My 2 yr old has just gone for the volume knob!

[It Cost How Much!?!]

They do!!! One took a shit on our bar floor!!!

That's expressionist art for you

[Dik Dolan]

As always, the great Gene Hunt has the answer.

[Stupinder]

I'm concerned you class shit as food!

To be fair there were English kids and French kids that behaved badly - the taking a crap on the floor was the most extreme. I used to go mad with the parents.

[voiceofthemysterons]

Least they didn't throw it at you!

[Stupinder]

Least they didn't throw it at you!

Her parents did nick a plate tough :-)

[michaelb]

My now four-year-old has always been respectful of my kit. When she started crawling I took great pains to point out to her that valves were "hot". She has never touched them.

But she did knock over a dining chair just to watch it fall, and sod's law it fell on the volume pot of my amp. Sh1t happens. Luckily it still works okay - I've done worse damage myself with a dusting cloth and stylus: they don't mix

Bear with it, the joy of seeing her dancing to music and loving it is worth it.

[pgarrish]

Bear with it, the joy of seeing her dancing to music and loving it is worth it.

[Bourney]

I agree, it's brought me to tears (in a good way)a couple of times already

[SMEagol]

I love the pipe in the corner.....reminds me of ' SAW '

He he rep added.

[rednose66]

A smack on the arse always works.......

[avinunca1]

I moved everything up, and up again as they grew. When they were big enough to terrorise I moved it all down again. The worst time was when we lived on the 14th floor with a balcony and my daughter had just discovered climbing! We lost a cat over the edge one night; it was still alive and I had to kill it. We moved as soon as possible.
Remembering it puts it all in perspective for me.

Off topic but interesting...well it was to me!


With their righting reflex theory, cats often land uninjured. However, this is not always the case, since cats can still break bones or die from extreme falls. In a 1987 study, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, of 132 cats that were brought into the New York Animal Medical Center after having fallen from buildings, it was found that the injuries per cat increased depending on the height fallen up to seven stories but decreased above seven stories.^[8] The study authors speculated that after falling five stories the cats reached terminal velocity and thereafter relaxed and spread their bodies to increase drag. Scientists in Massachusetts have recently discovered that the cat's ability to spread its legs out to increase drag when reaching terminal velocity would explain the decreased injuries sustained above seven stories because they wouldn't reach terminal velocity before then. Professor David Stevenson said "we simulated the cat's weight and size and found the terminal velocity to be 60mph which would more than likely result in severe injury or death to the cat when falling from this speed, but once we took into account the cat's ability to right its self and spread its body out this reduced the terminal velocity to only 53mph. This 7mph difference is massive and would almost certainly ensure the cat's survival. There however is always the possibility that the cat may not manage to right itself so this is far from a conclusive experiment and we do not condone the throwing of cats from anything."

[Idlerman]

I decided to forego valve amps with protruding valves for a while with a 5 year old and a 2 year old. Well my Rogers Cadet is packed up anyway, the others were sold. Got a Quad 405 which is of no interest to kids... However my 2 year old has taken to putting her sticky fingers on the LS3/5a grilles, this has to be monitored but a quick NO! seems to do the trick. Kids learn young if you teach 'em!

[michaelb]

Kids learn young if you teach 'em!

Well said that man. Put simply like that, isn't that the essence of parenting? Your job is to teach them, not hide from the subject. It drives me nuts when I hear people say "we've had to put everything of value away, because he breaks everything". Well just teach him FFS!!! And no, that doesn't necessarily involve violence - however tempting and gratifying it might be.

Like I said above, I taught our then nine-month-old not to touch the valves. It didn't take ten minutes, it took weeks of constant repetition and watching her like a hawk in case she burned herself, but she learnt.

I agree, kids learn fast. In my case this was time well invested because now she has respect for the kit.

[NAM]

Well said that man. Put simply like that, isn't that the essence of parenting? Your job is to teach them, not hide from the subject. It drives me nuts when I hear people say "we've had to put everything of value away, because he breaks everything". Well just teach him FFS!!! And no, that doesn't necessarily involve violence - however tempting and gratifying it might be.

Like I said above, I taught our then nine-month-old not to touch the valves. It didn't take ten minutes, it took weeks of constant repetition and watching her like a hawk in case she burned herself, but she learnt.

I agree, kids learn fast. In my case this was time well invested because now she has respect for the kit.

Yeah, it's quite amazing...our 8 month old is actually learning not to touch my kit (amongst other things...plug sockets, virgin box etc....)....primarily down to my wife's repetition of 'look but don't touch', subtle distraction, careful use of tone, occasional use of no, and me learning (slowly!) from her how to acheive goals like that without inadvertantly making things worse by turning things into a game (for e.g.). I don't know who's learning more, me or the baby! She's bloody good at this stuff! (which i'm grateful for!)

[Toe rag]

Yes the ability to turn it into a game I got a nice whippy stick which I thrashed about shouting get in your box. This end with the kid aged 3 with the stick beating me no mercy shown shouting get in the BOX which I had to comply in order for him to stop.

[Distortions]

Wow, reading through this thread was a bit scary. I am expecting my first child anyday now. I wonder if there are any audio and/or record album shelves one can purchase which might have doors on the front and are lockable?

[Cable Monkey]

Get through the next 6 months first mate! Worry about the hifi once they become mobile!

[NAM]

Wow, reading through this thread was a bit scary. I am expecting my first child anyday now. I wonder if there are any audio and/or record album shelves one can purchase which might have doors on the front and are lockable?

First off, congratulations! We're looking for the same thing, my wife found one at ikea for £200 that looks like it might do the trick (i can find out the details), but i've only got a dac and transport to accomodate. It's a tv unit, not a dedicated hifi unit though. You won't have to worry about it for a while yet though! 6months is the earlier end of average to be mobile i think

- - - Updated - - -

Get through the next 6 months first mate! Worry about the hifi once they become mobile!

Exactly....it'll only be relevant if you both survive

[NAM]

This morning he(and i!) discovered that he's now tall enough to stretch out from pulling himself up on the tv unit and touch the bass driver of the speakers! bugger!

He also kept touching my knob....thankfully turning the volume down though since his ears were close to the bass driver in that position!