Good point. And kids can get themselves into trouble RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!!
My kids were pretty well-behaved and listened to reason and common sense, but my mom tells me that when I was a toddler, I was messing about in the kitchen under her feet. She and my grandma were trying to broil steaks on the broiler part of the oven.
She kept sitting me down with my dolls (or whatever) in the corner but after the hundredth time I’d gotten smack dab in her way she gave me a little swat and told me “sit there and play out of the way”!!
Apparently I got in a snit and ran down the hall, and then came tearing back into the kitchen and sat down, ON THE HOT BROILER!
It happened much too quickly, even with my mom and grandmother right there in front of the oven, for them to do more than snatch me off and cart me to the bathtub for a cold bath.
No permanent injury was done, but the point is, sometimes kids get hurt, in spite of your best intentions.
It’s a shame that your brother already has a history of being irresponsible. Perhaps the family can, unbeknownst to them, at least put in the outlet covers and stair gates?
Hopefully once the child arrives, maternal, and paternal instinct will take over and they’ll be naturally protective of the little squirt.
I grew up as one of 7 children and we all managed to make it to adulthood living in a house that wasnt babyproofed. Maybe if parents paid a bit more attention to their kids all these babyproofing products wouldnt be neccesary.
Just a thought about previous generations surviving without childproofing…
There were things we didn’t know were bad for you like mercury thermometers or too much sun/sunburn and asprin for children. There were no carseats (my parents employed the “catch child when hitting brakes hard technique”) or bicycle helmets. And we’ve learned a lot of hard lessons from these things!
Also there are a lot of new dangers we didn’t have then like window blind cords and garbage disposals. There are a lot more chemicals under the sink these days too!
There’s no shame in doing a bit of preventative childproofing. I do pay attention to my child but I’d like a little bit of extra leeway in case the phone rings and I turn my back for a second. And all it takes is a second! Also I don’t really want to spend all day telling her “no” … I do that enough with the stuff she does have access to!
I survived my childhood more by luck than by my parents skill as care givers. (If you have not read other places where I post about my folks they should never have been alowed to breed!) Two examples of said luck are: I was asleep on the backseat when the car hit the guardrail… thankfully I ended up on the floor instead of being ejected from the car! My brother went out the first floor window (about 5 feet from the ground) at age 2. Good for him he landed in a bush.
When my daughter arrived in our lives we did risk assessment and decided certain risks were unnecessary and that a bit of common sense safety was in order. YMMV but that was our decision.