How safe are child-safe locks?

I run a day care and almost everything in the house is locked or child-proofed. We just added a new lock to the house - the linen cupboard. I was told to either put a lock in or remove all the plastic bags from the cupboard. Took the lock.

Anyway, Miss 2 discovered that she could 'unlock' the fridge door. Yup, fridges also have locks. They are the stick-ons with a clip. You know, those that have double sided-tapes on both ends with a clip-on lock in the middle? The double-sided taped ends are the ones that are to be stuck onto one side of the fridge and another to the door. They're so child-safe that I always struggle to unlock them. They're the most annoying locks I've ever come across.

Back to Miss 2, well, she discovered that if the lock cannot be unlocked, guess what!, she could jolly well peel off one end from the double-sided tape that was stuck to the fridge. So there! Just when I thought that my house is free from harm's way.

I find that child-safe locks are just a deterrent. They're not all-encompassing protective, but they give children a bit more effort and time in getting to what they want. Unfortunately, I reckon that people who designed child-safe locks hardly ever considered the locks from a child's point-of-view. Children have this knack of getting around rules and achieving what they want in a totally different way.

Hope your child-safe locks lasted longer than mine! Sphere: Related Content