What do to about toddlers getting into your VCR?

[Yengol]

My 2 1/2 year old son recently tried putting a tape in my VCR sideways, causing some damage to the mechanism. Fortuately I was able to pull the cover off the thing, remove the tape and successfully repair the VCR.

Has anyone got any suggestions how to prevent this from happening? Next time he might try a peanut butter sandwich, or worse... I have seen some plastic guards that you can put on the VCR, for sale on the internet. Anyone tried one of these things?

[Yvonne Belisle]

I used a guard for a while. It worked for a while then they figured out how to get it out. I just had to move mine up higher.

[*Rain*]

Toddlers are ingenious, so your best bet like Yvonne says is to move it out of the way if possible. My friend's little 'un managed to push the guard into the machine so she couldn't get it out.

[Yengol]

What sort of VCR guard was it? I have seen two types, one that just covers the tape slot and another that covers the whole VCR.

[*Rain*]

I've only ever seen the ones that cover tape slot. I think the cover for the whole thing may be the best idea.

[~*Ginger*~]

I don't know about anyone else's little 'monkey's', but mine could nearly scale the walls!
No matter how high I'd put stuff, they'd find some way to climb up and get 'whatever'.

Hang it from the ceiling!!!!

[Hærfest Leah]

Well we don't use a vcr anymore but we keep all equipment like that up high on top of our bigscreen. We've never had a problem and they'd have to scale the tv to get to them which if I saw means ass busting.

[Ceres]

We taught our kids how to use it properly when they showed an interest. Everytime we were going to put a tape in, we would call the little one in to be the one to do it and we would show them how to do it. Then we would tell them not to try it without help because it might break it. This worked with two out of my three children. One was the mechanical tinkering sort and was playing with the equipment to learn about it and wasnt really interested in doing it correctly or not breaking it.
With him, we had to spend an inordinate amount of time exploring the electronic equipment which, not being a tinkering sort myself, I found very dull.

[LadyTrinity]

We have an ancient VCR which no longer has the black outter shell so it looks like the silver mucles of a robot :rolleyes: My son wants to stick tapes it in or even his fingers. I dont mind that he puts tapes inside it.. but when it wants to shove his fingers all the way inside I get supper :aburst: mad.
One time he was fine but is 2 fingers were sticking in the slot and he was whining and I freaked thinking his fingers got caught but when I checked.. they really werent _tsk_ . I tell him DYLAN NO! and usually he listens so Im not overly worried about it like I used to when he didnt know what NO meant :floating:

[Zoritsa_Nepenthe]

We taught our kids how to use it properly when they showed an interest. Everytime we were going to put a tape in, we would call the little one in to be the one to do it and we would show them how to do it. Then we would tell them not to try it without help because it might break it. This worked with two out of my three children. One was the mechanical tinkering sort and was playing with the equipment to learn about it and wasnt really interested in doing it correctly or not breaking it.
With him, we had to spend an inordinate amount of time exploring the electronic equipment which, not being a tinkering sort myself, I found very dull.
We did that with our oldest,and it seemed to help.He stopped putting things that didn't belong in the VCR and only put tapes in.Of course,we were ALWAYS made to watch movies after that :lol: but at least the VCR was safe from small objects.

[Yvonne Belisle]

I had one that covered the slot. I have never seen the ones that block the whole thing. My youngest is an extream monkey. For fun at three he would use my cane to swing naked over the stairs doing a Tarzan yell and drop on some unsuspecting couch sitter. If I could lock things up it would be easier.

[Amethyst Rose]

We don't use a vcr anymore, havent in years. However all our electronic equipment (tuner, cable box, dvd player) are within Quintin's reach, and all have lights and dials and buttons to push. Over time he's mostly learned just to not touch them..... a lot of nos have been said, a lot of time outs given, and some hands have been smacked. He very rarely goes near them now, and when he does I can tell he's just doing it to test me.

[kblackthorne]

We're going to be getting an "entertainment center" for all that stuff, with doors. Then we're going to secure the doors like we would any cupboard.

[Semele]

The only VCR we have left is in the girls' play room. So far, they usually just point at it and scream when they want a movie in or whatever! They may bring the tape to me. Trinity has expressed some interest in it and tends to climb so we are having to watch her closely to make sure she isn't climbing up there.

Toddlers are very stubborn and have a general absence of fear. There is a reason why this age is a common age for accidents. They literally need a pair of human eyes on them all the time. Good thing us parents come equiped with like eye-ball skin!

[Hearthwitch]

Putting it up high is my suggestion. We showed our boys how to put a tape in the right way. Still didn't stop my oldest from getting it in his head that a peanut butter sandwich (yup it did happen!) and a picture into the VCR. Luckily that VCR was fixable (he was 2 at the time and that VCR still works, he's 16 now!).

[Patriciaj]

We taught our kids how to use it properly when they showed an interest. Everytime we were going to put a tape in, we would call the little one in to be the one to do it and we would show them how to do it. Then we would tell them not to try it without help because it might break it. This worked with two out of my three children. One was the mechanical tinkering sort and was playing with the equipment to learn about it and wasnt really interested in doing it correctly or not breaking it.
With him, we had to spend an inordinate amount of time exploring the electronic equipment which, not being a tinkering sort myself, I found very dull.

I agree with this.

[Sara]

We had the same problem with our youngest child playing with the VCR, only he once put a pop tart in it and next was a PB&J. We eventually just put it out of his reach.
Amazingly, the VCR still works!!!