Some friends had this same problem with their young geek who flitted around their tv controls like a moth to flame. As the tv must remain in its present location, they had to find a something to prevent their wee technophile from the on/off and channel buttons.
With pure hacker ingenuity they broke the prongs off two electric outlet covers and duct taped them over the raised buttons. Voila! Mini-AV geek foiled!
My son could not resist TV buttons as well, so I put a clear acrylic photo frame (I think it was 5 x 7) in front of the buttons. The large part where the picture goes went under the TV and the small part went in front of the buttons. It worked well for the TV but I had no solution for the DVD player. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteYay... martha's solution will work great for my TV buttons, which are all in a line. Fortunately everything else is behind doors.
ReplyDeleteOur TV has a setting for this very purpose, called lock front panel buttons or something. Dig around in the menu options and see what you can find.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's usually not too difficult just to open up the TV and disconnect the buttons. Of course, I have an engineering degree, so "not too difficult" is a relative term. Also, keep in mind that there are parts in there that can give you a severe shock even when unplugged, so don't do this if you don't know what to avoid. However, you might be able to get an electronics-savvy friend to help you out.
This reminded me of something I saw at Ask Moxie. All the references to small engineers in the comments made me think you might be able to contribute usefully. I hope that doesn't come across as a veiled insult, as it isn't intended that way. I think you're great at holding in mind both that:
ReplyDeleteRanger isn't bad when he takes things apart, its just what he enjoys doing.
It doesn't mean its always ok for him to do this. Sometimes it's not safe; sometimes it's wildly inconvenient for you.
Anyway, I enjoy both blogs, and have a lot of respect for both families, and thought you might be able to help out over there.
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2007/09/qa-toys-for-a-2.html
Safety 1st makes a clear hard plastic cover for the TV/DVD/VCR buttons that babies find so irresistable. It's a little more expensive than Martha's ingenious idea, but it covers more area.
ReplyDeleteWe bought a very long plastic cover from babies r us. Made especially for this problem.
ReplyDeleteWe turn the the TV and DVD player off at the outlet so our 15 month old is less likely to hurt himself or the equipment when he plays with the buttons. This only works because we don't watch TV while he's awake and because the outlest is practically impossible for him to get to (but we can reach it relatively easily).
ReplyDeletemilk bottle tops would work too.
ReplyDelete