The Parenting Journal

Every room in your house contains something that could seriously harm your baby. In a specific, fixable, room-by-room way that most parents don’t fully map until something goes wrong.I learned this the hard way when my younger daughter emptied the...

The kitchen is the most dangerous room in your house for a toddler. Not the bathroom, not the stairs. The kitchen, and specifically the area around your stove and oven.I learned this in a specific, stomach-dropping way when my younger...

Every nursery looks safe the day you set it up. The furniture is new, the crib is assembled, the little onesies are folded in the drawer. Then your baby starts moving, and you realize the room you designed for sleeping...

The houseplant on your windowsill probably came from a garden center with a cheerful little care tag. Watering schedule, light requirements, maybe a common name. What those tags almost never include: whether your baby can survive chewing on a leaf.Most...

The bedroom feels like a safe place. It’s quiet, familiar, the room where you’ve rocked a baby to sleep a hundred times. But CPSC data tells a different story: half of all child tip-over deaths happen in the bedroom, compared...

The kitchen is the most dangerous room in your house for a child under five. Not the bathroom. Not the garage. The kitchen, where you spend hours every day, where the hazards are hot and sharp and toxic, and where...

Every yard has at least one hazard you haven’t thought of yet. Outdoor spaces are larger, less controlled, and full of variables that shift with the season, the weather, and how fast your toddler has learned to run this week.Indoor...

The living room window is where my younger daughter pressed her face against the glass to watch the mail carrier, dragged a step stool over without my noticing, and had both hands on the sash before I crossed the room....

The furniture in your living room looks stable. It probably isn’t.A bookshelf bolted to nothing. A TV stand with a 65-inch screen perched on top. A dresser your toddler has already figured out how to use as a ladder. These...