Thread: Child locks for cabinets

  1. #1
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    Child locks for cabinets

    Who designs these things? I just put some cheap child locks on our cabinets so the youngster can't get into our cabinets. The package says easy to use and simple to operate. Heh. Not quite. It took me ten minutes to get some cookies out of the cabinets b/c I couldn't get the lock to work. Sad thing is that I bet my 2.5 year old daughter could open the thing before I could and yet the locks are designed for her not me.


  2. #2
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Ah, the ever expanding "safety" culture.

    I take it that you managed to survive your occasional raid on the cookie jar whilst growing up, in the age before these useless tokens were invented.
    - Did your parents tell you "don't eat all the cookies, or you will get tummy ache"?
    - Did you eat all the cookies and get tummy ache?
    - Did you learn from your mistake?

    If you've got stuff that is really dangerous (household cleaners), then get something which is really safe - like a padlock.

    Sooner or later (almost certainly sooner than you would like), your kid would figure these things out. Using the same useless strip of plastic for guarding the bleach seems less like a good idea, if your child now associates "plastic locks" with "tasty goodies".

    One thing is for sure - you will NOT sit down with your child in a few years time to explain how these locks 'work'. No, they will have already figured that out and the only thing left for you to do is to find the screwdriver and take the damn things off.

    > I just put some cheap child locks on our cabinets so the youngster can't get into our cabinets
    Ah, 'cheap'. So add failure and malfunction to the list of things likely to happen before you're ready to teach your child responsible use of cookies.
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  3. #3
    Make Fortran great again
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    I opted to get the dollar door catches (these: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31ZK46VD3SL.jpg). They make the cabinets pretty hard to get into, and if you need extra stopping power, just put more than one on the same door.

  4. #4
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Mk27 recommends...

    Works best on the inside of the cabinet. Unsweetened baking chocolate (YUCK!!) and coffee near the front, cookies at the back.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by MK27 View Post
    Mk27 recommends...

    Works best on the inside of the cabinet. Unsweetened baking chocolate (YUCK!!) and coffee near the front, cookies at the back.
    That is amazing. Would be even funnier if you'd be electrocuted every time you get too close to the edges on that. That would teach any children not to try to open it...

  6. #6
    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    > They make the cabinets pretty hard to get into
    Except they go from maximum resistance to zero in an instant.

    Which means just as your kid is strong enough to open the door (by basically hanging off it), they go flying across the room with the sudden release.

    Then you've got another problem on your hands...
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    > They make the cabinets pretty hard to get into
    Except they go from maximum resistance to zero in an instant.

    Which means just as your kid is strong enough to open the door (by basically hanging off it), they go flying across the room with the sudden release.

    Then you've got another problem on your hands...
    Lol, then maybe they'll learn to not mess with cabinet doors.

    Childproofing is worthless anyway, we found this out the hard way. My 2 year old kid got into a "childproof" prescription bottle.

  8. #8
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    >> Ah, the ever expanding "safety" culture.

    We've used these types of devices in our home. They seem to do the job they were intended for quite nicely. My eldest is old enough to get around them on occasion, but she's also old enough now to know what she is and isn't allowed to get into. My youngest can't get into the stuff she's not allowed to get into, whether that be cleaning supplies or other less potentially harmful items.

    And no, I still haven't learned from my "eating too many cookies" mistake. Is that why my stomach hurts right now?

    >> Childproofing is worthless anyway, we found this out the hard way.
    Childproofing is a misnomer. Child-"making it more difficult and less likely that they will do something you don't want them to do"-ing would be more accurate, and it probably worked at that even in your case.

  9. #9
    Registered User VirtualAce's Avatar
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    And no, I still haven't learned from my "eating too many cookies" mistake. Is that why my stomach hurts right now?
    Hehe. Ditto that. While I monitor how many cookies my daughter can have I'm not so good at monitoring myself and my 'mommy' isn't around to stop me.

    Works best on the inside of the cabinet. Unsweetened baking chocolate (YUCK!!) and coffee near the front, cookies at the back.
    Now that is one heck of a lock.

  10. #10
    chococoder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    One thing is for sure - you will NOT sit down with your child in a few years time to explain how these locks 'work'. No, they will have already figured that out and the only thing left for you to do is to find the screwdriver and take the damn things off.
    most likely the kid will be telling you how to open them quickly in a few weeks, if not sooner

    Place things you don't want your kids to access in places too high for them to reach. Regular locks with keys work wonders too, just don't leave the keys where the kids can get at them.

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    Ah, the ever expanding "safety" culture.

    I take it that you managed to survive your occasional raid on the cookie jar whilst growing up, in the age before these useless tokens were invented.
    - Did your parents tell you "don't eat all the cookies, or you will get tummy ache"?
    - Did you eat all the cookies and get tummy ache?
    - Did you learn from your mistake?

    If you've got stuff that is really dangerous (household cleaners), then get something which is really safe - like a padlock.

    Sooner or later (almost certainly sooner than you would like), your kid would figure these things out. Using the same useless strip of plastic for guarding the bleach seems less like a good idea, if your child now associates "plastic locks" with "tasty goodies".

    One thing is for sure - you will NOT sit down with your child in a few years time to explain how these locks 'work'. No, they will have already figured that out and the only thing left for you to do is to find the screwdriver and take the damn things off.

    > I just put some cheap child locks on our cabinets so the youngster can't get into our cabinets
    Ah, 'cheap'. So add failure and malfunction to the list of things likely to happen before you're ready to teach your child responsible use of cookies.

    I was trying to make a clever, wisedonkey remark to describe how your comments are too pragmatic to actually work in Western culture (I say Western culture because you seem like you might live in a developed nation, and you used the word 'culture' in your response).

    The punchline was going to be something like this: instead of telling your kid(s) not to eat the cookies, say they can eat as many cookies as they want, but then you tell them that if they do they will get fat and nobody will ever love them.

    Fortunately, I wasn't able to formulate such a tasteless joke, so I drew this instead so nobody else actually takes the time to trace it through and feel silly afterwards like I did.

    I want some cookies.
    I'm not immature, I'm refined in the opposite direction.

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