Are you guilty of leaving your children unattended?

Before I had children, I would often cast my unwanted opinion to those who didn’t want to hear what I had to say. I have to admit, that I’d been rather judgmental, but in my defence at the time of broadcasting my opinion I didn’t have children, so I didn’t know any better. Some would say that the fact that I didn’t have children at the time of expressing my opinion should mean that I give no opinion at all. If only the world worked like that, but it doesn’t and everyone has an opinion whether we like it or not.

This week I’ve joined hundreds, maybe even thousands of other parents, in shock and horror as they watched a video of two year old twin boys playing in their bedroom. They certainly weren’t up to no good, they were simply doing what children do. Playing, learning, discovering and exploring.

Unfortunately children don’t know the risks that their actions can bring until it’s too late.

What am I talking about?

The video that’s gone viral of two boys opening the drawers on a unit and attempting to climb into or onto them. The unit comes tumbling down on top of one the boys. Thankfully, he’s not badly injured and his two year old twin managed to push the unit off him, but it could have been so much worse had the unit landed on the child’s head.

The thing that concerned me the most about this incident was reading the comments left by other people. Branding the parents as unfit to have children, some people even saying that the couple in question should have their children taken away from them.

I was shocked. A lot of people were also leaving the usual comments such as ‘where were the parents’, ‘why weren’t the parents watching them?’ etc, but they fail to comprehend the fact that the issue isn’t where the parents were.

I think I read that they were asleep, but whether they were asleep, cooking dinner, having a wee, taking a shower or on the phone, the fact is that parents simply cannot keep an eye on their child 24/7. It’s not possible, and it would drive us all crazy if we attempted to do this.

Not only that it would also hinder your child’s development and their ability to play independently. If I stayed in the same room as my kids 24/7, I imagine they’d have a few social problems when they were older. It’s simple not possible.

The issue is that the unit should have been fixed to the wall. Are the parents guilty of not doing this? Yes. Does that make them bad parents? No!

My living room has a 16 square Ikea unit in, two four square Ikea units in and a tall five square unit in. The girls bedroom has a tall wardrobe in, as well as a chest of drawers.

None of them are fixed to the wall.

Shock horror. I’m an irresponsible parent!

Am I?

I was also told not to co-sleep with my children because it was dangerous, but they’ve managed to survive from birth to almost five years old because we practise safe co-sleeping. I don’t like co-sleeping, but it’s something we do because it means we all get some sleep.

I may not be in the same room as them 24/7, but during day light hours I’m always aware of where they are and what they’re doing. If I was asleep, whether it be the middle of the night, or early hours of the morning and my child climbed a unit or tripped over their own feet and bashed their head on the floor, would that be my fault? Because I wasn’t there watching them 24/7?

The fact that the children in the video are two years old leads me to believe that they didn’t know any better. They didn’t know what was going to happen because they’re two years old!

If a grown adult did that, then yes, I’d call them stupid because they’re old enough to know better, but two year olds don’t know the risks involved in their actions.

My children are almost five years old and they know not to climb the furniture. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t do it. Quite often they climb on the sofa with their grubby shoes on, and I’ve caught M more times than I care to mentioned trying to scale the 16 square unit in our living room to retrieve her dummy from the top of it!

I know the unit won’t fall on her because the contents of the unit verses her weight means that the unit isn’t going anywhere. It’s plainly obvious from watching the video that the unit in question was pretty much empty.

Yes, when I bought the units in my home, they came with the attachment to fix them to the wall, but we didn’t do it.

Not because we’re irresponsible, but because we just didn’t.

There’s no reason behind it, we just didn’t do it.

Am I likely to do it now that I’ve seen this video?

Maybe, but the fact of the matter is that the parents agreed to release the video to warn others of the danger, not so that people could call them out on their parenting skills.

Geez. If I was on the toilet, in the shower, cooking dinner or sleeping, I can’t be expected to keep an eye on my kids at the same time! It’s not possible.