Home safety products for kids

Fritha Strickland has her own Blog - http://www.tigerlillyquinn.com/ She's also a customer and knows our ethos and products well, especially the Orbit Stroller for which she is a brand Ambassador.  Fritha's son Wilf if 18 months so the perfect age to be exploring his surroundings.  Born has just introduced a range of safety devices for home use, something we have considered over the years but were never quite sure if our customers would want them if they were practicing 'Continuum' style parenting.  However, as Fritha discusses and the sales prove, there is a need for these gadgets in the modern world we live in.
~ Eva



I first heard of the Continuum Concept in pregnancy. A friend of mine, training to be a midwife was reading the book written by Jean Liedloff and defined it as being ‘sort of like attachment parenting, but a little different’.  I made a mental note to read the book at some point and yet 18months after my son’s birth it still taunts me as yet another thing to tick off the ever growing list.

Despite not actually having read the book yet I am familiar after a little research into its ideas and practices. What I found most interesting about the concept it the idea that we are inbuilt with the concept of danger and that being the case babies will know how to avoid  falling off a cliff/down a hole etc.

Part of me loves the idea of letting babies and children grow up with an understanding of what is dangerous and trusting in their ability to understand this.  However the habitat the babies are raised in in the book (a South American jungle) is very different to a western environment.

Looking around my slightly (very) messy living room I see the stickle bricks strewn across the floor, the rug that could become a hazard for an excitable running toddler and the sharp corners of our coffee table. Our kitchen houses dishwasher rinse aid, floor cleaner and other cleaning products (although eco friendly) under the sink. Our hallways contains sockets and our stairs, although carpeted are steep and slippy.

My sister as a toddler ran full speed (as part of an exciting game I don’t doubt) into the living room, slipped and bashed into the corner of a chest.  It caused her a gash scarily close to her eye that is still visible 15 years later.

It is because of the above I suppose that we installed a lock on the kitchen and bathroom cupboards, a stair gate on the stairs and draw catchers on our knife drawers.

I like the idea of trusting your child’s in-built instincts for danger, but I feel for the price of a little pad on the corner of your coffee table it is simpler to have that piece of mind instead of the ‘what ifs’.

What do you think? Do you find all this safely equipment too much? Or do you think it is better to be safe than sorry?

~ Fritha