The Parenting Journal

Every year, parents make dozens of small decisions about furniture that seem minor but aren’t. A glass coffee table is one of them. Foam corner protectors can reduce the injury risk from sharp glass edges, and that matters. But they...

Every parent has a version of this story. Mine happened on a Tuesday afternoon when my younger daughter, not yet 18 months old, emptied the entire under-sink cabinet in the time it took me to answer the front door. Sponges,...

From 1991 to 2001, more than 24,000 children under 10 were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for electrical outlet injuries, about 7 a day (Electrical Safety Foundation International, citing CPSC data). Many parents assume the risk doesn’t apply to their...

Renting an apartment or living in a leased home doesn’t mean you get to skip babyproofing. It means you have to be smarter about it. For a lot of parents, the fear of losing a security deposit is real enough...

About 93,000 children under 5 are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year for stair-related injuries, according to a Nationwide Children’s Hospital analysis of CPSC NEISS data. That number is why baby gates exist. And it’s why the question of...

The cabinet lock you installed six months ago is now losing its holding power. The key magnet that used to snap the door shut with satisfying resistance no longer does. You’re not imagining it. Magnetic cabinet locks do lose their...

From 1991 to 2001, more than 24,000 children under 10 were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for electrical outlet injuries, about 7 a day (Electrical Safety Foundation International, citing CPSC data). Those injuries happened despite outlet covers being cheap, widely...

Magnetic cabinet locks are clever hardware. One magnet hidden inside the cabinet, one catch on the door, and a small key that only adults know to use. But that elegance depends entirely on the right conditions, and your cabinets may...

Most magnetic cabinet locks are installed in a burst of new-parent energy and removed sometime later, often when kids age out, when you’re moving, or when the lock stops working. The removal part gets less attention than the installation. That’s...