The Parenting Journal

The drawer my older daughter opened at 22 months wasn’t the knife drawer. It was the one below it, the one I figured was fine because it held baking sheets and a cast iron skillet. She pulled the drawer all...

Sliding doors are among the most overlooked hazards in a baby-proofed home. Parents spend hours installing cabinet locks and outlet covers, then leave a 70-pound glass panel on a track that a determined two-year-old can move with one hand.The risk...

The garden looks harmless. It’s just dirt and plants and a little afternoon sun. But the same space where you grow tomatoes and deadhead roses is full of hazards that are difficult to see until you’re down at crawling height,...

Every parent has a cabinet story. Mine happened on a Tuesday afternoon when I answered the doorbell, came back to find my younger daughter standing in the kitchen with the under-sink cabinet wide open, a bottle of dish soap in...

Every fall from a balcony is preventable. That’s not optimism. It’s the consistent finding behind every pediatric safety review, every building code revision, every product recall tied to railing gaps and unsecured furniture. Your balcony poses a risk. The question...

The nursery feels safe when you’ve painted the walls, assembled the crib, and folded every tiny onesie into the dresser. But the windows in that room deserve the same deliberate attention you gave to the crib mattress or the baby...

Every living room looks different. But the hazards inside them are remarkably consistent, and the window of time you have before a crawling baby becomes a cruising toddler becomes a full-sprint preschooler is shorter than it feels.I’ve been through this...

Spiral staircases look stunning. They also represent one of the more complicated babyproofing challenges you’ll face, because almost nothing about them is standard. The steps are wedge-shaped. The curve defeats most gates. The baluster spacing is often whatever the original...

The bathroom is the most dangerous room in your house. Not the kitchen, not the garage. The bathroom. It has water, electricity, chemicals, hard surfaces, and small objects all packed into a space your toddler can reach in about four...