When does the childproofing come down?

[twinergy]

My twins are 27 months now and I have noticed they are waiting until I leave the room to do things I don't want them to do. Sometimes they even tell me to leave, "Mama go," when they are scheming something. So I'm thinking we might be close. I noticed my neighbors took down most of theirs, except for poisons, by the 3rd birthday. TIA

ETA: I wanted to leave the question pretty generic because I'm sure other's will be watching, but I am especially interested in hearing answers from mama's of climbers.

[sapphire_chan]

Gradually. For instance, Lina can operate the TV with the duck tape over the button, but doesn't do it all.the.freaking.time so I removed the tape. She helps put away one boardgame before wanting another, so I let her mess with board games more (although they're still out of reach).

OTOH, she tried to stick a screwdriver in an outlet after I unplugged something so the outlet covers are staying for longer.

[kittykat2481]

It just depends on the child. DS has never been one to get into stuff that much, so we haven't done that much child-proofing. There is a lock on the cabinet under the kitchen sink where poisons are. It was there when we moved in though, and the only reason DS has ever tried to open that cabinet is to get the dishwasher detergent out when helping me with dishes. I have plug covers in some plugs, like the one by his bed, but over time some have gotten lost and not been replaced.

[twinergy]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Unfortunately childproofing has been a full time job around here for the past 30 months. I think DS is very unusual because even before he turned one he had an amazing attention span and would put together elaborate multistep plans to try to get into things. He will work on a problem for an hour or more. Put that together with the fact that he is very observant and will copy anything we do after only watching us once.

His latest obsession is climbing the kitchen drawers to get onto the countertop. He won't do it when I am looking, but he does take advantage when my back is turned. And his twin sister is there helping him. SHe will order me to leave the room, or send me on an erand to fetch the cat. I can't get any work done with them in the kitchen so I have responded by leaving them in the adjoining room. I would really prefer to have them with me.

Childproofing the drawers isn't really and option because DS knows how to open the cheap latches and the magnetic ones aren't in the budget. I was really hoping for some reassurance that they are old enough that this won't be a problem for much longer, but I guess no body can really predict that for an individual child.

On the upside, DS and DD are really showing some cooperation.

[sapphire_chan]

Oooohhh, one of those kids. If it's any comfort my little brother was like that and the first time he went to the ER he was old enough to drive himself and he's never broken a bone. =D

Starting around age 2, Mom made a point of driving past the ER about once a week in the course of our outings to keep a feel for the traffic patterns and construction.

He got instructions like "keep your head no more than 6 foot off the ground" and "only take apart things you can put back together" and "people fly in AIRPLANES"