“No, no baby…”
Shared by Breanne Smedley
About a month ago, I was talking to Charlee’s babysitter about how Char has full-on entered into the “get into everything and anything” stage.
Cupboards, drawers, cubbies. Anything that’s at eye level or below, and within reach, is fair game to be taken down and thrown on the floor.
And now, she’s making a game of how fast she can get to the stairs and start climbing before we chase after and pull her off.
So, Brett and I naturally decided we needed to do a better job “baby-proofing” our house.
First, pretty much all decorations at three feet or lower had to go.
Which (side note) actually made my minimalist, clutter-clearing self really happy.
Then, we started looking on Amazon at the plethora of baby-proof “essentials.”
Cabinet locks.
Drawer stoppers.
Baby gates.
Outlet covers.
Edge protectors.
Knob covers.
Cord protectors.
Toilet lid locks.
There’s apparently a market out there for this stuff!
“Do we really need all this!?” We wondered
In the meantime, we wrapped some rubber bands around the cabinet knobs to divert her attention while we figured out how to parent during this new stage.
As we were describing all this to Charlee’s babysitter (who is amazing and has 30 years of experience caring for children), she listened without surprise.
I was expecting her to tell us which products we should buy.
Instead, she told us she doesn’t have any of that stuff.
She said, “I just tell them ‘No, no baby’ when they are getting into something they shouldn’t.”
“Really?,” I thought. It can’t be that simple…
So, we tried it.
The next day, Charlee was crawling towards one of the exposed outlets.
About to put her finger on it, I said, “No, no baby!”
She stopped, put her head down a bit, and looked up at me. I could tell she was trying to decide what to do next. Continue to touch the outlet, or stop.
She stopped, and crawled toward a toy sitting out nearby.
“It worked!” I said.
And it does, mostly.
There are still multiple times a day where the “No, no baby” starts out gentle, then turns to a full-on “NO, NO BABY!!” as she continues to make her way into the cupboard that holds our garbage or climb on top of the dishwasher.
And, we’ve decided to not waste our “no, no babies” on the speed crawl to and up the stairs. Time for a baby gate there.
It’s a work in progress.
But, it’s a good reminder.
Seek the simple solution, first.
Because I can say “No, no baby.”
But I can’t figure out how to open the door with a knob protector on (help!)…
#MindfullyEvolving
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