Securing furniture to the wall.

There are many things that I read or see that make me so emotional, I feel the need to "make a change". But, I'll be honest, many of these changes I plan on making are short-lived, because they're backed by emotion, and no "drive" to actually do something about it. It's a sad truth. If I actually acted on all the changes I planned on making, I could probably make a big impact on this world.

However, the other day, I stumbled upon a blog post by Love, Light, Laughter and Chocolate, where a mother tells her unbelievably heartbreaking story of having to deal with the loss of her three-year-old daughter. Her daughter died after a piece of bedroom furniture fell on top of her, while the entire family slept. No one heard it happen, and no one saw it coming. I'll let you read her painful story for yourself.

Photo from the Love, Light, Laughter and Chocolate blog,
of the actual dresser that fell over on top of three-year-old
Meg and killed her.

I read this story on New Year's Day morning, and cried my eyes out in our living room. I explained to my husband what had happened to this mother, and told him we had to immediately secure Linna's bedroom furniture to the walls. My husband, thinking this was just another one of my emotional "rants", said that Linna would be fine, and that we didn't need to drill holes in the walls when we are going to be moving in two months. Normally, I'd say he's probably right, but this mother's story about losing her daughter stuck with me, and I needed to make this simple change in our house.

I emailed my husband a link to the mother's story, and another link to a blog explaining a simple and cheap way to secure furniture to walls using L hooks/brackets. Immediately after reading the mother's story, he sent me a text saying "go pick up the L brackets and I will install them tonight". BOTH of us were so emotionally moved by this tragic story, that we actually implemented a change!

The book shelf in Linna's closet that I worry about.

Linna's book shelf is now secured to the wall with L brackets.

We spent all of $4, and 10 minutes of my husband's time, in hopes of preventing a tragedy in our home. Linna has a bookshelf in the closet of her room that she is constantly pulling books off of. It's only a matter of time before she's crawling up it. Installing L brackets/hooks is a cheap and easy way all of us can keep our little ones safe. To be honest, besides putting a rubber-band around some handles on cabinets we don't want Linna getting into, and putting up a baby gate at the top of the stairs, we didn't go "crazy" when it came to baby-proofing in our house. However, securing her bedroom furniture to her walls is just one of those things we had to do, so we can sleep better at night. I really hope you'll read Kimberly's story (Meg's mom) and make this simple change for your little ones in your home!