Would you expect an almost 6 year old to know this?

[blackberry501]

ds was in our bedroom last night watching tv. For some strange reason decided to open more than 1 drawer in our chest of drawers. Cue one toppled chest of drawers and one flying tv!!!!!
Fortunately tv seems to have survived.
I sat him down and had a long chat about how silly it was to do it. This was after dh stormed in shouting the odds and threatening to cancel birthday presents/parties etc for both dc. This was before he even knew what child was responsible.
Not sure whether my reaction was enough or should we have decided a sensible santion between us.

Oh I would be narked with them for poking in drawers too - but I suspect the poor child may now hestitate to open another drawer ever

It sounds like the TV isn't in a very stable place.

I wouldn't expect a six year old to know this.

I wouldn't expect a 6yo to know this. I've never heard of it myself. I can't think of a single chest of drawers I have here it would apply to - unless you keep drawers full of concrete and they are very tall surely it'd be a rare occurance for something to be so flimsy it topples?

No, I wouldn't expect a 6 year old to just "know" this - since I did exactly the same with a filing cabinet at work aged 22

no but I would i expect two adult parents to know that placing a tv on top of an unsterdy set of drawers is exptermely dangerouse with children around.

My tv is on my chest of drawers and they would certanly not topple over if more than one drawer is open.

Same here dewe, we also have rubbishy mdf drawers in my daughters bedroom, she's 3 and has pulled a few of the top drawers open at the same time... maybe its the TV being on top? I can understand the filing cabinet thing as the drawers themselves are quite heavy and with a load of files in too, they must weigh a ton.

An innocent accident I'd say. Maybe your DH reacted in anger as he was thinking what could have happened, ie seriously injured child. My DP said his brother pulled an oven on top of him when he was a similar age, maybe older, he ended up with a fractured skull and I think that was a lucky escape... my DPs parents probably went apeshit at him too!

I think you should secure your furniture to the wall. Anything tall is strapped to the wall in our house since my mum's friend lost her twins when they climbed up a cupboard and it crashed down on them.
But to answer your question my 6 yr old ds has been out of the climbing up stuff stage for some time and would know it was wrong to do so.

Gosh just realised he wasn't climbing the furniture. In which case I don't think he should even have been told off. You have unstable furniture, it is your and your dh fault.

I've got old chests of drawers - too heavy to topple I guess - and I have regularly had 3 out of 4 drawers 3/4 open. Never had one topple though ..... Now thinking I should be explaining this to my DD given I set a very bad example!

But DD knows that she isn't to go into our drawers, and would be told off for that. Poor kid learnt the hard way, and is good he wasn't trapped underneath.

Laughing at "Fortunately tv seems to have survived." You are lucky DS survived! There was a story in the news a while ago about a child who died when a TV fell down.
I think the TV should be somewhere a bit more stable.

no, i wouldn't expect a 6 year old to know that.

glad he was ok!

I wouldn't expect a 6 year old to know this unless they had been specifically told for some reason. In fact I'm not sure all 10 year eold would know.

The risk isn't going to be too high unless the drawer unit is tall and slim and the top drawer is much heavier than the others and pulled out further though.

I'm 40 and I wouldn't know not to do this. Because in fact, I open more than one drawer all the time. I would of course been contrite to have knocked over and broken your TV, but I would also be ticked off at you for having such wobbly furniture.