balcony safety

[ICmom]

I'm afraid to put furniture out on our balcony because I fear my 3 yr old son will climb up on it as a way to "see better everything down there" by the railing. We wouldn't intentionally leave him out there alone of course, but sometimes the door gets left opened and you never know. Has anyone found a good solution for this problem? I'd really like to use our balcony more.

 

[loupou]

Balcony safety

Hi,

I would suggest that unless you are VERY careful about keeping the balcony door closed (we did the broomstick thing when they were toddlers) forgo the furniture, or keep it folded up inside the house and only bring it out on a as-needed basis.

The other alternative (if it's fairly small) is to completely enclose the balcony in metal bars. This has the advantage of keeping thieves out as well as children in. The disadvantage is that it doesn't look very nice and is expensive.

We live in a 5th floor flat and are only now *begining* to think of taking the bars off our windows, because before that I was afraid that the kids would climb to see out and fall out. They are 9 and 7 now.

 

[Heth]

My 3.5 year old figured out how to unlock our balcony doors. We put a safety chain lock from one door to the other. It's up very high so there's no way the kids can reach it and if the doors get inadvertently opened, it doesn't leave enough of a gap for them to get through.

 

[ggrizzy]

i have a 3yr old who knows how to open the plastic gate i have to prevent him from entering the kitchen (it's a lift and push type) however he still hasn't figured out how to open the baby dan gate that i installed (our balcony doors slide open to about 5 ft and this is the only gate i found which could fit this opening!) so far, we've been able to leave the balcony doors open as wide as we want to take advantage of the breeze and yet still feel safe... (we got the baby dan from mothercare and it's available in 3 colours)

 

[JennyB]

If your balcony is deep enough for furniture to be stored away from the railing, you could try securing furniture together to prevent it being dragged to the railing. Chairs could be stacked and tied together with a bicycle lock, for instance. Just an idea.