Friday, November 30, 2012

"Childproof"

The new washer and dryer are frontloaders, which means that all their controls are right above Jack's head, within easy reach.  Buttons!  All the bright, light up, candy-like buttons that make SONGS when you push them!!!

It took him less than 24 hours to figure out the childproof control lock and turn it off.  Less.  Than.  24.  Hours.  I don't know whether to sign him up for speech therapy or enroll him at Purdue.  Seriously.

I told BJ this morning, "He is your son, and anything short of 'up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-A-B-A-B-select-start' is just too easy for him."

Never Forget
(hackedgadgets.com)

So I'm back to putting a gate in the laundry room door to keep him away from the BUTTONS! which is troublesome.  There's no door there.  Happily, the downstairs bathroom is on the other side of the laundry room, so one gate keeps him out of both areas.

There is no way to keep him away from the dishwasher, though, and he knows how to turn it off (whether the childproof control is activated or not) by opening the door.  This stops the cycle.  We just run it at night or while he's napping, because otherwise we find a half-run dishwasher full of dishes sitting open and not running about 72 times per cycle.

The girls really lulled me into a false sense of parenting security.  They got into stuff occasionally, but Jack takes it to a new level.  Maybe I'm just older and more tired this time around.

A basement!  My kingdom for a basement!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Re: the dishwasher - this is why I figured out which breaker worked the blasted thing, and I left it turned off except when I was using it (which was always after Andrew had gone to bed). It was just easier that way.

(He did grow out of it - at least, he doesn't play with the dishwasher here too much.)

Rob Monroe said...

I would give anything to have our washer on the first floor - but I don't have a toddling boy anymore! (Or ever, I guess...) Best of luck with that!

Bev said...

This too shall pass and perhaps he's ready for one of those erector sets with small motors to build working whatever it is that boys build...haha

But having had my washer & dryer in the garage (in CA that's typical) and in the basement in the first house (a big two story one) after we moved back to IL you do not really want your laundry in the basement where you are dragging baskets of clothes up and down two sets of stairs and cannot hear the machine buzz when done to get those perma press items out immediately, etc etc.

It won't take long for him to find another interest...what a cute, clever little guy you have!