Putting your stuff up can be very Thrifty
June 27, 2008 by kellys
Filed under financial matters, parenting
Tracee over at blogfabulous is really frustrated with her 2 year old for taking her cellphone and putting it in water twice. This is a great waste of money, I agree, Tracee. Now you have to buy a new phone. Kim Komando has great ideas for drying out your cell phone so that you don’t have to waste money with a new phone. But remember that we are the adults and from personal experience, it is our responsibility to keep our things out of the reach of of our kids. We keep chemicals away. We should keep the expensive things out of the way too.
And yes, I am talking from experience. Not fussing, Tracie. Just find another reason to be upset with your kids. That one was your fault just like mine were mine.
I agree that any time you leave your things within reach of children, you run the risk of those things being ruined. If you don’t want them ruined, put them up. The tops of our bookcases are cluttered with lots of things we don’t want the kids to have. I don’t like the clutter, but it is better than the alternative.
How long do you think you should keep things out of reach? There comes a time when a child has to be taught to listen and obey. I kept things out of reach until my kids were about 18 months old or so. Then it was time to learn to keep their hands off. When they’re a year old and they’re extremely curious, that’s one thing. When they’re two or three and they’re being disobedient, that’s another. My kitchen counters stayed cluttered for a while with things that I had to keep out of reach. Over time I taught them to listen and began to remove those items. Now the only cabinet in our house that is locked is the one under our sink, which has cleaning supplies.
Thanks for taking the time to scold me in public Kellys.
Maybe you should send me to time out to teach me a lesson?
I guess you think yelling “no” and sending him to time out – the 2nd time he did it in 5 minutes – was too much discipline?
My kid is like freaking Houdini. I have yet to find the place that’s “out of his reach.”
Tracee, I never meant to scold you in public. My perspective came from my 3 year old Turkey Butt causing me to have to replace mmy laptop. She singlehandedly ripped off keys to my keyboard, slammed the lid down so hard that it would go black on me at any given moment, bent the power chord so badly that it had to be replaced, etc… The only part of my computer that hasn’t been replaced is the hard drive.
So see, I was speaking about keeping things out of the reach of little hands from experience. And I spanked her after she knew I looked at her and she knew she had done wrong. Her first statement was “Mommy, don’t spank me.” And not because I spank her every day. She knew that she had been warned and she did it anyway.
I just think that until they are old enough to understand the consequences, we should start teaching then the “no touch” rule with little inconsequential things. That way we replace dollar store knick knacks and not our computers and cell phones.
I am so sorry that you took my post as a slam on your parenting. And as far as sending you to time out, I could use a time out myself. I would love to have to sit for 5 minutes with no interruptions. Wouldn’t you?