Wonder Bunch Shares Tips and Tricks to Kid-Proof Your Life
November is Child Safety Month, and Wonder Bunch Media wants you to know that we think you have been doing an incredible job keeping your family safe! In a world we can’t ever really child-proof, you’ve been there looking out for them every step of the way, and we see you.
This month we have been thinking about ways to keep children safer in every situation. We’ve put together a list of a few of our best tips, but we would love to hear from you! Do you have any tricks or hacks for safeguarding your children? Email us or leave us a comment so we can share with other parents just like you!
Getting into Hot Water
Scalds, burns, and hyperthermia can occur when curious hands meet your bathtub faucet. Setting your water heater to a maximum of 120 degrees Fahrenheit is an easy way to keep your child’s bath from becoming hazardous. As you know, it takes only a moment for little ones to get their hands on anything they’re after, and setting your heater to a lower temperature is an easy way to make your bath burn-proof!
Using temp-alert rubber duckies in the bath is an easy way to take the guess work out of bath time, but your little one will think it’s just plain fun!
Medicine and Cleaning Supplies
It’s pretty common to store your family’s cleaning supplies under the bathroom or kitchen sink. Unfortunately, it’s also pretty common for cleaning supplies to be colored like your child’s favorite juicy drink. They smell interesting, look fun, and they’re right… there. Storing these cleaning supplies on the top shelf of a laundry room or closet can save your child from the cost of curiosity!
It can be hard to remember to take your daily dose, whether it’s your life saving medication or your daily vitamin. If, like many people, you keep your medicine in a pill box by your bed or on your bathroom sink, there’s a chance they won’t be there when you wake up. Instead, try keeping them in a medicine cabinet with your toothbrush. You’ve never forgotten to brush your teeth, so keeping them together removes the risk!
Properly dispose of any untaken medication, whether they’re leftover or simply expired. Seal them in a plastic bag and look up a medication take-back event in your area to safely return them. Flushing them in the toilet, washing them down the sink, and throwing them into the trash is an environmental hazard, and water treatment facilities don’t have the capacity to truly filter out all medications from water before it’s returned to the municipal supply.
Anchor Away!
Recent studies have shown that only 27% of households in the United States anchor the furniture in their homes. Families have a number of reasons for not anchoring, such as assuming their children are old enough to know not to climb on furniture, or that their children are never left alone so it isn’t a worry. In fact, more than 40 children a day are injured by falling dressers, televisions, bookshelves, and other furniture that hasn’t been anchored to a wall.
Anchor It offers families tips for everything from reducing climbing risks to anchoring how-tos. Life with littles is filled with twists and turns. Anchoring your furniture can take one more emergency room trip off the table!
Get a Checkup – For your Car Seat!
We aren’t sure why “installing a car seat” doesn’t count as exercise on MyFitnessPal, because it’s a workout! Getting a car seat in properly is more than an excellent way to burn calories, it’s a logic puzzle with incredibly high stakes. You can get support at any local fire station, which are qualified to approve your installation! Call your local station to set up a time ASAP!
Name and Number
You watch your child every minute. If they were old enough to file charges for stalking, they just might. You have more pictures of them sleeping than exist of you for the entirety of your life. You’re watching. You’re on them. But you’re at the store and you turn to reach for a size 4 Iron Man t-shirt and suddenly your super hero has taken off.
It happens every day in every store in the country. You’re a great parent, your kid is just very curious! And when they realize they’ve lost you, they will be exactly half as terrified as you already are. Be sure that your child knows your legal name almost as early as they can say their own. A store employee or helpful stranger yelling “mom” or “dad” is less likely to get your child back to you quickly.
The great news is that children have exceptional memories! As soon as they’re old enough to know all of their numbers, start familiarizing them with yours. While getting lost in a grocery store may be a scary five-minute fiasco, getting lost at say, Disney World, is a much more stressful situation. But if your child knows your phone number, security can reconnect you almost instantly, taking a lot of the drama out of a tricky situation!
It’s also helpful to take a picture at the beginning of any outing. If you happen to get separated, having a current photo with what they were wearing will make spotting them a snap!
Come Clean
Installing a robust welcome mat at your door can help remove some of the dirt, snow, rain, or gravel from the soles of your family’s shoes, but it can’t stop the bacteria and pesticides that you’ve managed to pick up on your daily walk! Enforcing a strict no-shoes policy in your home can keep it from being invaded by dangerous (or plain disgusting!) germs and debris.
Make it fun for your family by keeping cute slippers by the door for them to change into on the way in. Create a cute custom mat or sign by the door to encourage guests to remove their shoes.
Autonomy = Lasting Security
From a very early age, children are taught about stranger danger. Don’t talk to strangers, don’t get in a car, don’t interact with someone you don’t know online. Do they know, however, that they have the right to say no to physical contact, no matter where the request is coming from? Empowering your child to make decisions about who they physically interact with may lead to several uncomfortable conversations, but it will absolutely lead to a better sense of autonomy and the belief that when they say no, it means no.
This may mean that their favorite aunt is denied cheek kisses, a family friend no longer gets a hug, or even their pediatrician has to accept boundaries. Celebrate your child’s “no” with them, and know that this simple act of empowerment will give them the tools to stand up for themselves throughout their lives.
E-Safety
The world is wide and beautiful, and we want to give it all to our children! Now more than ever, they’re experiencing a great deal of it from the other side of a screen. From their homework to their social lives, everything is happening online! This is extremely convenient, but it comes at a pretty significant cost.
Online, your child is vulnerable to predatory actions by everyone from scamming advertisers to identity thieves. More concerning is that they may be subjected to bullying or coercion without you ever knowing they were talking with anyone.
There is a fine line between respecting your child’s independence and leaving them caught in the world wide web without any safeguards. Thankfully, technology is doing its best to keep up! Installing a protective app on your child’s device can block unwanted websites and catch predatory communication before damage is done.
But nothing takes the place of a supportive parent. Be sure to talk with your child about what they’re viewing, who they’re talking with, and how they’re feeling.
Here at Wonder Bunch Media, we believe we all have a part to play in making the world a little safer and more beautiful for the generation to come. That’s why our whole team has carefully crafted an age-appropriate world, far away from the risks that older children are better equipped to understand. There is absolutely no chat function, predatory advertising, or in-app purchasing available in the Wonder Bunch World.
Please be sure to join in the conversation by dropping us a comment on Facebook or on our Instagram @Wonder_Bunch_Media if there is more we can do to help keep your littles as safe as can be!
