Nowadays walking into some of your friends homes might leave you feeling like you'd walked into a kindergarten or pre-school instead. Child gates at every turn, socket covers and every even mildly sharp angle covered in rubber protectors (for the children of course and not the furniture). What can make this whole experience even more disturbing is realizing that his house is actually your own home. At some stage in the parenting process it stopped being a retreat for your and your spouse and became a childrens playground. What you need here is to find the balance between having your home look like a shopping center for child safety devices and an actual home.

Do you have one of those plastic cabinet locks that simply get stuck during the most desperate of times? Yes, it wouldn't budge an inch and you've even considered calling your local fire department. Add to this the fact that it isn't at all flattering to your kitchen space. You'd almost wish you had teenagers instead of toddlers! Not to worry though, you can now get smaller locks that you place on the inner side of your cabinet. All you have to do is to push down on the plastic and voila! It's open! Although it won't be as effective once your little ones gain some height, but for right now, it's good enough to do the job…

If your house has larger than usual doors and entries, there are several gadgets available to keep the little ones from getting inside rooms. One is a minute piece of plastic that can go around any type of doorknob. When a child reaches for it, this gadget will bounce about. It's that simple. If adults want to open the door, all they have to do is to push on two little finger holds, grab the knob, and the door opens instantly. If you have a door done in brown, simply buy a brown-colored ball and people will hardly know its there!

One of the most painful experiences I've had as a child, along with scraped knees, was getting my hand smashed between doors. I'm sure you've been there too, and yes, it's not a fond memory to recall. Why subject your child to the same fate? Now there are devices made of synthetic material which you can put in the edge of a door so that when it closes, it won't slam all the way, giving your child the chance to escape. These come in different colors so you can purchase one that can be camouflaged easily. Your door won't have to suffer, and your child can grow up with ten complete fingers!

One of the best child safety creations out there are the small on/off safety type locks. You can just attach this to your appliances quickly and without drawing notice to it. The other neat thing about this type of lock is that they come in a wide variety of colors so getting them to blend with your color scheme shouldn't be too much of a problem.

You can have a home that reminds your guests you're not a full-time kindergarten teacher and that style and safety can blend very well when you try.