Wandering babies - how to protect your hifi?!

[the record spot]

We've got 11 month old twins; two little bundles of joy/yelling fury/inquisitive cuteness that know no bounds, not least my daughter's fascination with the hi-fi. She's breached the zone of panic (which is when I see a sticky finger reaching out to the new CD player) and I just wondered, short of investing in barbed wire and a couple of dobermans, how do you guys deal with little ones? We rent our place just now, so putting up wall shelves is out of the question. We do have a sideboard thing of sorts which is a nice flat surface, so that will do for a while I expect.

Any other suggestions though (please, not the dobermans...!)?

 

[laserman16]

You have educate them about what the can or cannot touch,but not very useful to you in the short term. Its all about disipline really.

 

[the record spot]

Well, we already have a firm "NO" in place for certain things, so they're getting the idea of where the boundaries lie already. Depending on what it is though; at that age if it's used too often, then it loses the impact. Worked well a couple of times this morning though!

 

[Anonymous]

Have you thought of staking them on reins that don't reach the system ?.........cue all children's rights activists and non sadists

 

[laserman16]

You have to decide where the boundaries lie and stick to them. As I said in my previous post its all about routine and disipline along with respect for people and property from the day they are born. Both my children never touched anything they were not supposed to and we never moved anything out of the way.At the end of the day do you make the rules in the house or the children?

 

[Anonymous]

At 11 months I'd imagine the philosophy of Finite Provinces and boundaries is a little lost on them. A simple Pavlovian response is required or make touching them impossible.

 

[Anonymous]

I remember a few years ago, I used a shelf system I bought from Ikea (I think) that had large spaces between the shelves and an open back for plenty of airflow with a magnetic glass door. Now, it wasn't a Fort Knox type of security, but something like that could provide anotherÿbarrierÿof protection and it was designed for audio components yet since it was from Ikea I seem to remember it costing only about $100usd.ÿ

 

[Messiah]

I just use a firm 'NO'. It has always worked!

Kids certainly learn quickly especially at this age and it won't take long before they know to leave well alone!!

 

[Anonymous]

I'm fairly sure they have a good time playing star treks when you're not looking though. Lord knows I did. Fortunately Yamaha of the 1970's built childproof hardware.

 

[Anonymous]

mines in a glass door'd cab. making some mesh speaker grills next. bit of forward planning.

 

[the record spot]

Thanks for all the suggestions folks; I should perhaps have been clearer in my original post - it's not parenting skills I'm after, but for what it's worth, I don't want to inhibit my kids development in exploring the world around them by drumming it in to them from day one what's off the radar. Time enough for that to come. They know where the boundaries are just now and as for routine, I live my life between 6am and 7.15pm by a near military precision!

Suffice to say, they know what "no" means...!

The cabinet is a good idea. We've already got a four tier purpose built hi-fi shelf, but it's open so not ideal (which is why, as of today, it's now upstairs and the amp, CD player and DVD player are on a sideboard, while the turntable is on top of a wardrobe - waaaagh!). You can't keep an eye on your kids 24/7 and human nature is what it is, so I'm not kidding myself when we're out the room for a moment, something could happen. When we get our own place, we'll probably have some sturdy high shelves put up and conceal the cabling. We're fairly safe for now I think...but taking nothing for granted!

 

[Anonymous]

I have put my hi-fi behind a wall-fix safety gate (http://www.mothercare.com/Wall-fix-Flex-safety-gate-White/dp/B000KN0U3O/sr=1-7/qid=1226244372/ref=sr_1_7/276-1009286-2931757?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=42869041&mcb=core) which makes it still easily accessible for those that can operate the gate. My 2-Y-O has already worked out how to use the remote control and the buttons on the equipment, once things start to happen with the equipment you can see things start to happen in the little'uns mind. You can rely on discipline or behaviour control but it only takes one slip, and my guess is jam toast in my CD8X drawer equates to about 10-15 years on the naughty step.

Saying that I have standmounts unprotected, and so far (touch wood) they haven't gone over - the young 'uns learnt not to touch the speakers.