Pesky kids

PeterMac

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We have a nice polite 7 year old and a crazy maniac 1.5 year old. My hifi unit doesn't have a door on it so I resort to covering the front of my gear with the cloth bag that my CXC came in. Does anyone know of any separates fascia covers that could maybe protect my gear when not in use that would look less tardy than the current fix?
 

chris_bates1974

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You could always use a fire guard I guess?

My two are now 9 and 7. Never had an incident with them and my kit. I used the "do not touch these" method, and luckily it worked.

they now know not to touch the TV also, although I will let the oldest use the CD player and amp. Not the TT though!!!!
 

MajorFubar

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I found rearing my kids not to be complete arses was the best solution, and is far better than any kind of physical preventative measure that you'll then blame when it doesn't work or when they learn how to circumvent it. The one at 15 is already more than old enough to know better, and the seven year old is at the age where you should already be teaching him/her to know better.

I had twins so I know how hard it is to raise kids, by the time they can move on their own everything is suddenly a threat or a weapon. You're trying to stop one of them bashing their own brains out with some innocuous ornament in your living room you never even considered before to be a danger to life, while the other one's toddled off into the kitchen, emptied half the kitchen cupboards and is busy twatting the cat with the frying pan.

But no one said it was easy.

That's probably a terser and less helpful answer than you hoped, and for that I apologise.
 

PeterMac

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It's OK majorfubar, I'm a twin so feel for you ;O)

Fwiw, our 7 year old has been brought up extremely well and we're well on the road to bringing the 1.5 year old up the same way... Maybe you missed the decimal point there? She's a lovely wee happy smiley thing but at 16 months old, doesn't quite understand when I ask her "not to touch the Hi-fi"
 

ID.

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No specific suggestions, but I feel for you. Pretty much the same situation at my home. 3 year old is now fine, but the one year old can't be taught. My stereo is in the living room so it's a constant temptation for them because that's the room the kids are always in. I always suspect that the posters who get on their high horses and suggest raising one's kids properly have a different layout to their home or bigger homes where the kids aren't in such close proximity to the hifi

When I had an amp I basically put it away for a year or two and replaced it with something cheap that I wouldn't care if it got trashed (it didn't). One of the reasons I bought the Genelecs is the metal grill protecting the drivers that can't be removed.
 

MajorFubar

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PeterMac said:
we're well on the road to bringing the 1.5 year old up the same way... Maybe you missed the decimal point there?

LOL! Yes I did. Posting from a phone. Now it makes more sense. Fire guard it is then. *good*
 
When my kids were toddlers,I just made sure my gear was switched off and unplugged.whats the worst they can do.push some buttons and twiddle a knob.Although I did find a banana skin inside the loading drawer of the video recorder once.(remember those).make sure tweeters are well out of reach though.kids just love pressing them.I had to replace them twice on my b&w 685's.£50 a pop.
 

Daz B

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My son is 4 now but when he was younger we had the DVD player and the Sky box in a cabinet with doors and we tied the door handles with string. My hifi was and still is in our spare bedroom now my listening room.
Perhaps try and find a cheap cabinet with doors.
 

chris_bates1974

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ID. said:
No specific suggestions, but I feel for you. Pretty much the same situation at my home. 3 year old is now fine, but the one year old can't be taught. My stereo is in the living room so it's a constant temptation for them because that's the room the kids are always in. I always suspect that the posters who get on their high horses and suggest raising one's kids properly have a different layout to their home or bigger homes where the kids aren't in such close proximity to the hifi

When I had an amp I basically put it away for a year or two and replaced it with something cheap that I wouldn't care if it got trashed (it didn't). One of the reasons I bought the Genelecs is the metal grill protecting the drivers that can't be removed.

No high horse here, and when they were very small we had a small lounge with all that kind of stuff in. Like I said, they were simply told what was what. That way, we didn't get any greasy fingerprints on the tv, no fruit or toast in the bluray/dvd player, and no tweeter mishaps....
 

ID.

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chris_bates1974 said:
ID. said:
No specific suggestions, but I feel for you. Pretty much the same situation at my home. 3 year old is now fine, but the one year old can't be taught. My stereo is in the living room so it's a constant temptation for them because that's the room the kids are always in. I always suspect that the posters who get on their high horses and suggest raising one's kids properly have a different layout to their home or bigger homes where the kids aren't in such close proximity to the hifi

When I had an amp I basically put it away for a year or two and replaced it with something cheap that I wouldn't care if it got trashed (it didn't). One of the reasons I bought the Genelecs is the metal grill protecting the drivers that can't be removed.

No high horse here, and when they were very small we had a small lounge with all that kind of stuff in. Like I said, they were simply told what was what. That way, we didn't get any greasy fingerprints on the tv, no fruit or toast in the bluray/dvd player, and no tweeter mishaps....

in that case I'll rely on the fact that all kids have different personalities so perhaps it's not just a matter of a parent's disciplinary/training skills or lack of them.
 

MajorFubar

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ID. said:
I always suspect that the posters who get on their high horses and suggest raising one's kids properly have a different layout to their home or bigger homes where the kids aren't in such close proximity to the hifi 
...or in my case, misread the original post where i thought he wanted to know how to stop his errant 15 year old from wrecking his HiFi, not 1.5 year old. I have since posted a response, but by and large I stand by my opinion, although with my understanding of the situation corrected, it wasn't valid for this case.
 

knaithrover

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All kids are different, I still wouldn't let my 25yr old son anywhere near my TT but my 9yr old daughter operates it with great finesse when I can't be pestered changing the record. That said my little princess destroyed a large portion of my cd collection before she could even walk - she thought they were Frisbees....
 

wilro15

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I ended up buying a new cabinet with doors from Ikea. Fairly cheap. Did get a bit warm on the inside though.

There are loads of 2nd hand cabinets on fleabay too, might be worth a look.
 

PeterMac

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I was looking at cabinets with doors but the ones that fit in with our lounge were beyond budget... managed to get a really nice one on gumtree for £80. Just need to protect what's on the shelves for a couple of years now. Hence I was looking to see if there's any kind of protective face plates or covers for the front of hifi equipment, kind of along the same lines as speaker grills. I've spent a fair bit of money (for us anyway) on HiFi stuff since the new year so am looking for a cost effective solution as I need to save for some decent speakers now :eek:)
 

Jota180

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Get a CD-R with a lion roar on it. Turn the volume up high, when they get too close, press play. Relax back in the couch and let slip a wry smile regarding your parenting skills.
 

drummerman

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I use a nice piece of black synthetic cloth which I just throw over my racks to keep the dust away.

It came from a local cloth shop (no idea what they're called) and was something like £4 sq/m with no specific audiophile claims ... .

You could go to one of those specialist shops and have one made in rectangular/boxy shape to fit your rack precisely from top to bottom whilst choosing the fabric you like.

However, the lure of whats hidden underneath may just be to much for the 1.5 year old.
 

MajorFubar

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nopiano said:
wilro15 said:
I ended up buying a new cabinet with doors from Ikea. Fairly cheap. Did get a bit warm on the inside though.

There are loads of 2nd hand cabinets on fleabay too, might be worth a look.
Did you let them out at meal times? ;-)

LOL!! No he feeds them through the panel gaps. :-D
 

MajorFubar

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drummerman said:
However, the lure of whats hidden underneath may just be to much for the 1.5 year old.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't at that age. The more you make a meal of it the more they'll be determined to have a fiddle when your back's turned.
 

splasher

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My kids are old enough now not to damage anything, but when they were little it was the speakers that they went for. I came home one day and the grills were off and both drivers pushed in (fabric tweeter and the woofer had a soft centre for some reason).

The components were of no interest, although as someone else has said the VCR had to be regularly taken apart to retrieve Lego/toast/Fat Controller.

So my advice would be fasten the speaker grills on with something.
 

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