leave and tell him “no” and also have my parents telling him “no”. I’m fairly certain, when we were kids, our parents likely just covered up the outlets and sent us on our way to play. And guess what! we learned boundaries then which we still follow to this day.
I swear we puppy proofed our house more than baby proofed it:) Because damn it, shoes get costly! Haha. I totally understand the heirloom things. Those aren’t exactly replaceable. And the TV. I have heard horror stories on TV’s falling on kiddos. Very scary. Ours are all wall mounted so we are good there. Cora does the same thing when we say “no” except she also shakes her head no at us. So damn cute and hard to not laugh at.