I consider the role of a parent a great blessing. Ever since I can remember playing house, it was my dream to become a mum, imagining what my kids would look like, and the names I’d give them. Now that I am living my dream, I can say it’s more than exciting, and better that imagined, but I’m not going to lie in saying it’s not challenging, and at times scary.

Children are born adventurers, because it`s through exploring they get to know more of the surrounding world. Though Ethan isn’t in that phase anymore (thank God!), Noah still is from time to time, so when Ethan only was a few months old, what we did with my husband was taking the safety measures, and childproofed all the home.

This started from choosing from the variety of front door security screens, installing safety latches on cabinets and drawers, unplugging electric rollers, using safety caps, adding toilet locks, removing small parts from toys that could cause choking, followed by covering up corners with bumpers, putting furniture pieces away from windows, and securing them to prevent tipping, as well as putting medicine and chemicals away, and opting for window coverings with a mechanism (no ropes allowed).

The fact front door security screens are custom made ensured a perfect fit. What I loved about the many choices was there were also those with a great finish, meaning they have many handy properties (weatherproof, pest-deterring), and I simply couldn’t resist the mesh. Having the possibility to personalise them, we added a pet door to ours, so Uno can pop out with ease without being followed by Ethan or Noah – they still find it difficult to open the screen door thanks to the lock.

Do I believe our home is absolutely childproofed? No, not really, and as scary as it sounds, it still gives me the peace of mind in knowing I’ve done whatever was in my might to protect my sons. Proper parenting requires supervision, even with the childproofing measures, but a home that’s not childproofed is not even to be compared with one that is.

If you don’t think this is true, just take a look at the statistics about the number of children hospitalised or killed by unintentional injuries, i.e. accidents – each year about 300 are killed, and 60.000 are hospitalised. This should be convincing enough to make it a priority to childproof your home, as it was for me; enhancing the level of safety at home should never be an afterthought. Jade is sure to back me up on this.