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Parental controls on cupboards: what is available and when it makes sense
Child safety locks on cabinets can prevent nasty injuries. How to protect the offspring and which child safety devices are available for the furniture in your own four walls.
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Parents can hardly prevent children from bumping into each other in their own four walls, falling on their noses or getting their fingers caught. Why child safety devices for cupboards and drawers still make sense and which ones are available.
Children are little adventurers. Especially in the first years of life, they discover the world full of curiosity. This rarely happens without small glitches and scratches. Not only on the street, but also in your own home, there are stumbling blocks that little ones easily overlook in the heat of the moment. There are also dangers that children do not perceive as such. The range of small tools designed to protect inquisitive noses and hands from scratches and painful surprises ranges from simple edge protection for sideboards and tables to small locks on cleaning cupboards. Where child safety devices are appropriate, which are suitable for the kitchen, bathroom & Co and why they can also be useful in homes without children.
Basically, the dangers that should be considered in your own four walls can be reduced to two areas. The most common accidents are thought to happen when little ones run around with their head or another part of their body against corners of furniture or sharp-edged handles or get caught on them. No less dangerous are cupboards or compartments in which detergents or cleaning utensils are stored. On the one hand, child safety devices are intended to prevent children from getting their hands on dangerous liquids or detergents unnoticed. Secondly, they protect the little heads from painful scratches or lacerations. If you store important documents or valuables at a height that children can reach, simple child safety devices can also help here.
Child safety for the closet: These options are there
Child safety locks can be installed on cupboard doors or drawers so that they are visible or invisible. Both variants do not win a beauty prize for understandable reasons. Hidden fuses (like the magnetic child safety from Coolstuff) are optically a bit more attractive. And they have another advantage. Even clever little ones don’t “crack” the internal child safety locks. If they are mounted on the outside of the cupboard, with a bit of luck it will work sooner. Provided the curious offspring is not caught. Hidden child safety locks work either with a magnetic key that opens the cupboard as soon as you press it in the right place against the cupboard door. Alternatively, there are small systems with which you can initially open the doors of cupboards just a crack (e.g. this one Tusunny Parental Control). To open it fully, a lock on the inside of the door must be released with a (long) finger. This is usually an impossible task, especially for small children.
Visible child safety devices usually work in two stages. This makes it difficult for children to open them alone. The small bolts are usually attached to a wing of the door to be secured with adhesive pads. The counterpart is mounted on the other in such a way that the bolt can engage. In order to unlock the mechanism, a part usually has to be turned to a certain point and pressed at one point. For drawers (e.g. those filled with cutlery) it is best to use flexible brackets and mount the counterpart on one of the two side walls of the chest of drawers or cupboard. This variant also works on the refrigerator. The is suitable for this Multi parental controls from Reer.
Babies, toddlers, students: when are parental controls useful?
Child safety devices make sense as soon as the offspring can crawl on all fours by themselves and thus significantly increase their range. For children from the age of four to five years, child safety devices on cupboards are no longer absolutely necessary. Here, informative talks help to sensitize the children. By preschool age they are able to understand that. In the case of extremely curious children who like to put everything in their mouths frequently, cupboards with cleaning supplies in particular should remain locked. Child safety locks for sockets and protective silicone corners for dangerous edges on furniture can also protect schoolchildren from unsightly visits to the emergency room.
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