would you let your child sleep under these circumstances?

[lucykate]

me and dh have just had a row about this, ds pulled the shelf above his bed loose so it was hanging at an angle. as soon as i noticed it, i removed all the books from the shelf, and asked dh to take the shelf down before ds got back in bed. dh refused to remove the shelf, saying it was safe, not going to fall down etc, then it promptly escalated into a full blown row over it. so, who was being unreasonable?

i wanted the shelf taken down as it's heavy (it's one of those ikea floating shelves) and was above ds's head, not prepared to take any chances.

dh says i am insulting his diy skills, and that even though the shelf was hanging at an angle, it was not going to fall.

yanbu - move said child into your bed until your dh takes the shelf down

I'm glad it's down...and the person that has teddies and books on theirs...please, move the child or the shelf. Seriously, that thing was holding the house up in my house...you could have sat on it and it wouldn't have moved.

I still don't think I'm over it and they are both 6 years old now!

lucy, I would not let my child sleep under a precarious shelf.

Just an observation, my dh gets irrationally tetchy around anything to do with DIY - which is his job around the house. I have to give him a wide berth and not talk to him when he is doing it. God forbid if I criticise or offer pointers. I think it is something to do with his willy.

I have since cultivated a business relationship with a handyman. Who is much milder going about things.

I wondered why you had to ask him to take it down, why didn't you just do it yourself? Glad it's down now though.

Handymen are brill!

Good post habbibo, and I have a story like ilove's. As a pre-teen, I had five or six book shelves above the head wall of my bed. I was a bookworm, and they were full. Had been there for years, and very securely attached.

One night my mum was woken by a big crash. The whole lot had come down, my bed was covered with books. I've no idea of the weight, but it was a lot.

Had I not been away at a sleep over, I don't think I'd be telling this story.

I'm not usually risk-averse, but I'd never put a shelf over my child's bed

The shelf of mine s now in the garage with around 200 plates/bowls, slowcooker, pots and pans on it...again put up by a (different) joiner.

It is a bloody strong shelf but I refused to have it in the house again!

jodieo, dh is very precious about his tools, doesn't like me using them. plus i can't remove shelves and bitch about him on mn at the same time

we were planning a trip to ikea on saturday anyway, i will look for a free standing shelf unit for ds's books instead of the wall shelf.

"the row started because i went to get a screwdriver, saying to him if he wouldn't take it down, i would. i got cross because i couldn't believe he would be willing to let ds sleep underneath it, because in removing it, it may damage his diy credentials".
Sorry but that is just such a dumbarse argument from your husband. Is it a credit to his diy credentials that the shelf is half on/half off the wall?

What happened to my comment on that sentence???

Anyway, what a dumbarse argument from your husband's side. Does her seriously see it as a credit to his diy credential that the shelf is hanging half of/half on the wall?

If you get a tall free-standing unit, make sure it's fastened to the wall at the top so that DS can't pull it down on himself.

the Ikea Billy bookcases come with the bit of kit for securing them to the wall, iirc

I would never put a shelf over my childrens' beds- I had a nasty narrow escape when I was younger.
Little children jump up and hang off things- no matter how good his DIY is... the materials your wall is made of may not actually be that great any more, particularly in older houses.