My Mother’s house is not child proof. I finally had to accept this today when we attempted to have lunch and our 3 very mobile children under the age of 3 proceeded to search and destroy.
If memory serves (and I have already blocked out most of it), we had to remove Isabel from the coffee table several times – and this is the twin that does NOT walk. She also demolished a blind, rattled a LARGE mirror, pulled over some big copper thing that I am sure belongs on a ship and missed her by millimeters. She also managed to break the front flap off my Dad’s flat screen TV. She is a climber, so also had to be retrieved off the window sill several times.
Mignon is fixated with all the large ceramic bowls filled with ceramic balls that are strategically placed on low tables all over the house. She is able to juuuust grab on to the edges with her fingertips when she stands on her toes. OMG.
Both of them now manage to open all the cupboards that contain all types of glass jars, vases, plates and cups. They have so far only broken 1 vase. They work as a tag team and giggle all the way and they also love to use my Mom’s copper paraphanalia to bang against the glass of the heating trolley.
Daniel was actually quite well behaved, he only demanded to sit on Granny’s lap and would NOT get off which is fine. And the odd whine to watch “Tarzez”. Sweet boy.
My Dad tried to suggest that my Mom remove any and all potentially harmful things and this was met with icy silence. We diffused the situation by offering to uninvite ourselves from lunch for the foreseeable future and rather have them over to our house. Which is fine by me, but this means that we now have to cater for my crazy sister that is 30 this year still lives with them. (Remind me to devote an entire post to her)
Fellow bloggers, how do you deal with houses that are not childproof??
we don’t survive houses thats not childproof. Its a silly game of tag between me and husband who’s going to a. get chloe of something, b. remove something from chloe c. close the door/gate/cupboard/bottles etc before chloe gets to it
by the end of the visit we try and restore ‘order’ as far as possible but sometimes its a big giggle when we leave to discuss the looks we got 🙂
luckily my mom already had 4 grandchildren, her house is better childproof than mine I think – mother in law is again another story!
have an awesome week, I might drop by on thursday or sooner will give you a call 🙂
Cool!
*sigh* – I sooo know what your’e talking about. My mother’s house is also NOT childproof. Even her garden is a no-go area with the koi pond, thorny rose bushes, poison plants, delicate ceramic fairies, wind charms, you name it.
I find it very exhausting to visit her, she has almost no eye sight left and don’t even notice if AngelBaby empties her bookshelve or hangs three quarters in the stupid fish pond – “oh dear, she will scare the fish”(?)
And it takes me an hour to make us some coffee – boil cettle, retrieve the baby from the pond, get the cups, retrieve the baby from underneath the coffee table where she got stuck and Oumie can’t see her, put the coffee, sugar and milk in, retrieve the baby from Oumie’s bedside table where she is chewing on the lamp shade, pour the hot water in, retrieve the baby hanging from the burglar bars (with one hand).
You get my drift.
I was very lucky with my folks place, they had no problem childproofing. Other people were not so prepared and rather than sit on pins or run myself ragged, I simply entertained at my own home until J could understand and obey “do not touch anything!”
We generally only visit parents houses, so if something gets broken accidentally, it’s not such a big deal. Most of the treasured stuff is packed out of reach.
Depends on my mood as to how I deal with it – some days I’ll run around like a headless chicken, other days I just sit back and look the other way, and pretend I can’t see 🙂
If the house is not child proof, the visiting is restricted to once a year “must visits”. My dad’s house is the worst with everyone sitting in the 4m gap between the pool and the wall. All the kiddies running around the pool that doesn’t have a net on and LOTS of toys drifting around on top.
For the rest, either me or hubby gets to do the hovering bit. Depending whose family it is, will determine who is in attendance.
We also make sure that we take LOTS of toys with. (This usually does not keep them busy for too long, but will give us a breather every now and then).
I love how you put it!
I also sometimes look the other way, but then hubby runs around like the decapitated chicken. But that’s also fun to watch 🙂
Pools are the biggest nightmare, I made my folks put a net on, but they took it off at the beginning of summer and have not bothered to put it back on, so we don’t even bother going outside.
Your mom’s house sounds like the safests place ever if you consider how my parents-in-law’s place is. They have everything on eye level for my 2 year old son. On the coffee table they have a huge granite bowl with granite balls (all sizes) in. Shaun always tries to pick it up and bang it against everything. One ball nearly broke his little toe one day. Their dog will bite anyone (even me, my husband and Shaun) when they get near my mother in-law.
Everything is okay with them. He can do and take what he wants and I just discovered a few weeks ago that all their medicines is UNDER the washbasin and not locked. To my horror I saw my father in-law’s pistol behind his chair in the living room. If he sleeps over and they go out, they do not put him in his carseat but on their lap. This is one of the biggest thorns in my flesh.
I was horrified. They just don’t listen to me when I ask them to be more careful when Shaun is around. Now I do not allow him to sleep over anymore and they cannot let him visit without my or my husband’s supervision.
Why do grandparents just don’t care about safty but get really upset when we dissipline our children (I just take away stuff and refuse to give him sweets or his favourite toy)? They say that they love their grandchildren, but do not give them a safe place to play and enjoy.
I wish I could get it in their their thick heads that childsaftey is very important.
That is terrible, especially the car seat and gun! I think one of the wonders of parenting is that you conveniently forget about some things as your kids get older..
It makes me wonder about my own house. Where do you start with baby proofing your house???
We moved house just before D was born and decided no clutter, our biggest dangers are plugs and all the toys on the floor which is more of a hazard to me!