What it really means to child-proof your house

August 27, 1:42 AMBaby and Toddler ExaminerDarby Herrington

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Turn one room in your house into a playroom. [Source]

Having children changes your life.  It also changes your home in many unexpected ways. Like most parents, after you have your first child you may be surprised, and perhaps even a little horrified, to find that your sophisticated pad morphs into something more akin to romper room.  However, the real changes come about after your eager-to-please baby grows into an energetic, high-maintenance toddler. 

After your first baby is born, you make room for the necessities such as a high chair, swing and bouncy seat.  Most of these items, while bulky space-hogs, are fairly well-contained and non-intrusive.  You can still use your fancy wine glasses and enjoy having exotic (a/k/a poisonous) plants in your living room, because baby is strapped in a five-point harness in his swing and not getting anywhere near the crystal.   

Before you know it, your baby becomes mobile.  You immediately realize that the home you spent so much time decorating to create an effortlessly chic, yet earthy, ambience is actually riddled with potentially life-threatening hazards.  To your dismay, most of these dangers are ironically located at knee-level, otherwise known as toddler-level.  So you “baby proof” the heck out of your home, plugging up electrical outlets, getting rid of plants, putting away all of the glass and heavy items on shelves that can be pulled down on top of little heads.  Now your home is a cut-and-paste space with empty shelves and corners with nowhere to plug in the vacuum cleaner. 

The metamorphosis of your home does not end there.  By the time your child is no longer a walking accident-waiting-to-happen, she has more toys than you have space to store them.  Your living room floor is covered with puzzle pieces, finger puppets and books, so much so you can no longer see the carpet.  Your kitchen is devoid of space because your child’s play kitchen takes up more room than your refrigerator and her plastic pots and pans are scattered about.  Your dining room table is now the craft and project table, plastered with coloring books, construction paper and playdoh.  You realize your home no longer belongs to you.  This is when the real child-proofing must occur: when your toddler has more control over your house than you, you must get it back. 

What to do?  Concede.  Concede one room and reclaim the rest of the house.  Instead of letting your child’s toy clutter own every room in the house, give her just one and call it the playroom.  Make it abundantly clear that all toys belong in the playroom.  Sure, toys can be brought out to play in other areas of the house, but when your child is done playing, the toys go back to the playroom where they belong.  So you lose one room, who cares?  The rest of your house is yours again and everyone will be the happier for it.    

Next: How to create a playroom.

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