What necessary but inconvenient things do you do to make your home safe for your children? Share with Fairy Non Bio - £300 voucher to be won

[JustineBMumsnet]

Unassuming things in the home can be a danger to small children, whether it’s food you’d eat yourself without concern, a small step from one room to another or a box of laundry detergent in the cupboard. Fairy Non Bio would like to hear about the necessary but inconvenient things you do to keep your home safe for your children.

Here’s what Fairy Non Bio has to say: “Keeping your home safe from your little explorers can be time consuming, but because of all the chemicals in laundry detergent we want to ensure only mums & dads can access them. With our new Pods Child-Lock pack this can give you extra peace of mind, close with a ‘Click' and store up high behind a closed cupboard.”

Do you have stair gates in every doorway that you curse every time you simply want to carry a cup of tea AND a snack to the sofa? Perhaps you use foam padding on your table corners that your child pulls off thinking it’s a game or have cupboard locks that take ages to undo?

All who post the necessary inconvenient things they do to keep their home safe for their children below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Stair gates are annoying when you just want to pop out quickly. Especially those that have those little extra latches that can be locked on the bottom. I've often opened the top latch and went to push the gate open, only to almost topple over the top because that darn bottom latch has been turned down by little fingers!

I moved the scissors onto the top shelf of the wardrobe years ago and even though the children are grown up now, they still live there.

Got rid of the stair gates now but they were a pain in the bum!

Lock the medication cupboard

Stair gates which are an absolute pain. And bed guards for the kids too.

Stair gates are annoying but have been crucial once or twice in the past

We never went overboard with safety as the children were never alone where any dangerous household products were.

We did put plug covers in low electric sockets.

The only other thing we did was put a safety gate at the top of the stairs and to be honest, even though my children are 11 and 7 now the safety gate is still there. My daughter's bedroom door is opposite the stairs and I worry that she may get up in the night to go to the toilet and fall down the stairs. She does get up in the night on occasions and has always found her way to the bathroom or our room without bumping into the gate first, but I am worried that if I take the gate away now, it will be asking for trouble and I'm not sure I would sleep soundly without it there. I will take it off one day, when she moves out perhaps! :)

Stair gates and corner protectors, plus putting potentially dangerous items out of reach.

The stairgate is so annoying. Great that my child is safe but I hate having to go and open it first before taking washing up or down and carrying things between rooms.

Catches, catches everywhere …….

Aside from locks on cleaning products as some have already mentioned, I have in the past bubble wrapped kitchen table corners so that collisions don't hurt as much and used stair gates to greater or lessor success, but in the main I think I have been quite lucky without too many drama's

Put cupboard locks an absolutely EVERYTHING...including the kitchen bin which she loves to pick up and move around the house?!

When DC was little, I out the coffee table in the loft because it had sharp corners. We balanced plates on our laps and held cups in mid air for 3 year and it was a nuisance but it kept him safe.

Child locks on the cupboards I often forget about them!

We live in a flat, so had to fit window restrictions to the frames so we can only open so far, or rather the children couldn't open too far. They can be unlatched, but it would be lovely on warm summer days to be able to fling the windows wide open.

Medicine in high cupboards well out of reach of the kids...inconvenient as I have to take so many pills a day!

safety gates are a pain but necessary

We have child prided proofed all our cupboards and drawers, and also place hazardous items in out of reach places. This means that it takes us a little more time to do something, but the inconvenience is more than compensated knowing that our DC are that little bit more protected.

I'm not sure anything we do in our home to keep our DD safe is 'inconvenient' - if it keeps her safe and in turn, potentially saves her life, it's certainly not an inconvenient! We do the usual like having the clips installed on the cupboard, having a gate on the kitchen as she's obsessed with the cooker (not ideal and doesn't look great, but protects her from burns) and we got rid of our glass coffee table and tv stand, just in case.

the only think which can be a bit of a pain are baby gates. They're essential by can be inconvenient if your in a rush or if your in and out of the same room alot x

As our DC are getting older the main way we keep them safe is teaching them to use things correctly. It takes 3 times as long to prepare and cook dinner or get the wood burner going with the DC helping but they know how to use matches, knives, oven, toaster etc safely.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
Aside from adequate parental supervision, when DS was tiny we lived in a house with a tiled fireplace which always terrified me that he'd trip onto, so we had pool noodles taped round it. Looked strange but there we go...
We secure bookcases/chest of drawers etc to the wall, never really bothered before but it's amazing the hazards you spot when you have kids that you never thought about before.

Stairgates were an essential for us, although we never really left DS unsupervised for long enough for him to get into much mischief it only takes a moment for an accident to happen and the offered some peace of mind.

A lot of this is really just common sense. Keeping your DC safe isn't really an 'inconvenience' in my eyes, and even if it is it's for such a comparatively short period of time- they really do grow up so fast :(

No such thing as inconvenient when it comes to keeping the baby safe, plug board covers, corner covers, locks on cleaning cupboards, stair gates, you name it I have it, and I’m grateful every day that my baby is safe, happy and healthy, nothing else matters!

We had the corner covers and cupboard locks etc for our first born but with our other two I didnt bother. Just made sure detergents , cleaning products medicines etc are stored in high cupboards and the only safety 'equipment' is the stair gate. My littlest one has taken to trying to climb out of her cot and im sure she will get out one day soon so we put a few pillows on the floor under the cot.

Cupboard locks - I always forget they’re there and curse them when I go to open the cupboard in the normal way. even the cupboards I use several times a day - when will I learn?! 🤦🏻‍♀️