A Few Bumps and Bruises: Our Baby proofing Philosophy

Long before Molly started to get mobile I had my thoughts on baby proofing our house. And that thought was minimal. As little as possible. To me, that entire aisle at Babies R Us is just too much. And I didn't want our house to become one big piece of plastic corner protectors.



And then she started crawling. And found power cords and outlets extremely interesting. So we went to that isle and purchased some outlet protectors.

Then one day our little girl pulled herself up to stand and subsequently fell. Sharp corners started appearing everywhere. So, back to that aisle for a couple corner protectors.



And then our curious little explorer peeked inside a kitchen cabinet. To the aisle we went for some gadget to keep a pair of cabinet doors closed.



But that is it. That is all we are doing. Partially because I want to keep the integrity of my home. But mostly because I don't want my daughter to think that certain actions have no consequences.

I want her to explore and discover things on her own. Discover that some adventures lead to bumps and others to a few minor bruises.

The more freedom we give her the more skilled she becomes and the more brave her spirit.



Yes, I say "be careful"a thousand times a day. And yes, my heart breaks a little when she takes a spill and bumps her head. But she has proven strong and resilient and has never once stopped exploring.

We believe in the old, let her touch the hot stove so she knows that its hot and won't touch it again philosophy (don't worry, we are not leaning Molly over a hot stove so she can reach out and touch it). She needs to learn from her environment and we don't want to stifle that.

So far our approach is working out. We have had no incidents in which I thought we needed to do more. And Molly has so much fun making her way through the house and all the fun things it has to offer.

And our house still looks like our house.

We have been up and down that aisle a few times but we don't see a need to do any more.



At least not right now.