Wednesday, February 21, 2007

WFMW: Protect TV Buttons from Toddlers

UPDATED to include a picture:













(Shush! Someone has to post the last tip!)

My tip tonight is something I read in a parenting magazine or maybe it was a blog, the point is it was a tip I actually read and used AND it WORKED.

To keep little fingers, the just-over-a-year-old kind, from punching the buttons on your TV, go to Walgreen's and buy a plexi-glass picture frame. One of the smaller ones will do. You know the kind I'm talking about: it's frameless and it props up by itself on a tabletop. OK, so you get one of those and...

...turn it on its back so the large part of it is face down flat. Slide this part under your TV as your husband is lifting it a millimeter or so high but acting like he is Hercules with The World on his back. Have Herc set it down so that the only thing showing is the short part of the frame, which is beautifully positioned in front of the buttons on your TV.

Yuck, I am thinking this WFMW is going to require a picture, which I don't have. And which would take me too long to accomplish at this late hour and I still need to waste some more time online and get this tip on Shannon's site before Thursday.

So visualize, people, and try it if your little ones like to turn off American Idol in the middle of Simon's latest barb or Ryan Seacrest's "out."

For more, and better and probably more useful tips, go to Shannon's and knock yourself out.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would you believe I have thought of this but never could figure out where I could get such a thing? I was always thinking of a metal spare computer part or something like that, just high enough to block the buttons. Course, that would also block the signal from the remote. The plexiglass frame is PERFECT, and I think I even have one! Gonna go dig it up....

Justice Fergie said...

great tip! i read this somewhere too. glad to have found your blog...and thanks for making me not be last :-)

Lei said...

THIS IS GENIUS! Thank you,thank you, thank you....

Mama said...

This would be so much simpler, cost less, and take less time that what I did. I bought one of those thingys for the stove, so little hands don't touch the burners. It was a plastic shield that had kinda a double stick tape that taped the frame down and then you had to put the plastic just right in the frame and make sure it was the right length....etc. I'll remember the picture frame for future use. And it would also be much easier to remove when they "graduate" from this stage to the stage when they can turn off the TV when you ask them to.

Jen said...

What a wonderful idea...I will have to get one of these...my lil one loves to turn the tv off alllll the time.

Anonymous said...

This is brilliant! Too late for my "little ones", but an excellent tip to pass on. The only problem I see is that when you lose the remote, you can't get son #1 or #2 to work the buttons for you. (Not that I needed to do this when I was at your house or anything.)

Monica