My heart skipped a beat when I saw Cubling, only a few centimetres away from me, trying to climb up a bookcase. Snowflake was just in front of it and I knew what Cubling didn't, that it wasn't secured to the wall. Just imagine what could have happened if I hadn't been right there to interfere.
Cue: screaming mama, big telling off, breath and start again to actually explain the problem. The telling off should have been for us, for not securing our furniture to the walls. We never thought it necessary. Because when Cubling was still small, she wouldn't have been able to pull it over, and we thought that once she's big enough to pull it over, she'd have the sense not to.
Well, I should have known my girl better. It's not that she doesn't get the explanation, just that she's always on the go (run) and forgets. She doesn't usually think before she does, and risk assessment? Well, she's taught that in the forest kindergarten and thank goodness for that, but she is only 3 and doesn't realise that furniture may come towards her.
So how safe are you in your home? We all have stairgates and protect the corners of tables for the toddler days. We do our best, and so do we. Just that there are many dangers we aren't aware of. Yes, I turn the handles of cooking pans away, but then Cubling managed to set off the smoke alarm by playing toasting, and set the microwave on fire by microwaving a pipecleaner in her hat - I tell you, not a good idea, the pipecleaner inflamed in under 10 seconds and the hat was happy to rejoice in the fire - Cubling herself was so shocked that she didn't even need told that playing with the microwave is not a good idea.
Thankfully I've come across an excellent check list for home safety. It is comprehensive and I can only recommend that people head over and have a look to see how safe their homes are for children. After all, accidental injury is one of the biggest cause of death in the UK, with more children dying from accidents in the home than from illness. Children between 0 and 4 years of age are particularly prone to home accidents. Don't delay, check how safe your home is so that you won't have to make use of A&E for an accident. And accident proofing our home is now on our to do list, because we fall short on a number of counts.
There are a few fire safety tips that I've come across which are not listed here - for instance, never let your washing machine/dishwasher run or on stand by when you go to bed as it could start a fire. It is also advisable not to run them while out of the house, for danger of fire and flooding. Another fire safety precaution is to close doors to kitchens, or any doors between kitchen and bedrooms at night time before going to bed. In case of a fire starting in the kitchen (the most likely place if you don't smoke) it means that the fire can't travel to the bedrooms easily.
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This is a sponsored post for which I received payment from Claims Helpline. They provide the excellent check list for home safety that I linked to, I chose to write about it because I believe that it is extremely useful for any parent. If you have additional safety tip, it would be great if you could share them in the comments section.
