To wonder if people were telling me the truth when they said, 'Oh, we haven't baby-proofed, we've just trained them'

[MainlyMaynie]

Several people have said this to me. They claim they haven't bothered baby-proofing and have just left their houses the same way. Apparently they have just taught their children not to touch. Their houses look the same, full of giant glass vases etc. But can this possibly true? I am spending all day moving DS away from objects, saying 'not for DS' and giving him a toy. All I have taught him is that there is a very funny game of going for a forbidden object, giggling and waiting for Mummy to catch up. If he thinks I'm not catching him, he actually pauses, turns round to look at me while laughing and then races off again when he thinks I'm chasing fast enough. I am tempted to turn my house into an undecorated category a prison cell.

This really depends on the baby/child. Mine have been pretty stationary and docile, so we haven't done that much (although no giant glass vases or open fires to begin with). I have friends with dc who would kill themselves if left unattended in my house for 5 min. Think this is much more down to personality than parenting.

we didn't change anything bar electrical-sockets-safety-thingies. we have (several) steps and used to let dcs crawl up and bum-slide down as babies/tots to get a "feel" for them. we generally gave them a lot of freedom (playing outside, preparing food, making choices about what to wear etc...) they knew what was out of bounds and what wasn't... for them it worked - depends on the child i'd say...

My mum did this with all my neices and never had a problem

And she has a shit load of royal doulton that I would like to inherit in tact lol

Yes BErtha was about to post the same link. There is quite a scary video as well which resulted in me removing all the plastic covers (and wondering if I should tell the panicky lady who runs the music class that actually she'd made things worse in her childproofing frenzy)!

Had stair gates with my first, removed them when he lent against it at 2 and tumbled down the stairs - much easier to train them to do it safely (although I appreciate that's easy to say with not very steep stairs, and carpet)

Re ornaments - anything I actually hold dear to me has now been put away - we have some ornaments out, but nothing I'd be devastated if it broke.

I would also say, now that I have got to no3, that it often depends on the baby rather than the parenting style...

Can I just repeat what others have already said: in the uk socket covers are dangerous and should not be used

I had a friend who used to go on about this a lot, she was one of the children, actually, and their family saying about toddler safety was "What's wrong with saying No?"

Thing is... the family's children consisted of 2 docile girls who didn't move at all, didn't even crawl, until 14-16 months. And were never that adventurous at all about things like climbing.

Now, you try having 3+ children, close in age, most of whom are walking by 10 months & all of whom are climbing at 15 months. You can try the "Just say no" approach or else move the hazards and delicate items. Only one of those is a route to sanity, I'll wager.

My older children can't even pull out socket covers, much less my preschoolers. Must be some mighty finger strength toddlers out there?

I didn't babyproof my house, maily because I was sharing a house with other people when I had my first and I didn't think it was fair for them to be expected to put up with stairgates and cupboard locks etc. When I had my own house and my other kids I couldn't see the point. Obviously there are limits, and i still don't leave saucepans on the rings at the front of the hob or hot drinks within reach, or lighted candles unattended etc, but all my kids were taught to use the stairs from the time they could crawl (taught to come down before they could get up them! ).

Best one I did was put a padlocked chain on the garden gate, I had the postman moaning all the time that he had to climb over the gate and if he broke his arm I would be responsible etc, etc. He soon shut up when I pointed out that the chain was looped over the post and could be easily lifted over the top as it was designed to keep a 2 year old in - not a grown man out! - idiot!!

The only babyproofing I did was getting stair gates.

It's nice to know that I'm suffering from amnesia and talking bollocks, threeprinces and boschy

Um, I had stairgates at the top and bottom of my long flight of stairs. And I had, um, um, no, wait a minute, that was it. No cupboard locks, no socket covers, no moving glass vases, just a little common sense and caution about things like putting hot coffee out of reach. My DC survived without incident. :)

I think like lots of other things some babies aren't really interested in destroying things, others are, dd never touched anything, she is cautious by nature, ds broke everything. Smugness always bites people on the bum and who could be arsed constantly saying no tarquin, we don't touch that

We had stair gates into the kitchen and at the top of the stairs and that was it. No fire guard, no socket covers, no moving things out of reach (well to be fair there we dont have anything in reach anyway). Dont think we had much difficulty "training" the first 2, but will see what DC3 is like (she's 6 months).

I had cupboard locks, ds rattled them until they broke and then ate a washing powder tablet whilst they were waiting to be repaired, he was a NIGHTMARE.

Did the bare minimum:
? stairgate at the top of the stairs but not at the bottom (nothing to attach it to) - had to teach him how to negotiate the stairs safely very quickly indeed (no banisters)
? moved the breakables from the lowest shelves and easiest to reach places
? had a playpen in the living room with all DS's toys in, primarily to keep him and them safe from the open fire (which was also behind a fireguard but they get hot too)
? was very lucky that DS wasn't a climber/ destructor/ investigator extraordinaire

I didn't do the socket covers because I already knew about the inbuilt safety situation in the UK. Didn't do door catches on cupboards because they are a fecking PITA and DS was easily dissuaded from opening cupboard doors - plus all our doors in the house had round handles which small toddlers find very hard to open, so closing the door when not in the room kept him out.

But I don't get smug about it - I know I was lucky that he was compliant as well.

We had stair gates at top of stairs and rearranged cupboards/bookshelves so that the ones in the reach of baby were harmless- DVDs and pans rather than fragile trinkets or glasses.
Don't use socket covers-they are very dangerous!!

I did the stair gate, cupboard lock on cleaning cupboard and plug sockets.

I didn't move anything though as you do have to train them not to touch otherwise you will never be able to put your stuff back or visit anyone elses house!

We have never baby proofed. We live in an awkward house, lots of glass, odd staircases, protruding corners and low level plug sockets.

With our first, we tried window locks and corner protectors, any pretty shiney gimmicky things from Mothercare, but they were useless.

By the time we had three under 5s, we realised that teaching them 'no' was safer.

They learned quickly, and it's better that they stay away from the stairs of their own accord, than have them eyeing up the stairgate, waiting for you to forget to close it one time.

Actually what takeonboard says is what I forgot to say - training them is far better when you take them out to visit - very few of my friends have their own children and so their houses are/were NOT babyproofed (including my parents' house) so it was better to have an at least half-trained toddler who was used to being told "no" and believing it than expecting everyone else to deal with it.

I also had a fire guard but got rid of it really quickly when my eldest climbed inside it! (the fire was never lit anyway) Moral of the story, never assume that all your precautions will mean your child won't have an accident. There's no substitute for vigilance.

DHs ex did but when he moved out he didn't and our house has never been baby proofed. Drove MIL crazy that we refused to get a stair gate when we moved in together (DH in flat before) with DS2 having just turned two but we felt it was ok (MIL actually went behind our back and told ex wife who told her she trusted our judgement!).

I'll probably get stair gates (I'm pregnant) but beyond that I won't bother. Unless my stepsons are unusually angelic and I'm about to spawn a demon of course!

I do believe u can teach them to a certain degree not to touch ie radiators, picture frames, books & dvds. But a huge vase and exposed plug sockets are a death-trap waiting to happen!!
I have stair gates situated throughout most of the house, plug covers, cupboard locks on medicine drawers, cleaning product cupboard and airing cupboard.
I keep all sharp knifes out of reach and i do not own a huge large vase or any sharp glass tables, tv stands etc as i believe them to be a danger hazard also

Oh and a playpen is a good investment for when ur busy doing housework and cooking. I know a lot of people dont agree with them but i find it a godsend

Some children are a lot more accident prone/adventurous than others, and also some houses are much more dangerous. We've lived in a variety of houses with toddlers and in one (1930s house) we didn't need stairgates, baby monitors etc cos there was just one gentle flight of nicely carpeted stairs, not too high. A toddler could topple down those without serious damage. In our other houses, high old houses, loads of steep stone stairs, a stair gate was a bit more important.

Personally I couldn't be bothered checking on toddlers all the time. Easier for me to put the dangerous/fragile stuff out of reach and have a stairgate, then you can read your book or have a shower without worrying or watching them. Training seemed more labour intensive.

We put locks on bleach cupboard, stairgates on, but that's it. Dd1'listened & when told not to touch, didn't. BUT I don't think it's anything we did, just that she's that sort of kid. I'm not 'expecting' that of dc2 & if that approach doesn't work, I'll move things.

We used stairgate, socket covers (not in UK), and locks on cupboards containing cleaning products.
Everthing else was left and DCs told not to touch eg dvds or was allowed to touch - eg getting pans out of the cupboard to play with.
No accidents, although ds did have fun emptying all the earth from my house plants...

We have two staircases and didn't have stairgates... We moved breakable objects. That's it.