Safe at Home

Before our first child was born, Dave and I almost drove ourselves crazy baby proofing the house. There was not a cabinet that did not have a latch, a corner that was not padded or a floor that was not cleaned within an inch of its life. And this was before he was even born.

However, as time has gone on, we’ve become a little sloppy about making sure everything in our environment is as safe as it can reasonably be. Sadly, we were reminded about how important home safety is by an accident that befell the son of a friend of our recently. Like us, they are good, responsible parents. However, they had gotten a little careless and an accident resulted. Their daughter is fine now, but she did have to have a few stitches and they have a lot of guilt. So, Dave and I are re-evaluating our home’s safety.

Kitchen Dangers

Here are some common sense practices that will keep everyone safer:

• Always keep pot handles turned so that they can’t be accidentally knocked over.
• Store cleaners and pesticides on the highest shelves possible to keep them out of your children’s reach.
• Store your sharp knives in a locked drawer or in a knife block, away from little hands and other items you might just reach in to grab.
• Unless it is very, very full, keep your chest freezer locked.
• Clean up any spill as soon as it happens so that no one will slip and fall.
• Store heavy items in lower shelves and lighter items higher, so that if anything should fall, no one will be injured.

Bedroom and Bathroom Dangers

Beware of cords and uncovered outlets in any room in your home, but especially in your kid’s bedrooms where they may play alone. Also avoid using space heaters or, if you must, place them in a place where they cannot be touched and will not come in contact with bedding.

Check how hot your tap water is and see if you need to adjust the temperature so that someone can’t accidentally scald himself. Always unplug any blow dryer or hair iron as soon as you use it so no one will get burned or electrocuted. Make sure that there is some sort of stick resistant surface on the bottom of your tub or shower stall.

Garage Dangers

I was shocked to realize that our oldest is now tall enough to reach the switch on some of Dave’s power tools. It goes without saying that that never occurred to me when I was looking at dw745 Dewalt table saws. So now, we are contacting the company to see if they make any sort of locks for their Dewalt miter saws. If they don’t, we’re going to come up with some other method to make sure he can’t turn it on. I will do the same for all our other power tools.

Likewise, we will be looking into how we store the dangerous chemicals that we keep in the out buildings. I am even considering asking our neighbors, who don’t have children, if we can store these items in their garage. This may seem extreme, but nothing is extreme when it comes to my family’s safety.

About the Author

Melissa Cameron is a married writer with two young children. She and her husband Dave have been focusing on improving their personal health through diet changes and exercise and love working out together. Melissa’s research into lifestyle changes have resulted in her trying various popular weight-loss programs like Medifast (coupon code), and Nutrisystem (plan review) as well as planning and constructing her own home gym.