Glad for this thread!
Cruising with my sister and she is upset that her husband booked a verandah. My nephew is 7 and my sister is so worried about him going on the verandah by himself. Will share this with her, and hopefully it will ease her mind, at least a little bit!!
A 7 year old is still going to have a hard time with the lock and handle.
I hope it helps! I don't know why more people don't seem to be concerned with this.
Because we know how stinkin' hard it is to actually open the door.
I think that my sister is more worried that if her older kids go on the verandah that the 7 year old will too and that the temptation to climb or lean over will be there. I think her kids would follow her rules if she says "no verandah without parents", but I think she just has that fear.
So it's not an alone fear but a sibling thing? As the oldest of 5, I say that the olders get to be involved in conversations about maybe NO kids being allowed on the balcony alone.
And if they have the table taken off the balcony there's no way he can lean over.
My son figured out cabinet and drawer locks way before he was 2. The only thing he didn't work out were the over the knob locks, so I had them outside the bathrooms and inside our shared bedroom. He could not get in the bathrooms alone then. I gated off the kitchen. We had nothing he could drag anywhere to stand on. The moment he climbed up his highchair we got rid of the highchair. Turned out I had a near transfusable iron level that no one told me about, but then I only knew that I had zero energy and I had to just avoid situations since I couldn't trust that I'd move fast enough to stop a situation in progress.
When we moved when he was two and we had an open plan (boo) living dining kitchen room area, I was with him always. I out the knob covers on the inside of the outer door and gave him access to the lower bathroom; if he was downstairs I was always downstairs. We had stairs there and ultimately I realized that gating them at either end wouldn't work for him, so again, I was with him always. He was too good with those locks to be left alone. The knob covers worked because they require a bigger hand and some strength. Thankfully he never figured out using two hands, but again, I was always there.
If we had cruised then and I knew he could figure out the locks, I would be with him always. But again, it's not just turning the lock knobs. It's complicated and heavy as well.
Start over again.
