A respect issue and a safety issue - taking toys away

[Heavenly]

Hi all! I have a little dilemna. My 2 year old son keeps taking his table and chairs (kiddy sized) over in front of the entertainment unit and trying to play with the VCR and TV. We don't have any kind of a locked cabinet and the other day he almost pulled the tv over on himself. I am not willing to get rid of them because I've already removed everything except toys and couches from the living room and it has to stop! So i've been taking his table and chairs away every time he does it but it really upsets him because he loves them (for coloring and what not). I know that sometimes kids get upset and I don't want to raise a brat but I would like to find an alternative other than just taking them away. I have a 3 month old i'm nursing so sometimes I can't just jump up a moments notice. Plus he does it whenever I leave the room to change her diaper!

[shanetedissac]

Have you looked into furniture straps that fasten the furniture to the wall or a stable object? don't know if it will help with TV but worth checking out. How about moving the table and chair to another room?

I know how you feel about frustration. This week I took almost all of the boys toys away and put them in boxes and stuff. With their help! He does ask for them back every day but they are still away. It has raised his creativity to play.

Take care-

[HollyBearsMom]

Furniture straps really are they way to go. A TV can kill a child as can chest of drawer, etc. Also, if you got a VCR lock (blocks the slot and is really cheap and easy to use) maybe it would be less appealing? I also second the idea his table and chairs being in another room. Do you have special chair/area where you nurse away from the TV? Maybe set them up near there so that he can draw etc while you nurse?

Also- while it is important that your home be safe I don't know if removing everything is the answer. Your child won't always be just in your house. If he has no exposure to a "real" living room you are going to be a nervous reck being in someone else's home. We only removed the things that were be irreplacable if broken. Other than that our house looks the same as it did pre-baby. We have outlet plugs, electril cord shortners, mini blind cords,furniture straps etc. However none of those things are a green light to play. Even with those things we are (slowly) teaching him not climb on the TV hutch, don't pull on the lamp cord, etc. Real life doesn't have rooms with just a couch and some toys!

[puppytails]

maybe if you used a curtain or something to hide the TV it wouldn't be such a temptation...

[lilyka]

I guess I am in the minority here.

I say if a kid is using a toy in a harmful way then it has to go. We put it in time oput for a week or two. If they keep using it inapropriately then it just has to go. I sympathize with my children whenit goes but none the less, they obviously can't resiost the temptation to turn into something dangerous so i am doing it for thier own good. I don't have time to stand over them every second and it is important that they are safe. They have the choise to either use thier toys in a safe way or give them up.

[Heavenly]

I think I am going to stick with taking it away for now, I think he might be getting it now. But I do want to look into those furniture straps, where do I find them?

[sleepies]

put them in another room?

id just put the table/chairs in his bedroom and only use them "together".

i make my older son keep ALL his small toys/parts etc away from the baby. all small dangerous toys are kept in my older son's room. i felt SO GUILTY about this at first, but safety is most important.

sometimes you do have to remove objects from view, at least for a while. once they are around 3 years old you can reason with them a LOT better though.

[beanma]

you can get furniture straps at www.onestepahead.com and probably lots of other places, too...

[HollyBearsMom]

I second One Step Ahead. They have a great selection of baby safety things. However their shipping charges can be pretty steep if you are only buying 1 or 2 things. You can also find them at any big box retailer (babies r us, wlamart, etc). Some Home Depot or Lowes have a baby safety section so you might want to call them if they are closer to you.

[Susan123]

I disagree to a certain extent with taking the stuff away so he won't climb on it. We've been down that path with my ds also... but the trouble is, once we took one thing away that he was climbing on, he just found another. An overturned laundry or toy basket, our dining room chairs, his riding toys.... anything. I have actually taken all of those away, before deciding enough is enough. Now I'm working on discipline instead of just removing things. It is hard. He's just turned two, and he's getting the idea now when I tell him something is a "no" -- i tried being more gentle about it, but he seems to be a child who needs it spelled out in balck and white.... so I try to have a firm manner and have my facial expression go along with my message, that kind of thing, and we do use time out now. Just talking about it wasn't stopping the climbing, and it was getting absolutely insane.
Good luck!!

[LdyBluNH@aol]

my neighbor put a small climbing thing in her living room so that her son would have an outlet for climbing needs - its one of those little tikes or step two things

and no we dont have gigantic living rooms - it took most of the space and it worked really well esp. since in new england it gets hard to do the outside thing