When you check into your hotel room, it's quite normal to let the kids run wild as you unpack, check your itinerary and stretch out from a long drive or flight. But while you're relaxing a little, are your tiny tots finding new ways to hurt themselves? Stay on top of them with a roll of painter's tape!
Just because you've taken the time to protect the outlets or easily accessed drawers and windows in your own home, doesn't mean your temporary sleeping quarters will have the same level of safety. When you check in, bust out a roll of painter's tape and cover any outlets that could have something accidentally shoved in them.
The tape won't leave any residue when you check out and even if your toddler is hanging out on the ground for a bit, there's no worry that they can get themselves into trouble. You can also tape the drawers in your nightstands closed, your phone down (if you have one who's super adventurous) or even the cord to the blinds up and out of the way.
It might sound overly cautious, but knowing you're prepared no matter what situation you find yourself in can be comforting in itself, even if you don't have to put your methods to use!
(Image: Scotch)
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Couldn't I just tape the baby down, instead? ;)
Hilarious abbygraykit! This is a really good idea - better safe than sorry.
Well that was my original idea, but I didn't want anyone to jump on me for child endangerment :)
wonderful idea!
Great idea! I'd definitely use this for the upper drawers and blind cords. I think I'd skip the outlets though...if my boy saw pretty blue tape on them, he'd probably be even more intrigued. ;)
I thought you were going to say to just give the roll of tape to your kid, and let them have at it. My two-year-old can stay entertained with a roll of tape for hours!
My older baby/toddler would have the tape off the outlets in seconds and would be more attracted to the outlets because of it! I like this for the blind cords, though... although I usually just tie/loop them out of the way.
For some reason I thought this was going to be about writing your contact info on the tape affixed to your kiddo. But I like your idea, too!
Love painter's tape. use it everyday to mark her frozen food containers for daycare.
I have used this idea. However, when my daughter was 2-3 she had good enough fine motor skills to help me mask my living room for painting, one tiny piece of tape at a time.
One of her Christmas presents one year was a 3-pack of Scotch tape, which she used to make multi-multi-multi layered mixed media art.
So during that era, I traveled with a ZipLoc bag of outlet covers, nightlights, and other things that come in handy when preparing a room for kids.
I always just unplugged the hotel phone and put it up high... I carried outlet covers and called it good. My son was never one to climb though...
LOL I can see this being useful, though my mother didn't bother with any of this, despite several world-wide moves that often left us in temporary housing/hotels for weeks at a time. She just turned to me (I was 5 at the time) and said, "Watch your sister!"
We use scotch tape. The see-through aspect of it makes it non-enticing, and although we've probably forgotten to remove some of it...well...no hotel has never sued us ;-)
Of course, that was with my son, who would have tried to stick anything in an outlet. My daughter is more concerned with buttons and climbing. Scotch tape doesn't fix those.
We've also use the painter's tape when traveling to mark off "no-no zones." This worked great when my son was two. We put down a line of tape on the floor around the fireplace in one hotel room. We marked off a side table with a precarious lamp cord. Stuff like that -- just a line on the floor that means "do not cross." It wouldn't have worked anymore starting when he was about three, because he would have looked at us like we were nuts for thinking a strip of tape would keep him out of trouble, but when he was smaller and more rules-following, it worked like a charm.
You can also use painter's tape to seal up a trash bag after you've had to dispose of a poopy diaper in the middle of the night. And to tape the mini-fridge shut. And to make "streets"/"tracks" for toy cars/trains to drive along.