The Parenting Journal

Product Guides
Foam Corner Protectors: Complete Guide to Cushioning Every Sharp Edge

Foam Corner Protectors: Complete Guide to Cushioning Every Sharp Edge

Every year, the CDC estimates that more than 3.5 million children under 14 are treated in emergency rooms for unintentional injuries, and a significant share of those involve falls against hard furniture edges. Corner and edge injuries are common enough...

Read more

Product Guides
Extra Wide Baby Gate: Best Picks for Open Floor Plans and Wide Doorways

Extra Wide Baby Gate: Best Picks for Open Floor Plans and Wide Doorways

Most standard baby gates top out at 32 inches wide. The average doorway in a home built after 1990 runs 32–36 inches. That math barely works, and it falls apart the moment you’re trying to close off a hallway opening,...

Read more

Product Guides
Magnetic Drawer Locks: Hidden Security for Every Room

Magnetic Drawer Locks: Hidden Security for Every Room

Every year, the CPSC receives reports of thousands of injuries to children under five involving furniture and cabinet hardware. Most happen in kitchens and bathrooms. Most are preventable. And most parents don’t realize the cabinet lock they installed three months...

Read more

Product Guides
Edge Protectors for Furniture: Bumper Strips and Corner Guards Reviewed

Edge Protectors for Furniture: Bumper Strips and Corner Guards Reviewed

The coffee table corner caught my older daughter at 22 months, right at eyebrow level. One second she was cruising the furniture, the next she was bleeding through a cloth I was pressing to her face on the way to...

Read more

Product Guides
Adhesive Cabinet Locks: Easy No-Drill Installation Guide

Adhesive Cabinet Locks: Easy No-Drill Installation Guide

Every parent has a "how did they get in there?" moment. Mine came when my younger daughter, at about 18 months, somehow opened the cabinet under the bathroom sink and had a bottle of liquid soap halfway unscrewed before I...

Read more

Product Guides
No Drill Cabinet Locks: The Best Options for Renters and Homeowners

No Drill Cabinet Locks: The Best Options for Renters and Homeowners

Every renter who has ever stood in a hardware store holding a drill, reading the lease clause about "no permanent alterations," knows exactly the problem. You need to lock the cabinets. You cannot put holes in the walls. These two...

Read more

Product Guides
Baby Nail File Guide: Gentle Grooming for Tiny Fingers

Baby Nail File Guide: Gentle Grooming for Tiny Fingers

Every new parent learns the same lesson the same way: tiny nails are surprisingly sharp, and a sleeping baby’s face is the first casualty. Before my older daughter was three weeks old, she had scratched her own cheek badly enough...

Read more

Montessori Learning Tower Buying Guide: Safe Kitchen Access for Toddlers

My younger daughter was 18 months old when she started dragging a dining chair toward the kitchen counter. She’d get it maybe halfway there before it tipped. She was determined, and the chair was a hazard. A learning tower solved...

Read more

Product Guides
The Best Magnetic Cabinet Lock for Kitchens with White Painted Cabinets

The Best Magnetic Cabinet Lock for Kitchens with White Painted Cabinets

The Best Magnetic Cabinet Lock for Kitchens with White Painted CabinetsWhite painted cabinets are unforgiving. One wrong removal and you’re staring at a patch of bare wood, a ghost outline of adhesive residue, or worse, a chunk of paint that...

Read more