When Silence equals Fear

If you have small monkeys at home, you know what I mean - as soon as it's quiet, there is something going on you should be afraid of.  Case in point: this morning I was comforting the newborn, and #1 monkey disappeared into an adjacent room.  After a minute, I realized she was gone, and it was EERILY quiet.  Come to find out she had grabbed my cup of coffee (cold by now), and managed to spill it in a very wide pattern on the carpet.  D'Oh!  Nothing except a diligent eye (and ear) could have prevented this incident.

By the way, a life saver in this situation is a Bissel SpotBot.  Can't recommend it high enough.

Sure Fit Toilet Lock - Dissapointed

OK, after two months of use, we are officially disappointed by these contraptions.  With the warmer, more humid weather, the guards consistently fall off within an hour, usually much sooner.  The suction cups are just not made of a flexible enough material (like silicone), and the locking mechanism that creates suction just doesn't do enough.

My recommendation - try something else.  We will, just haven't decided what yet.

Toilet Seat Guards

Stupid as it sounds, yes, toilets can be drowning hazards.  The key: quick access for adults, easy to install without tools if possible, not permanent if possible, and does it return to locked mode when you lower the seat.

We just installed a few of Safety 1st's "Sure Fit Toilet Locks" (item # 48003, www.safety1st.com or www.djgusa.com), which uses suction cups to hold it onto the toilet bowl.

Pros:

- Quick access.  Maybe a bit awkward, with a combo button pull, arm lift and swing motion, but it's harder for little monkeys to defeat.

- Easy to install - check.  Took me all of about 2 minutes to put it in place.

- Not permanent - check.  

Cons:

- The instructions say to rest the leg of the lock on the closed toilet lid, then position the base with the suction cups up to the bowl.  And I quote: "Bottom of arm should be resting on lid".  After a few minutes I found the bottom cup loosing suction, because the base of the bowl was too curved.  I ended up shifting the whole thing up to get a good attachment, but that leaves space between the arm and the lid.  I'm guessing that given enough momentum and leverage, even a child could use the lid to pry the base loose from the bowl.  We will see.

- Second drawback is the relock - or lack of it.  You could possibly forget to put the arm back into position, say at 2 am after a groggy re-bink of the child.

Any experience with other toilet lock-down devices?  Give us some feedback.

First Post - What's This All About, anyway

The origins of this started with a conversation I had with a friend and fellow father of young children.  The topic was: why do all the child-proofing products out there suck so much?  They are difficult to install, many just plain don't work as advertised, and most are incredibly ugly afterthoughts.  As an person with a moderate creative background and several engineering degrees and one business degree, I just don't understand why there isn't a better choice and a wider market for such items. I want to use this blog to highlight the best I've found, and the worst I've found.

What about the title?

Well, the title struck me as my 13 month-old daughter managed to destroy several makeshift deterrents for my TV: these items don't just need to hold back a little child, they need to MONKEY PROOF - curious, determined, no holds barred MONKEYS in a cage.  Hence, baby-proofing in my house has become MONKEY PROOFING.