Been wondering this for a little while. I don't know very many other MOMs IRL, I belong to a local twins group but have a hard time making meetings and such. So most of my friends have one baby/child or if they do have more than one child they're separated by a couple of years. So I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed this about themselves and their households, or maybe it's just me? :unknw: I'm hoping this is going to make sense (it's been a long day!) at a semi-non-childproofed house, see below! I feel like my house in comparison to other's houses is more child friendly. That's not quite the right word I'm looking for, but the only one I can find that fits. For example, our living room/kitchen area is all open concept. We ditched the coffee table and brought it downstairs. The bar stool/swivel chairs, brought downstairs before they could be tipped over onto each other (again). Stairs have been blocked off forever (granted, we did this for the dogs too, but...) Any breakable objects, packed away or put out of reach (for the moment, we are ever learning new levels to climb to!). I go to my friends houses, and some of them, their kiddos aren't quite mobile yet so that makes a difference, but even the ones who are, there are so many things my girls get into! And because there are two of them, one finds something and as I'm getting her extricated, the other's getting into either the same thing or something new! With one child, I don't think you have to be necessarily as diligent about okay, they're going to get into that. Because you can just stop them. I know that part of it is the novelty and if the girls lived there, they would probably leave half of it alone. But my girls already tag team me and I feel like my house is decorated in Early Childhood Education more so than my singleton parent friends houses are. Is it just me?? If you were able to get through that.... :huh:
I think this is more of a personality thing than a twin/singleton thing, based on my very limited experience. Our house is not very childproofed because our girls just don't get into things that much. (Also because they're in daycare FT, so we're not really home that much when they're awake.) We have a friend with one child, a boy about Amy & Sarah's age, and he is just into everything -- their house is way more childproofed than ours.
QUOTE(Minette @ Jun 22 2008, 12:14 AM) [snapback]839221[/snapback] I think this is more of a personality thing than a twin/singleton thing, based on my very limited experience. Our house is not very childproofed because our girls just don't get into things that much. (Also because they're in daycare FT, so we're not really home that much when they're awake.) We have a friend with one child, a boy about Amy & Sarah's age, and he is just into everything -- their house is way more childproofed than ours. Alden, that's another really good point. I'm home with the girls and even on the days I go to work, my mom comes to our house, so they're here most of the time. And the other kiddos we've been hanging with do go to daycare. And personality is true too. One of my friends looked at me like I had three heads, when I mentioned something that we'd done to the house because of the girls and then she came over
[SIZE=10pt]I'm in the middle ~ but getting more child proof each day. With my older two (18 & 14) I didn't really baby proof that much. We wcould just divert their attention away from something ~ of course they went back to it now and then. When I was pregnant I didn't think I would baby proof "completely" with the twins, since I didn't with the older two. :rotflmbo: Not sure what the heck I was thinking. I am a SAHM and have COMPLETELY baby proofed the living room in the last week (when we started 'walking') I'm still working on other areas of the house though. I do agree with pp though ~ If the babies aren't home much, you don't have to baby proof as much April [/SIZE]
I think it has more to do with the kids and parents than anything else. Most of my singleton friends have/had gates at the stairs--I never did. DH taught them to do stairs before they could walk, so it wasn't an issue. I had a total of 3 cabinets with childproof latches--most of my friends had many more. So for me, it is the opposite. Also, I put things up as they became an issue. We do go to my parents and MIL's house which are not childproofed at all, and have not had problems, and maybe it was because they learned early not to play with things not meant for them. Not to say we didn't do some chasing and making sure they left things alone in the beginning--we did. But they learned quickly what they could and could not play with.
Our house isn't kid-friendly by design. We've done what we could with what we have but there aren't any places in the house where I can leave them to play without constantly popping in to make sure they aren't destroying anything or putting themselves in serious danger. Part of it is also the age. At 18 months, my boys were EXHAUSTING. At least now they have some concept of danger and cause & effect but it's been fairly recently that they've quit trying to kill themselves at least once a day (it's now more like once a week). Being around kids who aren't the same age or who are more subdued by nature really made me wonder what I was doing wrong. Fortunately, I know a couple of people on these boards who have had similar experiences and realize now that they were born adventurers. And yes, the fact that there are two makes a difference! Together, they can push a heavy object that they couldn't budge alone (they've moved the couches...) Together, they could open the refrigerator long before they could do it alone. Together, they think of things that one child might not. Add in competition and feeding off of each other's energy and you've got yourself quite the force.
I'm a heavy-duty childproofer. The only thing I don't do is pad the edges of tables etc - I figure bumps and bruises are just a normal part of growing up. But everything else, I childproof. It's partly for twins reasons: I can have my hands totally full with one while the other is getting into something. But it's also because of my own personality. I am lazy. :blush: I simply do not have the energy to be keeping them out of trouble all day long. I'd rather focus on other things.
