child crazyness

[dtowntke]

ok so i have a 1 and a half rear old son love him to death words can't express how much i love him. it seems though he is very attracted to our entertainment center how do i keep him out my center has two sliding doors, i looked at target and wal mart for door lock stopper things but they dont seem like they would work, anyone have any suggestions , the doors are wood with glass in them. we looked at child saftey locks and they wont work any other suggestions?

[Rob71]

Originally Posted by dtowntke

ok so i have a 1 and a half rear old son love him to death words can't express how much i love him. it seems though he is very attracted to our entertainment center how do i keep him out my center has two sliding doors, i looked at target and wal mart for door lock stopper things but they dont seem like they would work, anyone have any suggestions

Rolled up newspaper?

Sorry. Are they glass doors like the sales racks at Walmart? You could get one of those locks. If you don't like those a friend uses these for their patio doors don't see why they wouldn't work.

[JunkBoy]

I have a 2 and 4 yr old. My daughter (2yrs old), at around your sons age, was fascinated with our HT setup. Always wanting to open the drawers and take out the remotes and whatever else were in there. Touching the TV, opening and closing the receiver door and trying to remove the speaker grills. I was pretty much just really stern with her. Telling her NO when she overstepped her boundaries. She'd throw her little fits and such but now she knows not to play with our HT setup now. You just gotta let them know who's boss sometimes.

[D1-2005]

Without drilling holes or something, you could try the child proof refrigorator locks that just stick on. You might have to scrub some residue off later but better than drilling holes.

[Riff Magnum]

Put in the craziest piece of music you have and turn it up very loud.

Serously though, i don't think there's any other way to keep it from happening besides just being there and keeping an eye on things. He's only 18 months. Eventually he'll figure out how important it is to you or he'll just loose interest and leave it alone. Sometimes embracing their curiosity will actually quench their desire to cause trouble. Kids are very smart. I actually taught my son how to use all the remotes and do all the channel switching and stuff. Now that he's invested he doesn't even think about mischief, at least concerning my a/v equipment.

[obiwopkenobi62]

Ass whoopings are a great deterrent. Seriously, don't take this the wrong way but my sister is like this too. People have to give their kids serious guidance from a young age. You just might have to give him a little behind slap when he does wrong. Eventually they understand what they can and can't touch. I did that with my son and he's 19 now and turned out fine. He also respects other peoples things as well as his own. I always thought childproofing everything was kind of ridiculous. A lot of people do this because they say they can't watch the child all the time. I say that's your job to watch the child all the time otherwise you shopuldn't have had one.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but when my son was born my life changed. That's when they take precedence and you have to handle it.
Just my 2 cents.

[Riff Magnum]

Spankings have their time and place, but i strongly urge any parent to avoid it at all costs. If your child is rubbing play dough all over your plasma, simply removing him from the environment and sternly telling him "NO" might not always work, but the child will know they did something wrong even though you didn't inflict physical pain upon them. You might have to repeat this twenty times before a spanking becomes necessary, but i don't think spanking should be a parents first response, or second for that matter. Your child is not a dog or a slave. Sometimes i think we forget that they are people. Little people. Little people without all the hangups of "adults."

[D1-2005]

I don't think we should get into a debate over child discipline. Everyone does it different and has different oppinions. He's asking for child proofing help not parenting.

[jovherye]

Originally Posted by Riff Magnum

Spankings have their time and place, but i strongly urge any parent to avoid it at all costs. If your child is rubbing play dough all over your plasma, simply removing him from the environment and sternly telling him "NO" might not always work, but the child will know they did something wrong even though you didn't inflict physical pain upon them. You might have to repeat this twenty times before a spanking becomes necessary, but i don't think spanking should be a parents first response, or second for that matter. Your child is not a dog or a slave. Sometimes i think we forget that they are people. Little people. Little people without all the hangups of "adults."

Agreed! They are little people and I could go on and on, but this is not a child psych forum.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

FEAR IS THE BEST METHOD!!!

Strike the fear of God into the little vigilante. It worked for our fathers. And our father's fathers. And our father's father's father. And our father's father's father's fathers......... as to how you go about striking that fear into the him, that's entirely up to you. I can't condone violence and therefore can't suggest it. But, a raising of the voice and sincerely intense face to face "anger glare" will probably get the point across that he has his toys and that your toys are off limits to him.

[obiwopkenobi62]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

FEAR IS THE BEST METHOD!!!

Strike the fear of God into the little vigilante. It worked for our fathers. And our father's fathers. And our father's father's father. And our father's father's father's fathers......... as to how you go about striking that fear into the him, that's entirely up to you. I can't condone violence and therefore can't suggest it. But, a raising of the voice and sincerely intense face to face "anger glare" will probably get the point across that he has his toys and that your toys are off limits to him.

Yes, the threat of an ass whooping is sometimes just as effective as the actual ass whooping.
BE AFRAID, VERY AFRAID........

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by dtowntke

ok so i have a 1 and a half rear old son love him to death words can't express how much i love him. it seems though he is very attracted to our entertainment center how do i keep him out my center has two sliding doors, i looked at target and wal mart for door lock stopper things but they dont seem like they would work, anyone have any suggestions , the doors are wood with glass in them. we looked at child saftey locks and they wont work any other suggestions?

This worked for me; may not work for you.

I have two boys. From the time they were infants, they did pretty much everything with me.

We investigated everything. Tools in the garage, when I was repairing or making something; whatever Mom was cooking for dinner (she wouldn't let us touch anything, it was "hot", whatever that was; I didn't take any chances near that stove, since Mom said, and that's Gospel in our house); and even hooking up the stereo. We'd go to the mall, the hardware store, the supermarket, everywhere, and we would ask questions.

We found out what that thing was the guy used to put prices on cans. We asked how the drawer opened up when they pushed the cash register button. We just wanted to know everything.

I would enlist their aid when I was doing something. Since I had one or the other of them in my arms, pretty much the first words they learned were, "hold this". I'd sometimes start to hand them something; then "remember", hey, that's "too heavy", or "too hot", or "too sharp". Sometimes I would "cut" myself, or "burn" myself, and then curse myself for being stupid, and give the little guys a look; can you believe Dad was dumb enough to do that? So we learned caution.

And I had to always be honest. "Hey, take this medicine tastes great! Watch, here, I'll show you," and I'd taste it and make a horrible face, yell "gack", then we'd go to Mom with, "Hey, what is this crap," and she'd make us take it anyway, the Doctor Said. So we did. No yelling about it, that's just the way it was.

I'm a computer guy, and a stereo nut, so they were with me when we built a PC, or wired up the speakers, or whatever. They watched as I muttered under my breath, "this is tricky," or "I gotta be careful, don't want to bust this," or "if I stick my hand in there, I'll get a shock", and they watched me do this. I didn't tell them anything; I just told myself. Then I would laboriously go through the initialization of something, following the steps exactly, talking out loud to myself. It was Important.

They just observed.

They could load up a VCR tape, turn on the TV, stereo, and their movie, at the age of two. They youngest could do it before he could talk; he spend a lot of time watching his brother. There were no mysteries to explore. I just crossed my fingers. I never lost a thing.

By the age of five, they were building PC's. It's not hard; they just understood the process, and the steps. Nothing was forbidden - it just needed to be handled correctly, and if you didn't know how to handle it, you went and asked, and somebody told you. If it was dangerous, or risky, they explained why a baby couldn't do it, and that was fine.

They got spankings, sometimes, not often. It was invariably for being cruel to each other, or inconsiderate to someone. Never for handling anything - there is no reason for that. Safety was self-defense, they understood that.

The funny thing is, everyone I ever met during that time took our questions absolutely seriously. A grown man, holding a small baby still not able to walk, would ask what the guy in the jewelry shop was doing with that little torch; and the guy would explain, in detail, slowly - talking to me, and taking extreme delight in the deep interest this toddler took in every word.

So they never had fear of technology, or sharing responsibility for stuff with their Mom and Dad. No mysteries.

They drove all the family cars. My wife and I shopped for two years for a black C5 Corvette convertible, finally bought one, drove it home, and the youngest - who had gotten his license six months before - was standing in the driveway. We got out, handed him the keys, and told him to go show it to his friends. It had 17 miles on it. To this day, it still doesn't have a scratch on it. People thought I was crazy, but I'm not.

The oldest is West Point Class of 2005. The youngest, West Point Class of 2006. Captain and First Lieutenant, respectively. I trust them with my life, and yours. I've been able to do that for a long, long time.

So my advice: Get the little guy, do some exploring of your delicate stuff. He loves you, and will see how protective of it you are. Get him to help you protect it, remove all mysteries from this gear. Show him the remote. Learn with him. He's a bright kid, or he wouldn't be fooling around with it; share it with him.

It worked for me, maybe it will work for you.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

This worked for me; may not work for you.

*snip*

It worked for me, maybe it will work for you.

This is a really good post. I don't do this nearly enough with my 4 year old. She knows how to load my PS3 and turn on the components and watch a movie (thanks to macros) but she's not allowed to touch the movies (she scratched a blu-ray already). I think I need to go back and remove some of the mystery of it, and it won't be something she desires to play with, but be something she understands. She's already pretty good with a mouse and a keyboard thanks to this kind of idea.

Thanks for the post.