Two year old explores drawers and cabinets.

[GKeith]

My wife and I are having a disagreement on raising our second child.  She is 2 1/2 and has always been allowed to go into lower cabinets.  We made sure that nothing dangerous was in the cabinets.  Now she is starting to go into kitchen drawers and pull out items (and grab items off counters).  My wife will look at what item the child has removed and then decide if she can play with it, whereas I think we should make the drawers and counters off limits.  I want to be consistent so I'm looking for some guidance.

[Sandman2]

I agree with megochick, and the child safety locks make it very easy to enforce.

[megochick101]

It may be fine for now, but what happens one day if your cooking dinner and there is a knife on the counter and she grabs that? Kids are quick and she could grab it in the 5 seconds you are focused on something else. What if she grabs it and cuts herself before you or your wife even realizes she has it? What if she touches the top of a hot stove when she's reaching for the counter?

I have always said no counters, and my son has his own dedicated drawer in the kitchen he can play with and that's it, his drawer is filled with play food and utensils to keep him occupied when i'm cooking. The rest of the drawers and cabinets have child safety locks on them, if my son tries to grab anything off the counter, he gets a warning, if that doesn't work he goes to time out. But since he has his play drawer so he can "cook" with mommy, he tends to leave the counters alone.