Talking to little sister E today about the decisions we’re facing about where to live and what we should look for in a house should we decide to move, I mentioned that I love our place here in Jakarta — especially as we’ve got a great pool set in a lush tropical garden. Here’s what followed:
E: “Oh yeah I forgot you had the garden and pool”.
S: “Yeah, it’s lovely”
E: “Does the pool have a fence around it?”
S: “No, it doesn’t”
E: “Well, you’ll need to look after that — you need to have a fence — that’s the law here (in Australia)”
S: “Oh it should be ok, we’ll just put baby on a leash and can control the danger that way”
E: “Yeah, I guess you can use the leash to drag the baby out of the deep-end”
Don’t you just love little sisters!
But jokes aside we were looking at the pool yesterday figuring out how to avoid issues like what E describes, and we’ve figured that because of how the back yard is designed, we’ll be able to have a barrier quite close to the bay doors which will cut off the entire backyard to rugrats — including the lake of death.
The discussion also got me looking in Up The Duff about preparing for babies, and here’s some of the other preparation issues my mate Kaz suggests:
“The only way to really child-proof a house is to not have a child.”
Tamper proof cabinet
Move all the dodgy stuff (matches and lighters, perfume, weapons of mass destruction, poisons, cleaning agents, peanuts and marshmellows, dry-cleaning bags, nuclear waster) into the higher cupboards.
Never leave keys laying around
Bathroom heater up high on the wall
Hotplates guard
Out-of-reach kettle and iron
Topple-proof tv sets
Stair and doorway barriers
and more and more and more…
Other suggestions anyone?
Computers, phones…oh yeah never leave your car unlocked in the garage…otherwise your delightful child might feed your cd player in the car with coins.