Glass and porcelain or not, the attention span of toddlers is only a couple of minutes. Even in a safe but not familiar environment, you'll have to watch them all the time. They're explorers. That's how they learn. For a couple of years, you won't be able to relax when you're going somewhere because you have to teach your child how to behave in all kinds of situations. And learning these rules is way harder (if not impossible!) if you're only visiting child proof places. So go see places and adjust your toddlers to the world - not the other way around!

I can understand making some requests if it’s a close family member you visit very often, or if they babysit your kid at their house. But family members you only occasionally see or your friends, I wouldn’t expect or ask. But I guarantee I’ll be hovering over my kid to make sure he doesn’t get hurt. Now even in the case of close family you see often, I wouldn’t expect baby proofing. And, if I did request certain things I’d be happy to supply the materials (gates, plug covers, etc) and help them sort out what might be good things to consider putting away or out of reach. If they aren’t willing I wouldn’t force it, but my time spent there will be with my kid not the family members then so I hope they get that.

Then don't f-ing come to my house. The world isn't going to baby-proof the itself for you.

"Entitled parent expects others to parent their children, because they can't be bothered." There, fixed your headline for you. And yes, I have a 4 Yr old boy.. Do I expect friends to spend money they shouldn't have to when we go to their house to visit? No. Do I fully expect to have to keep an extra eye on my toddler when visiting their house? Yes, I do, just like I do when going anywhere with them. She even said "wreaking havoc" in the article. So you're fully admitting that you're unable to parent properly? I call entitled gaslighting on her attitude.

When my grandchildren come to visit, I spend all of about five minutes putting fragile and potentially dangerous things away. While the OP came across as bit obnoxious in the post, I think that's all she wanted and I don't actually think it's an unreasonable thing to ask. If it's too much work then just tell the mom or dad when you invite them that it's difficult to put absolutely everything away. Some children might still be okay but others will not - the parents have to decide.

Um no, teach the child to respect other peoples stuff; everything isn't a playground for your little one.

I don't have any kids, but when my SIL and my mom brought my niece with them on their visit I made sure to put all the breakables higher up or in another room. Took hardly any time and made life easier on everyone. If she just showed up on her friends doorstep it would be different, but if you're inviting someone and their kids over, just move stuff to safe spots real quick. If you aren't willing to do that, then don't send the invite. There are plenty of other ways you can visit the parent friend.

The fastest land animal on Earth is a toddler who's just been asked "What's that in your mouth?"

I mean if young kids were coming to my home I might do some stuff to make it a little safer, like if I had weapons obviously would lock extremely dangerous things like those up. I might do things like put my pets in another room of they aren't used to kids etc, but unless I'm running a daycare or the child will be at my house very often, I'm not changing my house around for a child

My solution is I no longer invite friend with toddlers to my house. When we meet I go to their house, and bring the food and drinks( even if we end splitting the cost). Their house is already childproofed to their standards and if anything happens (tantrum, kid gets food all over them, etc) they are already home. Also, they avoid traffic which I been told, can be a challenge with small kids in the car.

First it's your kid YOU watch it. Second, I'm not changing my house to let you be lazy. And lastly I'm not inviting anyone with toddlers

I invited my cousin and her family over for a holiday meal. It was only her that ended up coming. The more I think about it when she was there, the more I felt at ease knowing there's not a 3 year old getting into my prized Archie comics, digging in the plants, pulling on electrical cords and getting into my toxic oil paint supplies. My place is absolutely not toddler proof. I have had a child and know what is involved in baby/child proofing a home. It's not just putting away a few things. You have to get down on their level and look at all the things that could be harmful in their reach or potential reach. Even then you still have to watch them because there is no such thing as 100% child proofing a home. If a parent is expecting the host to do it all so the parent doesn't have to watch them much, then I would sooner uninvite them or give them the ol' thigh slap"time to go" routine.

The only sure way to child-proof your home are dead-bolt locks on the front and back doors. (They can't reach the window sills at that age, but keep those locked too.)

Forget the breakables! I hide my non-guest snacks and school lunches stuff, the toilet plungers and brushes, all of the console controllers and TV remotes, and our cats, because those kids have zero animal boundaries; I don't care if they get scratched, I care if they stress our animals out.

If I invite someone with a toddler to my home then of course I will make some adjustments to accommodate them. Small children are endlessly curious and can hurt themselves or damage stuff as they explore. Of course you make your space safe and comfortable for your guests to the extent that you can. In what parts of the world is this controversial?

Do people not teach their kids to not touch other people's things? I taught my son to behave and he knew from about 13 months old to not run around like a banshee at other people's places. I would also bring over something new to entertain him while I visited. Parents these days are lazy

Annnd equally split opinions on here. Quelle surprise! She’s asking generally for a little consideration, primarily from family members who insist on seeing the LO but aren’t willing to put any effort AT ALL into protecting said child or their own belongings. Is it her responsibility to parent her child? Of course! Does this mean that all other adults in the vicinity bear no responsibility whatsoever? Ask yourself this: would you watch a toddler run into the road and do nothing because, “not your responsibility”? Would you stand by and watch them drown, choke, drink something they shouldn’t, because it’s HER responsibility to prevent it? No? Then why wouldn’t you spend ten minutes on preventative measures just in case? I’m child free by choice, not especially keen on rugrats, but I’m never going to live with the consequences of being too effing selfish and lazy to put it a tiny bit of effort. Eff off with your “entitled parents” cr@p, this is simple decency.

YIKES! maybe you should be a better parent and teach your child to behave while not at home. Just a thought.

I never ask anyone to move anything I pay attention to him and teach him and bring his own toys. This mom sounds rediculous.

Tik Tok is such a load of rubbish.

The problem starts with the people that insist you to visit and don't take a no as an answer. And because it's your family you eventually give in and visit despite knowing better.

Never. I have a guesthouse and only once did the family room have a toddler that was one of those "grab everything' ones. Mum started to move things. I immediately put them back and asked they keep the child supervised. ONLY once in 13 years, which means the vast majority of children have been shown the difference of going to someone else's house and different rules apply. Perhaps we only get certain families as you can see in online photos we have a lot of things in our private collection. We also have just one room available for families. That aside, the same has applied with numerous friends that have had numerous children and the parents take care of them and we have never had to worry.

Raise your kids better. Problem solved.

If you want toddlers to visit you need to do some level of child-proofing. It is ridiculous to expect parents to spend the whole visit following their kids around because they can't be more than 2 feet away from them. So the parents can spend the whole visit "teaching their child boundaries" with no time to relax and talk to you, or you can do some basic level of child-proofing. Third option, end up with broken stuff and know you have only yourself to blame since you couldn't be bothered to put it out of reach of little hands.

As someone who were up walking at nine months old, EVERYONE in the family & friends made sure i could not get my hands on breakable stuff or stuff objects in my mouth if my parents came over with me :). Appearently my siblings were not as bad as me.

I was all primed and ready to call her an expletive, but she actually makes sense. She’s not demanding random people babyproof their house for a visit from her majesty and prince(ss) toddler, she’s just saying people should either use their brain a little or come over to their place. It was definitely something I considered and adapted a little for when asking friends over with their toddler the first time (irreplaceable or dangerous stuff out of reach and strategically placed objects limiting easy access to stove/sockets/forbidden cupboards). The parents were still visibly stressed, so yeah, I kinda get it.

Nah it is your responsibility to keep an eye on your little mayhem machine when you take it out of the privacy of your home.