[krsnow]

How far do you go with baby proofing your house? So far I just have cabinet locks and a gated playroom. My living room is pretty dangerous with a brick fire place and sharp end tables, also my kitchen table has a glass top. I have a friend that thinks I should replace all my furniture but I don't agree. I was raised around nice furniture and breakable stuff and we learned that certain things were off limits. How do you feel about this? I know my LO needs to explore and may break something, but is it wrong for me to think he can learn that people's homes will have nice stuff and you're not supposed to touch everything? Of course I watch him very closely around the fire place & tables though.

[Celine]

We are trying not to take all the breakable stuff out of the living room (it's also our baby friendly area). We did remove our coffee table it is a wooden one (no sharp corners). We put it in the basement for now so that Sophia can run around. Our living room isn't very big.

We do have a tablecloth on our table and Sophia likes to pull every now and then- it is full of stuff (I am doing an art project right now) and I am telling her "no". She needs to learn certain things she can't do- like you said. Like w/ her walking on the couch- I stopped it and it worked to my amazement.

We also have cabinet locks and gates on the stairs. And outlet covers. That's pretty much all we have right now.

I would do what works for you. For me it is too much work to always run after her and tell her no. That's why I removed a lot of dangerous items. Eventually I do want them back in the room though and she will have to learn not to get into them.

[KMH]

I think there is a happy medium...we do have locks on the cabinets with cleaning supplies, medicines, etc. but the others are open. I'm kind of like you...they have to learn that some things are off limits. We do have the stairs gated and outlet covers, but otherwise we haven't done too much either. If home is a free-for-all where she can do whatever she wants, what will happen when we go somewhere else or to a store?

I think it also depends on how closely you supervise your kids. I have a friend that just doesn't pay attention to her kids very well....her house has to be absolutely kid-safe from top to bottom, otherwise they'd hurt themselves daily. I keep a close eye on Claire, so we can have a more adult home.

[rainbow_brite19]

We have locks on our cabinets (the unsafe ones, anyway) and outlet covers, of course. We don't have stairs so we don't have to worry about that. That's about it, though. Like Melissa said, I think it depends on how closely you watch your kids, and we watch Jackson pretty closely and I agree, they have to know some things are off limits.

[KatieHeitman]

We don't have any breakables out, doesn't really matter since we pretty much have none, we don't have the cabinets locked because there's nothing in them that he can get in to trouble with, except the recycling under the sink but we just watch him and tell him no. With DS1 we had the cabinets locked just so we wouldn't have to keep yelling at him. Oh, but we do have the entertainment center locked, and then of course the outlets are plugged. And we keep the bathroom door and master bedroom door's shut. And we have a gate at the stair's.

[I<3HelloKitty]

We honestly haven't done a lot of baby proofing. We keep the bathroom door closed and Ellie is usually gated into the living room and den areas. We covered the outlets, and at this point, she pretty much knows what's off limits and leaves it alone. We don't have our cabinets locked, and she knows she's only allowed to play in the tupperware cabinet.

[mommydiva]

bathroom door closed, stairs gated, outlets covered and cabinets locked. Only reason all cabinets are locked as she kept stealing my pans and trying to throw them at the dog or baby and so it was easier to just lock them up.

Breakables are up but there are things down at her level where she knows she isn't to touch. Or if she takes something and we say put it back she will 9 out of 10 times.

[BSandDsMommy]

Our house is pretty much as baby proof as a day care lol these two are the most curious kids I have ever met and they climb everything and anything we have baby gates we have child proof cabinets, drawers, our knives are put in a cabinet above the sink, everything is put up and locked up and all outlets have safety plugs in them walking in our house it's like walking into a daycare pretty much can let any kiddo down and I feel confident that everything is child proofed :0)

[Juliebird18]

I think its ridiculous to think you should replace your furniture. The kid will be fine if you watch him and teach him. We have locks on certain cabinets and outlet covers. We also placed heavy and breakable things high on shelves and watch him around the house.

[I<3HelloKitty]

Honestly, we're just getting around to baby proofing our house, and it's not for Ellie. It's for our friends who bring their kid over when we play D&D. I never realized how much stuff there was to get into until he came over. Haha! Ellie is remarkably well behaved and if we tell her something is not for her, she leaves it alone. (I'm pretty sure our next child will be a holy terror. )

[laisydaisymama]

we got rid of our coffee table and got an upholstered ottoman when claire got her 3rd black eye on it. we have too many kids to watch all of them every second, we are very childproofed.

[I<3HelloKitty]

Originally Posted by laisydaisymama

we got rid of our coffee table and got an upholstered ottoman when claire got her 3rd black eye on it. we have too many kids to watch all of them every second, we are very childproofed.

Yeah, I imagine it gets trickier once you have more than one!

[mrsjl]

locks on cabinets containing cleaning supplies, lock on the oven door, knives where they can't be reached, outlet covers, no blinds that have strings, baby gate for stairs and the room that the kitty litter is in.

our furniture is not nice, we don't have anything fancy or breakable, so I don't worry about those things.