Preparing your home for children is a big undertaking. We don’t mean in terms of decorating rooms and providing kid-friendly toys. The real prep work comes with childproofing.
Once kids arrive, everything gets busy fast — whether you’re expecting to bring a little one home from the hospital or are new grandparents excited about babysitting overnight for the first time. That’s why childproofing has to happen well in advance.
Preparing your home for children involves more than you’d expect! Here are a few tips that cover things you’ve likely already thought about, as well as a few things you probably haven’t.
View Your Home from a Child’s Perspective
In order to truly make your home safe, you’re going to have to drop your grownup view of the world and see things through the eyes of a crawling baby or toddling child. It helps to actually get down on the floor and look around for potential dangers that need to be covered, blocked, or removed.
Once you’ve identified the threats, it’s time to get to work. Install outlet covers on all electrical outlets and corner pads to prevent inevitable stumbles into sharp edges of coffee tables and shelves. Speaking of shelves, small children love to pull objects off of them, so move anything that’s not child-safe up and away or use baby gates to block off areas forbidden to little ones.
Using Technology in Preparing Your Home for Children
Your home security system provides another level of safety when preparing your home for children. A security system, as well as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, are just the start.
Ask any parent of small children and you’ll discover that once kids become mobile, they also become ingenious at opening all sorts of doors. Because of this, one of the biggest concerns is them wandering out of the house or getting into dangerous substances in a kitchen or bathroom cabinet.
Child safety latches can help, but as children age, they can easily learn how to get past these. This is why installing security sensors on exterior doors, windows, and certain cabinets makes sense. If a child does get past other safety measures (or an adult fails to put those measures in place), an alarm or phone notification will alert you that a door has been opened.
Peace of Mind While You’re Away
Your home security system can also give you a glimpse of what’s going on at home when you’re away. If you work during the day and leave the kids in the care of Grandma or are hoping to enjoy an evening out thanks to a trusted babysitter, installing security cameras and mobile home control devices are a smart move when you’re initially preparing your home for children.
It’s normal for parents to worry when they’re away from their kids for extended periods of time, but a quick glimpse at a live web feed that reveals Grandma feeding the kids cookies in the kitchen or the babysitter playing with them on the living room floor will put your mind at ease. Mobile home control features like a smart thermostat allow you to assist from afar if a friend or relative has trouble adjusting the temperature themselves.
Educate Everyone on the Evacuation Plan
No matter who’s in your home at any given time, it’s important that everyone be made aware of the evacuation plan should an emergency happen. This helps ensure that everyone gets safely out of the house if there’s a fire or carbon monoxide event. It also provides guidance as to where everyone should meet up so that family members can be accounted for.
With your childproofing, home security system, and evacuation plan firmly in place, your home will be ready for anything that parenthood (or grandparenthood) can throw at you. The question is: are you ready?
At ProTech Security, we have a strong history of experience, innovation, and customer service. The ProTech Security Advantage is more than 30 years of service in Northeast Ohio and a strong commitment to providing quality, cost-effective protection for homes, businesses, educational institutions and government facilities. To see what ProTech Security can do for you, contact us today.
