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linda 
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Joined: 02 September 2003
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 Topic: Our house is so wrong for kids
Posted: 23 June 2007 at 9:05pm |
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We live in a city, on a hill, in a new house surrounded by bush. Love everything about it except that we have no outdoor area other than a deck. Went to see a friend today who I haven't seen in a while and she lives on the flat with lots of outdoor area, good concrete driveway. My kids loved it. They were outside racing around on the bikes and had a brilliant time.
DH has pretty much built our house so would want to move (its still being built but thats another story) but I would so love a house on the flat with space for the kids...and I know it just wont happen.
Can't really moan to DH about it but needed to get it out so have done it here!
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Bombshell
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Joined: 01 January 1900
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Posted: 23 June 2007 at 9:14pm |
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i am dreading Ella crawling in ours....two storey, bannisters, step down into lounge on bottom storey, knick knacks everywhere - and i mean valuable stuff around that i dread having to tell her to leave alone all the time, deck outside with step off it, dog poop from 2 dogs everywhere outside, no grass to play on, unsafe road right outside the door, huge spa bath and none other for a kids bath.....
yep we dont have the most kid friendly house either Im afraid....
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Katherine
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Location: New Zealand
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Posted: 23 June 2007 at 9:36pm |
We used to live in a non-kid-friendly house (a three-story flat in Parnell) and moved when I was 7 months pregnant! (Mostly because I couldn't deal with hauling myself up the stairs anymore...) The second house we lived in was much more kid-friendly -- all on one level, doors to close off every room, fenced yard. Except it was coooooooold (an old bungalow). The place we're in now is in-between as far as child safety is concerned. There are definitely things we've changed, right from the start of living in this place -- all of our knick-knacks are still boxed up in the garage, we've got a gate across the entrance to the kitchen all the time (since it's a rental, we can't install child-proof locks on the cupboards), the lounge is set up for play, and I've just gone around and installed outlet covers.
Fortunately, they don't "get into stuff" until they're a bit older, Bombshell, so you've got time to work on your child-proofing strategies.  But I know what you mean about kid-friendly houses, Linda -- you don't really know what you need or don't need in a house until you've actually got kids! That said, maybe you can get creative with the environment you've got -- what about a flying fox to take advantage of that hill? A treehouse? A sandpit in the corner of the deck? A water table? I'm sure there are mums around who are in similar situations who can offer advice...
And Bombshell, LOL about the yard with the poop everywhere -- do you mean MY yard? We've NEVER let Em play in it! Fortunately, the babysitter has one of those perfectly manicured lawns she can play on, so I let her get all grass-stained there, without fear of poop!
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mum2paris
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Location: Palmy
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Posted: 23 June 2007 at 9:45pm |
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until last year, we live in an upstairs appartment with now outdoor area apart from a 1 m wide 6 metre long concrete blacony that looke dout over a huge nextdoor neighbours yard and pool area (we used to sit there on hot days and wish we had a yard with a pool!) paris didn't get to go outside to apart from at daycare and nanas and going to the park. for us at that time, we couldn't afford anything else but i felt like i was trapping her inside, so we went out for walks aroudn the bock or even to the letterbox, we still crunched in leaves on the driveway etc too, and just made sure that every weekend we went to the park or somewhere that she could run around and go crazy.
It depends how old your kids are. last year we moved to aplace with a decent sized yard and the kids still didn't really use it much, i forever was saying lets go outside to play!! now we are ina place with a yard just big enough for them to run around in, and have their swings and slide. for them at the moment that's enough, they get to run about outside at nanas just roung the corner, we get out and about, we got to the park still and do lots of outdoorsy stuff.
I am however glad now, our flat up high had scary stairs, and the balcony railings were far enough apart that i could easily fit thru them (ok with a little bitta squeezing), so i knew the girls could if they ever got loose. that was my biggest fear. i was so happy when we moved to a house with no steps!
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Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja
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mum2paris
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Posted: 23 June 2007 at 9:47pm |
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omg excuse my poor spelling and grammar in the above post. lol
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Janine and her 2 cool chicks, Paris & Ayja
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minik8e
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Posted: 24 June 2007 at 5:16pm |
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Just to follow on from BS's post...how do those of you with dogs manage it? We have 2 dogs so of course there's poop...so what do you do with your yard and the kids playing?? We're surrounded by farm land, but then there's the issue of cow poop as well (and drains and effluent ponds and all that kinda stuff) so it means there isn't really a yard for kids to play in?
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Maya
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Posted: 24 June 2007 at 7:24pm |
We don't have a 'safe' outdoors area here either, it was the sacrifice we made for having huge indoor space which is *mostly* child friendly (just needs a bit of gremlin-proofing ). I do get a bit envious when we go visiting and the kids can play outside in friend's fully fenced yards, but thems the breaks, and I'm pretty happy with our place atm.
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 Maya Grace (28/02/03)
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The Gremlins:Sienna Marie & Mercedes Kailah (14/10/06)
Lil miss:Chiara Louise Chloe (09/07/08)
Her ladyship:Rosalia Sophie Anais (18/06/12)
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queenbean
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Posted: 25 June 2007 at 10:04am |
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We are thinking about moving at the end of the year to a more child friendly place. We have a really old house at the moment with tons of saftey issues!!
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caliandjack
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Posted: 25 June 2007 at 11:18am |
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A bit of cow pat never hurt anyone! I'm a city kid and I the first time I went to a farm I went nuts. Got covered in mud and cow poo. It was great. Ponds and troughs need a bit of care, can you cover them. Our place is reasonably safe, the previous owner had a dog so its fully fenced. We are on a hill, and our section does slope. If we level off the bottom lawn there is room for back yard cricket. I do see the neighbours kids wizzing down the street on their bikes. No shortage of parks in Feilding, and most of them have childrens playgrounds.
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emz
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Posted: 25 June 2007 at 12:00pm |
 minik8e wrote:
Just to follow on from BS's post...how do those of you with dogs manage it? We have 2 dogs so of course there's poop...so what do you do with your yard and the kids playing?? We're surrounded by farm land, but then there's the issue of cow poop as well (and drains and effluent ponds and all that kinda stuff) so it means there isn't really a yard for kids to play in? |
Is there a possibility of putting up some sort of fence to give kids a bit of room? All my aunty and uncle did was put up shadecloth, and then a metre back they had an electric fence to stop any animals getting in (the kids couldn't get to the electric fence!)
And I guess when your kids go through the wanting to eat dog poo stage you could just try and fence off your dogs so they poo in one place away from the kids. But then again, kids learn by doing so maybe let them eat poo!
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Our house is so wrong for kids
