Use beanbag chairs as super-squishy baby gates

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By day, I can keep your little ones from breaking shit, by night I can seat four of your favorite gamers!
By day, I can keep your little ones from breaking shit; by night I can seat four of your favorite gamers!

I know, I know, I usually don’t touch baby stuff… but since we talked about couchless living, and I found out a lot of y’all love bean bag chairs, I figured you might love to know of other uses for those squishy seats. Offbeat Mama featured a post about baby-proofing with beanbags and it’s one big ‘ol “great idea” post for those who have kids, or those who entertain kid visitors:

Our daughter walked pretty early at 9 months. She was mobile but super tiny, and definitely didn’t have the cognitive abilities to understand some of the boundaries we wanted to set around our entertainment equipment. We thought it prudent to avoid that fight completely and block her access. However, we found no good baby gate solution. Then I remembered the two giant beanbags we were storing for a friend, and a baby-proofing strategy was born.

It was perfect! The baby loved to climb and play on the beanbags — improving motor skills and mobility with built-in crash pads. I had somewhere comfortable to sit when I wanted to get down to her level. We spent lots of time reading books in a beanbag. Occasionally I would put her in one for a nap, knowing she was in a squishy bucket of safety. She couldn’t touch the television or the entertainment system, and if we wanted to watch a show we could easily see over the beanbags. And we could move them aside for additional seating on movie nights.

Head over to Offbeat Families to read more about beanbag baby-proofing. Or us child-free folks can talk about our other awesome uses for beanbag chairs. Um… got any?

Comments on Use beanbag chairs as super-squishy baby gates

  1. I’m so glad bean bags have popped up again on Offbeat Home! I commented on the Couchless Living post about not having a couch for awhile because of back pain (and a really small living room) and I just found these yogibo things this past weekend. We bought two of the yogi max and it’s awesome. You can make it into a bed, a couch, a chair… I highly recommend it. It’s also great for adult activities. 😉

  2. My friend from university did not have a bed for YEARS. He had 2 big beanbags that he put away in a cupboard each morning. His bedroom was huge and he had so much room to move around, it was like a second lounge and didn’t feel so personal hanging out in his room. It probably did help though that he was a devout Christian with very traditional principles around relationships, so he didn’t exactly have girls over to try and squeeze onto his beanbag.

  3. careful with this. i don’t know if these things are made the same as they used to be but i was kinda banned from being around them as a kid unless supervised b/c my mom was a peds nurse & kids were getting hurt. i don’t remember the details. i think it was suffocation. maybe they altered them since then.

  4. Yes! Love this! We were given a huge (5 feet tall and 2.5 feet wide) gorilla stuffed animal as a very misguided baby gift. My daughter isn’t scared of it so much as she prefers not to touch it so we use it to keep her from climbing the stairs. She’s 2 and it still works. Best weird baby gift ever! Other than outlet covers and locks on the doors with the chemicals, that’s all the baby proofing we have.

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