Thursday, August 27, 2009

For safety's sake


I detest baby locks. Hate ‘em. It drives me insane when I am hanging out at someone’s home and try to open a kitchen drawer or peek under their bathroom sink and am met with a baby lock. And now…my home becomes a palace of impossible drawers and evil cabinets.

I didn’t think Hudson was taking to heart the fact that I have occasionally had to tell him “No” and redirect him to another toy/place/space until two weeks ago at church. He was looking through one of his picture board books while sitting on my lap and as I took it away to set it aside while we sang the first hymn, he cried out, “nononoonononononono”. I was mortified. Not only did the eyes of all surrounding pews find there way to my red face, but also I knew I had been saying “No” too much. We gated around the dangerous glass-front TV cabinet that afternoon and I have been on a mission to safety proof the rest of the place since.

The section of SAFETY gear at Buy Buy Baby has been an area I avoided, mostly because we have been able to survive major incidents with our clear plastic outlet plugs and adequate hand-me-down door gates. Entering the section of plastic cover everythings was an education, I tell you. Floor to ceiling: an entire wall of safety gear. I didn’t even know some of this stuff existed. A perky saleswoman approached me and asked if she could help. My mouth just hung open and finally I muttered, “I am overwhelmed.” She asked what I was looking for today and I replied, “Those plastic drawer thingys.”

Saying “thingys” to salespeople is one of my special personal pleasures. I think it really exhibits their knowledge of their store’s stock and merchandise when they try to remedy my shopping need by figuring out what I am talking about. (It also is amusing to use this word with my engineer-minded husband. “I need a screwdriver thingy” is sure to get an eye-roll and look of total frustration.)

This woman knew exactly what I wanted and promptly showed me three types and sizes of plastic drawer thingys from ONE company. Turns out there is quite the competition in plastic drawer thingys and I had many, many choices. Oh hell…

In the end, I left with enough safety gear to keep Hudson from having to constantly be redirected, but not so much stuff that I am going to completely hate cooking in my own kitchen. Just plan on having a harder time getting into my bathroom cabinets.

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