Why is babyproofing so hard?

We moved to our apartment a month ago. It's temporary until we sell our house and buy a new one, so we'll probably be here another 8 months tops (less hopefully!).

When we moved we had a dog that couldn't be trusted around the kids, so we baby proofed the living room and put a long gate to block off the entrance, stairs and hallway (it's a pretty open floor plan). The rest of the first floor is dining room, kitchen and a small hallway leading to the bathroom. It's small. We allow them to roam there now that the dog is gone, but only supervised and 5-10 minutes at a time, as it's not baby proof. Our plan was to leave them pretty much in the room until we buy the house and to baby proof the whole house once we move, but I think it's not enough space and I was thinking of leaving them access to the whole floor here after I got guilt tripped reading another thread...

I just don't know how to proceed. The stairs are impossible to gate off so we'd have to move our configure gate under there (and block off the wireless modem while we're at it), meaning more holes in the wall... Then there's the kitchen. The cabinets have no handle, so I'm not even sure it's baby proofable, so we'd probably have to put a gate (it's a large doorway that is sideways so we'd have to find a large gate that screws to the wall too, meaning even more holes)... but then how would the dog access the water bowl? Then the litterbox is in the bathroom, so I can't close the bathroom door or the cat won't be able to use it... there really isn't any other place to put it, right now it's a litterbox with a cover and the opening is 3 inches from the wall so the dog doesn't get in there... Childproofing the toilet and the cabinet would be the least of my issues, as they would probably figure out pretty fast how to turn the litterbox...

Mostly, I want to be able to put them in a 100% safe area when I need to unload the car or while I put one of them in and out of the car. She doesn't walk, and we have a big step in the way they can't climb on yet, so I have to carry them one at a time and I don't want to leave one of them alone outside too much, especially as I can't leave the door open or my cat will run out. So I'm not sure how that would work with the dog bowl, litterbox, or whatever other thing they might get into when I'm not looking.

Seriously, how do you guys do it? Do you end up having to check on them all the time? That's just not happening in my house, I need a safe place for them to play while I get things done... and I really have no idea how to deal with the litterbox and dog bowl issues.

Maybe I should stop reading forums that guilt trip me because my kids don't have the full run of the house... but I really can't wait for them to be 3 and I don't have to worry about them choking on whatever stuff they'll find...

 

Yikes, that sounds like a hard thing to live with for awhile. I think you are definitely going to have to gate off somewhere that you can keep the kitty box, that is just too tempting for toddlers, so even a closet or somewhere you can keep the litter box, that the cat can jump over the gate, or squeeze under.

As far as a 100% baby proof place, for while you go to the bathroom or unload groceries, I would leave one pack and play set up and put them in there, or put them in their cribs with some toys to play while you do that. I never thought my kids would play in there cribs, but one day I had to put them somewhere, so I put them in one crib together with a few toys and they had a blast in there for 5-10 minutes.

Then I'm confused about the dog, do you have a dog or not, and is he in the same area as the kids? When we had a dog, and DS was little, I just left his bowl of water out, and DS got in it every day, but I really had no other solution. It would make me a little irritated, but really, it's mostly just water, and dog slobber which they get all over anyways. Does your dog have access to outside through a doggy door or something, could you leave the water out there? I know they sell things at pet stores, where you fill up some sort of bottle (looks like a 2 liter bottle), and it goes upside down so that the area that the dog drinks out of only has a small amount of water, and it continues to replenish, maybe that way the kids wouldn't be so tempted to play in it if there wasn't tons of water.

You can baby proof cabinets without handles, they have kits in hardware stores, and probably even walmart. I took another route, made sure there was nothing poisonous at that level, and I have one cabinet that is full of tupperware that they are allowed to play in. It has taken some redirection, but they know they are not to get in the other cabinets.

 

Childproofing is such a stressful thing. Some people make a small space for their kids and childproof only that, others allow free reign and put locks on everything, and then there are the group that don't worry about it. I'm part of that last group. All I did was make sure that the super dangerous stuff was off-limits. So, we had a gate in front of the stairs so no one could fall down. I put locks on the kitchen cabinets that held chemicals or knives. The rest I left unlocked and just redirected if my girls tried to pull out the dinner plates. I put those plastic plugs in the power outlets and moved blind cords up high. Then I gave them free reign of the first floor when they were about a year old, but was never very far away.

It all worked out. They didn't play in the cat's litter box, or try to eat the cat food. They didn't use the toy bin to climb up on the bar stool and get to the liquor. They didn't throw things in the toilets. And no major accidents.

Now that my girls are two, we have virtually no childproofing in our house at all. We moved when they were 21 months old and just never got around to childproofing because it didn't seem necessary. So, no locks on cabinets, no gates, etc. We do have plastic plugs in the outlets near where they play, but they're not on all outlets. I don't have any stairs in this house, so no gates. I have moved all chemicals up high so it would be really tough for the girls to get to them.

A lot of this depends on the personalities of your kids, but the things you mention (dog water bowl, toilet, cat litter box) might not be as big of a deal as you think. You can easily childproof kitchen cabinets by getting those screw in locks that attach to the cabinet door. No handles required.

Anyway, just some thoughts from a laissez-faire mom!

 

You would laugh your butt off if you saw some of the creative child proofing i've done in our house. My kids are absolutely fearless climbers and are SUPER curious, into-everything boys so for my sanity, and their safety, the living room is their safe area. I wish I had kids that I could redirect away from stuff but they are totally relentless.
Kitchen cabinets - Kidco makes magnetic locks that would work on no-handle cabinets. I was really skeptical about this at first but they actually stick with adhesive so no screws and they stay on.
As far as getting them in and out of the car, do you have a double stroller? When you get them out of the car, you can pop them both in there, take them inside in the stroller and then leave them strapped in while you run out to get groceries.
As for the cat's litterbox, cats can squeeze through some pretty small spaces so you could try mounting a pressure gate a little higher in the doorframe and let them go under. I know my cats can't or won't just jump over a gate but before my kids were climbing everything, I could keep them in and give the cats access by putting something (a chair, a storage tote, whatever) on both sides of the gate to give the cats a raised surface to jump to and from.
The dog dish you might just have to deal with them playing in, I think the automatic waterer thingy (with the bottle that replenishes the water) sounds like a good idea to try, I've bought them at Wal-mart for not much money.
And let me just say, you won't scar your kids of life if you don't have any choice but to confine them to one room most of the time until you move into your house, it might not be ideal but they aren't going to wind up in therapy over it

 

Well said. Fran, I agree with this. Please do not feel bad if you feel it is safer for you and your children not to have free reign of the apartment. We have used bungee cords across the cabinet beneath the TV so they cannot mess with the DVD player...we block things off with pillows and pulling furniture close together. I do not know if your apartment will allow this with the cabinets, but DH ordered these cabinet locks from one step ahead that you stick on the cabinet and you use a magnet to open and the kids cannot open the cabinet (at least mine have not figured it out yet). We are fortunate that we have a downstairs where we can keep our kitty litter & cat food so the kids cannot get it because mine would be all up in that in a NY minute. We shut and lock the door to the downstairs and when our cats want in and out, they just meow to do so.
Babyproofing is hard! My twosome alert me to new dangers everyday that I have not thought about!

 

I took out our kitchen table and put down an area rug we had downstairs- I put up the superyard XT w/ extensions- made a giant box that is safe, has their toys in it and they'll be happy there for a while. I had similar issues-- cat bowl, cat box, stairs (we have a spiral staircase), cabinets, etc, etc-- and a 4 yr old who loves to run in & out of the house through the back door... my stepmom suggested a long time ago we do this and now that I've done it- I can't believe I didn't do it long ago.

We do what we have to do-- sure, my kids don't have free reign in the house, but they still get plenty of stimulation & roaming time.

Good luck sorting it out.

p.s. we eat in our dining room now-- and having the mess next to the front door forces me to keep it tidy. odd bonus I guess.

 

Thanks... lots of good ideas!

We're going to look at putting a gate in the doorway to the bathroom (the cat jumps over them), and look for those magnets for the kitchen cabinets. The main issue will probably be to find a way to attach some shelves and a rolling cart to the wall so it doesn't fall on them. And we'll have to drill more holes to put the configure gate under the stairs.

Do you ever have issues with kids in your feet while you cook though? The kitchen is small and I'm worried something bad is going to happen.

 

I haven't read the responses yet, but here's my two cents. Don't feel guilty if they don't have run of the whole place. Mine didn't at that age, either. We were in the main living area (kitchen/dining/living room) as little as possible when they were that age. I really didn't let them be there for much time until closer to age 2. We have a finished basement that is a playroom/family room, and that's where they spent 90% of their waking day. I would bring them up for meals, and that was pretty much it. I babyproofed the downstairs and that was their free reign area. I gated off the stairs, put a Superyard around the fireplace and cat stuff (food and their big scratching perch thing). Doorknob cover on the door to the utility room. Call me whatever, but it was easier to just have a big place that was theirs and I didn't have to constantly say no or move them away from stuff.