Why I Don't Baby Proof

There's no point to it.

At least not that I can see.

I've been in other parents homes where EVERYTHING is baby proofed and it's fine.

However, if I did that in my home and then brought The Monkey to a home where nothing was baby proofed all I would be doing was saying, "Non, ce n'est pas pour toi!" Or the english translation - No, that is not for you!

So, I don't baby proof. I don't do it because I want her to learn how to behave not only at home, but also in public.

We have gates because she's not great at going DOWN stairs by herself (but the gates aren't up, they're just sitting by the staircases).

Oh, and I like saying NO.

I think it's great for children to hear. No, you can't do that. No, you can't do this. Well, actually in french it's "No, ce n'est pas permis!" which is "no, that is not allowed!" It teaches boundaries, limitations, and also - expectations.

But in other words, it also means that she waits until I'm not looking and grabs something she shouldn't have - like my crochet hooks, scissors, pens, pencils, glue, touches lamps, glass vases, keyboards, etc... And how do I deal with that?

I ask her for them. And she gives them to me. Instead of freaking out over scissors and objects she shouldn't have, I have her hand them to me like it's her job and guess what, she does it. Phew. That took a few days of practice and quite a few sticky crochet hooks but we've got it down. And now instead of grabbing stuff she points and says either MAMA or DADA which means she knows objects belong to someone else besides her.

But I've lost two kitchen drawers (out of 4 drawers total!) to things that she can play with and grab while I'm cooking. There's still a battle going with a third drawer that has items like the wine corker, pizza cutters, cookie cutters and a few other objects she shouldn't be touching. I WILL WIN. I WILL PREVAIL AND KEEP MY DRAWER.

Blerg. It's a battle between and almost-two-year-old vs. the adults.

But it's parenthood. It's teaching, it's learning (for me too!), it's about shaping behavior.

And I feel like this is really applying my dog-training skills to children (like teaching Rusty to LEAVE IT).

Oy.

Parenthood.

I WILL WIN.