Baby Safety Tips for Crafting WAHM

This post is sponsored by Owlet Baby Care. #ad

I hope you had the chance to check out the Top 5 Baby Bath Safety Products that Tutus and Heels shared yesterday. Today, I’m excited to share with you my Baby Safety Tips for Crafting WAHM’s. Nearly 12 years ago, I left my full-time job in an office to be a full-time stay at home mom. At the time I had two boys, my husband was nearly graduated from college, and he was headed into the workforce. I was excited to be able to stay home with our boys. I never thought that I’d be a working mom again, but I have found myself working again, and this time it’s a little different. I work from home. I’ve been working from home for a few years doing craft blogging, but last year I was approached about working for another blogger as a virtual assistant. I decided to take that position, which was a huge blessing during my pregnancy (I could still do it while sick in bed!). A few months ago, I took on another client doing the same thing for her. As I have been learning how to navigate through the challenges of working from home, I’ve also had to be aware of my baby and taking care of him and my other four boys while trying to stay on top of the tasks I need to complete. Some might think that it would be a dream to work from home, but I find it challenging to make sure my baby is safe and getting all the things done that I need to.

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Since September is Baby Safety Month, I’ve put together a list of ways to make sure that my baby is safe while I work from home, and thought I’d share it with you, just in case there are other work-at-home crafting moms that might be looking for tips as well.

BABY GATE. Since all of my older boys are in school all day, it’s just me and the baby. My office/craft room is a loft right at the top of our stairs, so a baby gate is a must! My baby loves to play near where I’m working, and while he isn’t quite crawling, he does roll all over, so I have to keep the area safe.
CORDS. Because I have a few different crafting machines, one thing I always make sure of is that the cords are out of reach for my baby. Whether it’s my laptop, sewing machine, foil applicator machine, or electronic die cutting machine, I don’t want him grabbing the cords and pulling the heavy machine down on him, so I keep the cords tucked away. This goes for anything in the house, not just the craft room as well.
CLEAN FLOOR. I can be messy in the craft room at times, so I like to keep the floor vacuumed so my little one isn’t picking up pieces of paper or other scraps off of the floor to chew on. We all know that everything goes straight in their mouths.
ANCHOR FURNITURE. In my craft room, I have several pieces of furniture to hold craft supplies. Some of these are tall, and other pieces are not, but it’s important to make sure that they are anchored to the wall, so there is no chance of them tipping over onto my baby.
KEEP SUPPLIES OUT OF REACH. I have a large shelf in my craft room that holds a lot of my supplies. My older boys know that they don’t touch that stuff, but my baby will be curious and into everything, I’m sure. I’ve organized the shelf so that the stuff that is within his reach isn’t stuff that can hurt him. Even better would be to have doors on the shelf so he can’t get to the stuff, but right now, I don’t have doors.
KEEP SHARP OBJECTS OUT OF REACH. I keep all of my scissors and sharp objects up on top of one of the tables in my craft room. They are where my older boys can get to them if they need them, but out of reach from the baby.
MONITOR. While I do spend a lot of time in my craft room, occasionally while my little man is napping, I head out to the garage to work on/build stuff. The Owlet Baby Care, which is designed to alert you (using Bluetooth technology and your cell phone) if your baby stops breathing, is the perfect monitor for this!
HOT ITEMS. I have several items that I use in my craft room that get hot. My hot glue gun, foil applicator machine, and even my iron. I make sure when I use these tools that I keep them away from the edge of the table and I also make sure the cords are out of reach from my baby.