Twinproofing vs. Childproofing

By Kristy Zurbrick

Play Den

Twinproofing vs. Childproofing

By Kristy Zurbrick

The bad news: According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 2.5 million young children are injured or killed each year in incidents at home. The good news: Most of these incidents are preventable. The key to a safe home is childproofing; or in the case of parents of multiples, “twinproofing.”

Marcy Schultz, a TwinsHelp! advisory mom, knows all about both versions of home safety. She and her husband, David, are the parents of a 6-year-old daughter, Maddy, and 3-year-old fraternal twins, Hayden and Anna.

With the birth of their first child, the Schultzes went about childproofing their home in the usual ways. They installed safety gates near stairways, covered electrical outlets, and purchased corner guards for their furniture, among other safety measures.

When the twins came along, they doubled their efforts.

“It wasn’t so much that we had to do things differently, we just had to do more of it,” Marcy says. “So, we bought lots of safety gates and blocked off larger areas because two children need more room to play than one.”

They also stocked up on outlet and knob covers, door locks and other basic necessities in order to more thoroughly childproof their home.

“We got the obvious things with our first child. With the twins, though, we had to think about places we left out the first time, like the basement. When you’re outnumbered, you need to be more conscientious,” Marcy says.

This is particularly important once your children are more mobile. Luckily for the Schultzes, they moved to a new home and, therefore, a blank slate just as Hayden and Anna turned 2 years old.

“With our new home, we went for simplicity,” says Marcy, who describes her house as very child-friendly. “There are no glass tabletops anywhere, so no sharp edges. The children’s beds are low to the ground. The furniture is soft, puffy and inexpensive because it ends up doubling as a trampoline.”

And knick-knacks are a no-no. Why pique the curiosity of a climbing toddler with a shiny object atop a bookshelf? It’s not worth the worry or the potential danger, Marcy says.

“I can put up all the fancy, pretty things later in my life. Right now, I have to think about what’s best for my kids,” she says.

A true minimalist, Marcy doesn’t have coffee table books or magazines. The fireplace tools stay in the garage, only to appear when needed. Rooms contain nothing extraneous, nothing tempting.

“When you keep it simple, it’s no big deal if the kids want to play in a certain room,” she says. “Also, if the children have freedom in part of the house, it’s easier to enforce safety in other parts of the house.” For the Schultzes, the off-limits room are the formal dining room, home to a china cabinet, and the office, home to a computer with lots of wires.

Marcy admits she has made one concession to home decoration. She has house plants. Easily toppled and filled with “delicious” dirt, plants can be dangerous for explorative youngsters. Unwilling to give up her green thumb, Marcy and a friend came up with a childproof potting system.

“You get stiff, black mesh at a craft store, something like you would use in cross-stitch. Then you cut the mesh to the shape of the pot and secure it to the pot with wires. That way you can still water the plants, but your kids can’t spill the dirt or try to eat it,” says the inventive mother.

“Basically, you have to decide what your priorities are when you have children,” Marcy concludes. “Do you want to spend your days spinning around, saying ‘Don’t go there’ or ‘Don’t touch that,’ or do you have plenty of other things to do with your time?”            

Kristy Zurbrick is a freelance writer working with Twinshelp and an editor of a weekly newspaper in Columbus, Ohio.