While none of these things were really "out of the box" solutions, they were practical and easy for first time parents to implement. Those plastic covers for outlets were perfect for my daughter, who's curiosity was no match for her inability to do anything about those pesky outlet covers. I really shouldn't have been surprised at their effectiveness, considering my wife needed a screwdriver to remove them, and I needed a good deal of effort if I was going to forgo the use of hand-tools.
When my son came along, we were seasoned professionals. We had done the parenting thing for someone his age, so this really was just an opportunity for a victory lap of sorts. Other parents respected us more, and had largely dropped the condescending tone most first-time parents are bombarded with. No, we aren't first-timers; we're experienced. Enough said, right?
Well, no, that's not right, because my son is not one to follow norms. He may not have bothered to crawl until well after most of his peers had started, but once he had established a viable means of transport he was always underfoot in a hurry. Even worse than that was when he'd disappear, as most parents can relate. Unseen and silent usually resulted in something troublesome.
One of the first times my son performed his disappearing act on his mother, she found him in a corner in his room, playing with a pile of what turned out to be every plastic outlet cover he could reach. He was scolded, and warned not to play with the covers, since they were safety items, and certainly not toys. Dismissing this incident as a one-off fluke, my wife proceeded to replace all of the outlet covers, only to discover our son back in the same corner, less than an hour later, playing with the same pile of outlet covers.
"How is he getting those out?" She asked herself, bewildered. "Are they loose? Is he using tools?!"
My wife decided to find out. She replaced the outlet covers a second time (nothing loose about the fit), then sat down on the couch in the living room. Within a few minutes our son crawled out and handed his mother two handfuls of outlet covers. He was very proud of himself.
"Let's try this again," thought my wife.
This time, she only replaced the covers to one outlet and remained in the room. As if waiting for his turn in a game, my son crawled to the electric outlet and yanked out the outlet covers, one at a time, with his tiny, surprisingly strong hands. Knowing how ridiculous the story sounded, my wife attempted to take a photo. Seeing this, my son held one in each hand, presenting them to his mother, and smiled for the photo. His pride was unmistakeable.
We had clearly not accounted for all variables, so we never bothered with outlet covers after that. Our daughter was old enough to know not to play with electric outlets, and those covers proved to be a larger obstacle for adults than for my son. Although we always knew a lack of covers could come back to haunt us, it never did ... well, that is until my son decided to build The Flux Capacitor, but that, as they say, is another story.
