I often tell my children that my only job as a mommy is to keep them safe. And I truly believe this is true. Not only am I responsible for keeping them physically safe, it is my job to keep them emotionally free from harm as well. This is not a job I take lightly. I feel sad when they are hurt or not feeling well (physically or emotionally) and it breaks my heart especially when I unintentionally harm them in some way. But this doesn’t mean that I constantly protect them from anything and everything that could possibly harm them. I take my responsibility very seriously but I also believe strongly in letting them explore their world and test their abilities and boundaries.
I am not a fanatical baby-proofer. I’ve always believed good adult supervision far exceeds the efficacy of expensive and inconvenient gadgets. We do keep our cleaning supplies up high and out of reach and keep their bedrooms as safe as possible with outlet covers and nothing that can be pulled down, broken, etc. The rest of the home safety is managed by good supervision and a few simple rules like no playing in the bathroom or in the bedrooms without a big person (the later mostly because they fight).
I also don’t follow them around the playground with a safety net. I’m usually the mom who sits on the bench off to the side where I can see them at all times and then rushes over when they get in a precarious situation and need assistance. I’ll help them a time or two with tasks that are a bit beyond their scope of ability and then encourage them to explore another area of the playground (like when Sugarplum tries to climb up the vertical climbing wall). I believe in my children’s abilities and the safety of the playground. Yes they’ve fallen but never gotten hurt—the closest we ever got to hurt from a fall at the park was actually when hubby was standing right next to Honeybun and she just let go of the monkey bars without telling him and landed right on her bum.
There are a few situations, however, where I am fanatical about their safety. I never let them play outside by themselves. We do not have a fenced in yard and have a lake in the back. There is very little grass out back so we usually end up playing out front on the driveway riding bikes and scooters or drawing with chalk. I would never dream of letting them out there unsupervised. While we live in what I consider a safe area, you never know who could just stroll in at any moment (we are only a 20 min drive from some really bad areas). I allow them to play freely but I like to be able to see (or at least hear) them at all times. If I need to go inside for something or one of the girls needs to go potty, we all go in for a minute. I don’t take chances because I would never get over it if something were to happen.
I am also no-nonsense in the kitchen. We have routines that they are very good at following. For example, when I’m chopping something for dinner,Honeybun likes to help put the ends, peels, etc in the trash for me but she knows to never touch the cutting board when I’m cutting. They also have never tried to touch, grab or look at things on the stove. They learned very early on that things on the stove are “HOT!” and they should not touch. We also have a rule that when the oven is open they must be on the wood in the hallway (our kitchen is tiled and the wood is about 8 feet from the oven) or sitting at the table (again about 8 feet away). They don’t argue with these simple rules because I have never wavered on them, they are no-arguing rules and arguing gets them removed from the kitchen.
Honeybun is starting to question everything I say but most of the time when it comes to safety all I have to say to her is “Honeybun, what is mommy’s job?” and she will answer “to keep me safe.” Usually she will stop arguing at that point because she knows I mean what I say when it comes to safety.
