Baby vs Hi-Fi - advice needed

[Jules Tohpipi]

Baby vs Hi-Fi

In the pink corner: baby Isabella who is 8-months old
In the silver corner: Ten grand worth of TV and hi-fi gear

Pink and silver corners never used to come into contact, but now baby can crawl. The hi-fi has come within her reach and I'm worried about each inflicting mutual harm on each other.

How have you coped with this - what's your advice!?

We have a 43" Pioneer plasma sat on a relatively low-slung, open, three-shelf rack. The rack is sufficiently wide to house two components alongside each other. In total, there's six expensive boxes underneath the TV.

We have tried discouraging her from going near the hi-fi stuff with gentle 'No, Nos' and pulling her away - that kind of thing. But the success rate is well below 100%.

What's the solution? Are there any fire-guard type products that would fence the hi-fi off? What about cabinets with lockable doors and windows for the IR sensors? Or is the whole thing just going have to be packed away until she knows better?

What did you do? Hhhhhhhhhhelp!!!

 

[IronGiant]

Ours have each at one point turned the volume up to maximum. And never gone near it again... We did not have a plasma then though, I would try and fence that off if you can. Or wall mount it out of reach, even if it puts it at a neck ricking viewing angle.

 

[Digital Tench]

This worked well for our first (in our old house):-

Mothercare Play Pen - Silver Metal : mothercare- Nursery Equipment, Maternity Clothes & Baby Shop

Would look silly in the current house, so we've resorted to No with our second

If your in my area, you can have our old one, it's only taking up space and I've given up with the misses ever selling stuff on ebay / mumsnet...lazy cow

 

[Berties]

Part ex the child for a fully grown 18 year old ? ;-)

 

[mjn]

Never had a problem with my daughter. She has no interest in cupboards either.

 

[DPinBucks]

This worked well for our first (in our old house):-

Mothercare Play Pen - Silver Metal : mothercare- Nursery Equipment, Maternity Clothes & Baby Shop

Would look silly in the current house, so we've resorted to No with our second

If your in my area, you can have our old one, it's only taking up space and I've given up with the misses ever selling stuff on ebay / mumsnet...lazy cow

I was also going to suggest that very thing. It worked for us & our granddaughter.

 

[conrod129]

At about 18m our little boy cracked the screen on our LG. at 2 he is now able to change the channel and volume on the tv and he can load his DVDs into the ps3. a couple of times its looked like me might pull the tv over but hasn't yet.

So I guess I've got no advice really lol just hang in there

 

[Berties]

At about 18m our little boy cracked the screen on our LG.

I would have sued him for criminal damage.

 

[Solar]

We have a 43" Pioneer plasma sat on a relatively low-slung, open, three-shelf rack. The rack is sufficiently wide to house two components alongside each other.

My brother in-law used pipe insulation on his glass shelf with his young'uns. Slice them lengthways and slot them on the shelves, both the kids and the glass are pretty well protected from each other with these.

As for the plasma, my old 42" had a nice big "A" carved in the screen while my son was growing up, it's just some thing you have to be on your toes for I'm afraid.

 

[Badger0-0]

We have tried discouraging her from going near the hi-fi stuff with gentle 'No, Nos' and pulling her away - that kind of thing. But the success rate is well below 100%.

This one comes up quite often and I've seen some cracking replies that mention the likes of Dobermans, barbed wire and even claymores

But in all seriousness, I think you've just got to be a lot firmer, with a loud "NO!", even to the extent of tapping her firmly on the hand as soon as she touches it.

It might seem harsh, but it worked with all my kids and grandkids and doesn't hurt them.
You're just laying down the rules, that's all.
And if you stick to it, she'll get the hint very quickly.

 

[NooBish AbbZ 92]

Part ex the child for a fully grown 18 year old ? ;-)

Wow, I thought my mom had ventured over to AVF

 

[alphaomega16]

Little wire fence and an electric collar

Paintball gun, will save you getting up

 

[fizl]

A fireguard is a good idea, I have a cupboard with glass doors that I got from Argos, that will shortly get a lock on it, as my daughter is trying to work out crawling. THey don't have it any more, but it has adjustable shelves, so that I could take one out to create a double height space for the ampand still have space for everything else in there

 

[sparkie1984]

Part ex the child for a fully grown 18 year old ? ;-)

Who can then use it with his chavvy friends to have a bangin' house party innit mate

 

[richard plumb]

protect the baby from the equipment (eg pipe covers as mentioned), get or make sure you have accidental damage cover, and enjoy your child.

Fingers crossed you get by with sharp words and the occasional burst of 0db (you could probably do it anyway and blame it on the baby, best chance you'll get!)

 

[Ivor the Engine]

Set it up in another room and ban the children.

All my gear is down stairs in my den.

 

[imightbewrong]

We use just-say-no, and it's worked pretty well for us with two kids (oldest now 4) and a similar set-up, although the TV is on the wall.

We get them involved in helping to use it from an early age - turning it on, putting the films in etc, which I think makes it seem a bit more ordinary to them.

The room it's in is a normal reception room but is more of a grown-up sitting-room/tv-room, so we don't go in there with the kids unless we are specifically going to watch something - we never 'hang out' in there.

 

[Jules Tohpipi]

Thank you for all the replies so far. Very interesting reading and much appreciated!

I will absorb it all tomorrow as my father got taken into hospital suddenly this afternoon and I've only just got back. Nothing life threatening and he's going to be fine fortunately.

 

[Rog69]

I got myself a lockable TV cabinet with safety glass doors from Ikea that has space for six separates, they don't seem to sell it any longer though but there must be something similar around.

It's kept two toddlers at bay so far, but I do have to wipe the snot off it a couple of times a week.

 

[imightbewrong]

We use just-say-no, and it's worked pretty well for us with two kids (oldest now 4) and a similar set-up, although the TV is on the wall.

We get them involved in helping to use it from an early age - turning it on, putting the films in etc, which I think makes it seem a bit more ordinary to them.

The room it's in is a normal reception room but is more of a grown-up sitting-room/tv-room, so we don't go in there with the kids unless we are specifically going to watch something - we never 'hang out' in there.

P.S. You can see how toddler-friendly you think my set-up is or isn't in my sig.

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V

 

[richard plumb]

P.S. You can see how toddler-friendly you think my set-up is or isn't in my sig.

|
V

looks ok - TV is out of reach of crawlers, any older than that and they'll understand 'NO'. Speakers are a potential deathtrap

Never mind toddler-friendly, I'm trying to work out how to make my setup rabbit-friendly. I have a huge pile of spaghetti behind a giant wall of units. It gets behind there and starts chewing I'll have a heart attack

 

[qwerty321]

looks ok - TV is out of reach of crawlers, any older than that and they'll understand 'NO'. Speakers are a potential deathtrap

Never mind toddler-friendly, I'm trying to work out how to make my setup rabbit-friendly. I have a huge pile of spaghetti behind a giant wall of units. It gets behind there and starts chewing I'll have a heart attack

How about some sort of trunking or similar?

 

[FZR400RRSP]

Never mind toddler-friendly, I'm trying to work out how to make my setup rabbit-friendly. I have a huge pile of spaghetti behind a giant wall of units. It gets behind there and starts chewing I'll have a heart attack

 

[imightbewrong]

looks ok - TV is out of reach of crawlers, any older than that and they'll understand 'NO'. Speakers are a potential deathtrap

Maybe - they have pretty decent spikes so unless they were really running around they woulnd't have enough momentum to do any real damage

 

[7ofnine]

Maybe - they have pretty decent spikes so unless they were really running around they woulnd't have enough momentum to do any real damage

Mine have vent holes in the back and I know there has been stuff shoved in there like squash balls and toy cars.