12 March 2018

GETTING MY SANITY BACK AT DINNER TIMES WITH FRED SAFETY


For a long time dinner times were extremely stressful times, the kids would be at my feet and asking "when's dinner going to be ready" and i'd be forever yelling "THE OVEN IS HOT, GET OUT OF MY KITCHEN" whilst getting them out for a second before they would come back in and Iris would  pull all hers and Lucas' plates and bowls out and Lucas would be asking me when Dinner was going to be ready. I became incredibly stressed out and cooking dinner became a chore and an unenjoyable experience that led me to lose my love of cooking.
Look at those little fingerprints
When Cheeky Rascals contacted me to see if I needed help with safety proofing my home I couldn't have been more happy with the coincidental time the email arrived in my inbox. I was so excited to get my sanity back and since we've attached the gate onto the kitchen I can now get on with what I need to do to prepare dinner and laugh at my kids over the gate when they try to get in and fail... that sounds a lot more sinister than it should have.
I mean, I still get "Is dinner ready" a thousands times and Iris making this horrendous "ehhhhhhhh" noise at me as she cannot get in BUT singing the songs off of the greatest showman soundtrack at/with them (Lucas) does help with that and I have been cooking some really lovely vegan and vegetarian dishes from scratch with no worries about their safety. The stair gate is the 'pressure fit clear by Fred safety' really nice too as it's a clear door with a grey frame which matches our decor. There is a glow in the dark panel at the bottom which doesn't get enough sunlight on it to actually work because our kitchen door is in a place that doesn't get direct sunlight but I am aware there is a gate there and up until now I haven't yet walked into it. We have three different stair gates around our home and i've never been fussed with how they look as the top of the stairs is the top of the stairs, the lounge to the hallway is wood to match the door but the one in the lounge/diner is one that gets seen a lot and I wanted it to look nice and this one really does look nice and classy but also really sturdy and does the job perfectly. The kids do like peering through at me too and squishing their faces up against it.

Along with getting my sanity back surrounding dinner times thanks to the FRED home safety pack. I have also got my sanity back surrounding cupboards around the house and I no longer find our DVD's scattered over the lounge and I don't fear Iris (or Lucas) losing an eye on out Ikea coffee table or a door slamming on one of their fingers. The most important feature of this pack for me is the plug socket covers. There's been a lot of publicity surrounding do you need these or not and the ones that kids can pull out themselves being more dangerous than having none at all but the ones in this pack need adult strength to remove and a fingernail or a coin to take them out and this is important to me as the children play in their room in the morning and there isn't anything unsafe in their room, no wardrobes, no chest of drawers to pull over BUT there are two plug sockets next to where Iris sleeps at her head height and it's the only thing that has ever worried me and we've always had it covered with pillows and teddies and she's never discovered them but I worry for the day she does so these have made that worry go away.



We haven't used everything from the safety pack but one thing I am a big fan of is the choke tester, it's an orange plastic thing really BUT it holds a really important purpose, can *insert object* fit in the tester? if the answer is yes, it's a choke risk, if the answer is no, then it's not. I am a worrier around choking, you see so many horror stories of children choking and dying on grapes, blueberries and the latest is the gorgeous little Alby who choked on a bouncy ball. It's rare to an extent but when it happens it's mostly fatal and I don't want to fall into those statistics so although it's not possible to completely rid your home of choking hazards, especially when children have older siblings, I'll try my best. I can't imagine how it feels to be a parent who loses a child to a choking incident and I pray I never am.

My home feels so much safer now and as a parent who is always rushing around cleaning and tidying in between playing it's nice to know they're safe downstairs whilst I pop upstairs to grab the dirty washing to bring down and it's very nice knowing Iris isn't going to put her fingers into the only plug sockets in her room that just happen to be in the only place their bed fits.
I now have my sanity back at dinner times and in general and I also know that although it's never guarenteed to keep your children 100% free from dangers in the home, we've put certain steps in place to avoid it.

*Cheeky Rascals gifted us with the Fred safety products in return for an honest review, all words and opinions are my own and will always remain honest and real*