The safety of you children is your primary concern and responsibility, wherever you are. In public, you will invariably watch them all the time. Say you are in the supermarket; not only is it embarrassing and possibly expensive if your kid starts acting out and breaking ice tea bottles, but it is also unsafe. You will never let them out of your sight because nothing is more terrifying than losing your child in a crowded place like a supermarket.
But at home, you have to be able to relax a little, even when you know your kids are a handful. They struggle to learn how to walk during their earliest years. Then, no sooner had you begun to appreciate their first few steps — even capturing the milestone on camera and posting it on Facebook whilst holding back tears of joy — than they start learning how to run. And when kids learn how to run, they only have two states: standing still or running like mad.
Here are a few things to do at home to make sure your little bundles of energy are safer:
Install gates at the stairs
That they are still just learning how to balance themselves on their own feet does not stop them from thinking they should cover every square inch of space in your house. To protect them from falling down on stairs, install gates that they cannot open by themselves. Install one at the top and another at the bottom to discourage them from trying to climb alone.
Protect them from burns
Do not let your kids near anything that produces enough heat to burn their little fingers and toes. Never leave your stove and whatever you are cooking unattended with kids around. If you can position your oven in an area they cannot reach, better. Get one of those LST radiators (Low Surface Temperature), so you can have peace of mind that even if your kids try to reach for a marble under the radiator, they are not in any danger of getting hurt.
Cover the electric outlets
A silver fork and an electric outlet seem like a good experiment for a little one, but it is one of the most dangerous combinations. Cover the electric outlets with those plastic covers that you can buy cheap at any handyman store. As for appliances, hid the cables and wires as best you can behind them. There are organisation coils or clips for cables; use them.
There are many other things you can do to baby- or toddler-proof your house: put some padding on sharp corners, install a pool fence and cover, make the garage and driveway off limits for kids, and so on. The important thing is to be vigilant about it. You will learn more tricks as you go along. After all, it comes as an instinct to parents to protect their children.
