Tips for moving house in safety with children
IF you’re planning to move home now Christmas is over and the new year is upon us, homebuilder David Wilson Homes, recently teamed up with children’s charity, The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT), to provide five top tips for doing so safely if you also have young children.
Senior sales manager at David Wilson Homes Mercia, Steve Barton, said: “It’s commonly known that the most frequently occurring accidents happen in the home, and the last thing we want is for them to happen part-way through your move. That’s why we decided to put together the following tips, endorsed by CAPT, to help you avoid these when moving to a new home.” - If you have a child under two, install safety gates on the stairs as soon as you can, even before the child enters the house. This sounds drastic, but they will be very excited and keen to explore and you may be busy with the move and easily distracted from supervising them as closely as normally.
- It’s a good idea to check all the windows in your new home, even the ones on the ground floor. If they open wide enough for a child to climb out of, fit a catch or window lock and if you’ve moved into a home with a balcony, you should consider fitting a lock here too.
- We all know toddlers love to climb, so although you may not have decided where you want your furniture to end up, keep it away from windows until you do. Then, once you’ve settled on a final position, it is advisable to secure it in place, especially if it’s a cabinet or table. - Gardens are a great place for children to play, but it’s a good idea to have a walk around yourself to check whether your children might be able to find their way into neighbouring gardens or out onto the street, and secure the area if necessary.
- If you’ve moved to a new area or even just a new street, the roads and volume and speed of traffic will be unfamiliar. There may also be new or busier roads to cross on the way to school; practise the new school run if you can.