“You are going to get hurt doing that…” are the words shouted by my mother many times growing up. It seems the things I thought were harmless and couldn’t even imagine how I could get hurt by were death traps. I honestly thought she was crazy until just recently.
Within two months, my daughter went from needing help to sit up to crawling and pulling herself up onto everything. All of the stuff we child-proofed early on was good, but not even close to being complete. She has taught us a lot.
Sure, we put the little plastic things in the outlets and locked the cabinets housing the chemicals. What about everything else?! I never thought I would have to find a way to childproof my walls. What about her own toys? This is a little bit crazy to me.
We knew off the bat our coffee table and fireplace would need to be dealt with once the crawling began and we jumped right on it. However, watching her crawl has taught me to envision all the possible scenarios and objects she can get hurt on. For instance at the end of her crawling bits, she tends to dive forward. I just picture her going head first into the wall.
Then now that the pulling up has begun, she finds a way to keep you on your toes. As you are moving the remote away from her, she falls and narrowly missed hitting her head. Seriously, why do they feel the need to hit their heads all the time?
I have always been the guy who said that childproofing was a waste. Kids will learn from their own mistakes, as I have. Now, compare that with the dad who was picturing a helmet setup for his kid earlier this week. It made me laugh a bit because it was a real tempting thought.
My point is, don’t fear being unprepared because I promise you will be. You will see all the hazards you are overlooking once they become mobile. Good luck!