Sunday, June 6, 2010

Baby Proofing

My mom always argues – “Young parents of today (which includes me) are way too protective of their kids…we never even heard of baby-proofing and yet our kids turned out fine!”

When my daughter first started moving around, trying to poke her teeny fingers into electrical outlets, I panicked and bought a store full of baby proofing items. However, I wonder if it is right to protect our kids from every little hazard. I mean closing electrical outlets is absolutely necessary, but is it essential to cover each and every sharp edge in your house? If a kid’s elbow never hits a sharp edge, how will she know what a sharp edge is?

I have to confess that at times I am critical of over-protective parents but having thought it over… probably over-protectiveness comes from a parent’s past experience or their extra knowledge about the hazard.

I guess it’s up to every parent to decide the amount of baby proofing their home needs…. as every child is different, so is every parent.

1 comment:

  1. I think when a baby is born, its born without much fear.. as she grows fear is introduced via actual experiences but mostly by other people saying "Don't o this: this is dangorous".
    I do think parents should let the kids experiement as long as the risk is not threatning (electric outlets or a knife etc). Small falls, scaping, bruising are part of growing up.. I remember as a kid gloating about a scar I got because of a stunt...

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