Babyproofing

One thing I always want to remember is something that Ian reminded me of the other day. Mary kept trying to play with the door handle at his parents house and he told her, "Mary, do not touch!" I told him not to worry about it, that she couldn't get it open anyways. And he reminded me that even though she can't get it open, she still needs to be taught not to open doors when she's this young unless mommy or daddy tell her it's OK.

I was so glad he pointed that out! It reminded me of a baby proofing principle that I read about in one of the -wise books. They said no matter what you baby proof your children still need to know what's off limits and what's OK to touch. Like cabinets. We don't let Mary touch cabinets and drawers except a couple that we've set apart just for her. At first we were very diligent about letting her know what was OK and what wasn't, now it just takes the occasional reminder. We've never put latches on anything because she doesn't go for them anymore. The nice thing about this is that she doesn't do it at other people's houses either. That way when others don't have latches we just don't even worry because she nearly never goes for cabinets.

This is also true of electric sockets. Even though we have the baby proofing plugs in them, we still taught her not to touch them. Some people don't have those plugs! I want to keep this principle in mind! It's so good:)