Anything we have to directly access to use is in our stereo cabinet behind a lockable glass door - VCR, DVD, xbox, etc. The TV cabinet has 3 open shelves. So I cut a piece of hobby lexan to cover the shelves, moved the cable box and amplifier to the TV cabinet, and then hold the lexan in place with some child-safety appliance straps.

It's a long-term, temporary solution that keeps little fingers from pushing buttons, but doesn't block the remote control. In a few years when the rugrat is older, of comes the lexan and no permanent damage to the furniture. Total cost was somewhere around $30 for the lexan and the straps.

dagwud

The same type of child resistant clips used for kitchen cabinets also do wonders on the home stereo cabinet doors.

Lazarus

I don't have kids but my parents used the divide and conquer method on my significantly younger brother. Basically his play room was NOT the living room with the home theater. In fact the living room was kept off limits to everyone until after he went to bed. That way he wasn't curious to "see what the adults were doing" and didn't develop a TV habit. The occasional TV session was allowed but completely supervised in that we would share the couch and talk about what was going on on television. Never was TV used as a distraction so that the adults could get work done. (He had three train sets in the playroom that he was addicted to anyhow... if we allowed food in that room, I don't think he'd have ever left.)

CWW

"How do you keep the expensive home theater system as childproof as possible?"

Easy. I don't have kids.

matthew

How about houseproofing your child rather than childproofing the house?

delightt

@delight - You are right - teach your kids right from wrong and how to behave. My wife I have raised 4 sons of out own, plus the uncountable number she raised doing home based daycare. It's not that hard, you just have to want to be a parent instead of a friend.

There's plenty of time later to be a friend.

We had now problems teaching them what they could touch, what they couldn't. Sure, while you are teaching them that, you have to watch them, but again, that's just being a parent.

Too many of my wifes clients were amazed at how well their kids listened to her, but no to them.

OogiePringle

@OogiePringle: I agree with both you and delightt, but I also think the concern about the TV is valid. I'd never be comfortable having smaller children around those lovely bit, thin televisions. One accidental push and you could have TV on top of child.

That's why I think they should be wall mounted. If little Joey pushes little Andy, the worst that could happen is a button's pushed by mistake. (Of course, that doesn't address why Joey feels he should push Andy - and wall-mounting Joey is NOT the answer.)

Jim (The Canuck One)

When my family got a new house, one of the first places I "claimed" for a specific use was the closet in the den.

I had gotten tired at the old house of telling my two kids (almost six and almost three), "move, please!" when they stood in front of the TV - and "don't touch" when they tried playing with the TV and the VCR/DVD player.

Before we moved into the new house, I turned it into our "entertainment center". I fished wiring for electric and cable TV inside the wall - made some slight adjustments with the height of the shelves - and voila! I had a viewing-friendly but kid-proof place to put the TV, VCR/DVD player, and cable box. Now, all the equipment is up at least four and a half feet high - easy to watch and for grown-ups to access - but difficult at best for my two kids to reach.

vanillacokehead

Please everyone, secure the TV to something solid so that it can't be pulled over. Just last year, a coworker lost his 4-year old daughter when she managed to topple the heavy TV onto her. The mother was right there with the girl, but it happened so fast, the mother didn't have time to react. It doesn't matter how good a parent you are. It only takes a second for a kid to injure or kill themselves.

msisaac

Houseproofing your child should be the goal. But do you really want to put your expensive electronics at risk in the process? Toddlers are quick, and creative. And, like msisaac wrote, you don't always have time to react.

Securing the TV is important. Even more so if it's a CRT. Kids have been killed by CRT TVs they toppled onto themselves. An ounce (or strap) of prevention is worth it, because there's no cure for burying your kid.

dagwud

Continuing the discussion about house-proofing the child vs. child-proofing the house: You gotta do both.

Our entertainment center is contained within a large armoire. You can shut the doors. I don't always like looking at a screen in my living room. Shutting the doors keeps the kids out.

At the same time, we've taught our kids (4.5 and 1.5) how to behave around the equipment. Ms. 1.5 knows not to touch, and she doesn't. Mr. 4.5 knows how to operate the whole system, but knows not to touch anything without permission first.

Between the two approaches, however, teaching your kids how to act is the most effective method. The childproofing is there as a safety net when they forget or misbehave.

onesix18

If you screw into the TV base and also into the table, why not just go straight through the base into the table and not have to buy the nylon strap (and use another screw).

philselmer

@philselmer: Well, but using the appliance strap and a stud in your wall, you avoid permanently marring the piece of furniture on which the TV sits.

May not seem like much, but the footprint of my current CRT TV is guaranteed to be larger than a future LCD replacement.

dagwud

Anyone from Sony, Panasonic or Toshiba reading?

If so, when you produce your next line of DVD players or other home-entertainment devices, please program in a "toddler-proof" mode. Once activated, in order to do anything with the DVD player, you'd first have to press a sequence of buttons -- like play, pause, pause, play, or something like that.

Naturally such a mode would not be the default, but it could be activated and deactivated as needed. This could be done in software, so it seems like it would be easy and cheap.

- Alaska Jack

Alaska Jack