@Nathalie-Et-Gilles0
(@Laura2592, @Melodie-And-John0 , @Anonymous , @Debra300 @Sarah977 , @Kelly149, @Helen3 , @Helen350, @Lisa723, @Colleen253, @Emilia42 )
Depending on the age and athleticism of the child, I’ve seen children scale or knock down baby gates. I’ve also seen an under four and a five year old, scale a high pool safety gate, with 100% motivation, parents looking the other way, using monkey like toe grips and strong upper arms. The five year old lifted the latch that exposed the entry to the pool to their toddler sibling.
Noting: other children can also be an added unknown hazard when it comes to “fixed” and “non-fixed “ risk controls. Twins can also tag team to create very unsafe situations. You’ve only got to look on Youtube to see “tag” climbing from kids, pulling furniture on themselves.... 🥴
Coming from a WHS background, if it’s not suitable, then any exceptions is not a wise decision. This is not your family coming to stay for Xmas, where the factors are better known.
We don’t know the guests:
We don’t know the kids; we don’t know the competency of the parent skills to supervise. Remembering when people are on holidays, they can by circumstance, be more relaxed and less alert.
- consider the risk without a gate as being high with a frequency of an incident as high with possible high to catastrophic outcome.
- consider the risk with a gate as the “ control measure”. Now the risk may now have changed to a low to medium risk, but the outcome can still be catastrophic. We also don’t know the lay of the floor, walls or the strength and design of the gate.
Likelihood of a consequence, would never be “rare” when children are involved.
Just my thoughts any way....... 💐