Have you had a conversation with your children about the garage door? Garage doors are a typical part of life for adults, but children are often fascinated by them. Your residential garage door is loud, large, and moves without anyone getting near it – it isn’t so hard to understand why children find them interesting! This wouldn’t normally be a problem because garage doors are quite safe if they’re treated carefully, but there are cases of garage doors breaking or collapsing, or of their safety features failing. Either of these can be dangerous to inattentive children, and educating your kids about the garage door can literally save lives.
The best place to start with protecting your children from the potential danger is to tell them that the garage door is not a toy. The remotes, buttons, and keypads can all seem fun to children, and since most adults are comfortable walking near garage doors, your kid will probably pick up from you that the door is not dangerous. That couldn’t be further from the truth! Anyone with a child will understand that sometimes they wander away from you, or don’t pay enough attention to their surrounding. If they happen to wander underneath a garage door, it can be hard to see them around cars or other obstacles. You never want to be in a situation where your garage door’s safety features are all that’s protecting your child!
Another simple method to make your garage door much safer is to make sure that any keypad, buttons, or remotes are kept out of the reach of children. If your operation button is high enough on the wall, curious hands won’t be able to reach it – on the same point, if you have clicker remotes that operate your garage door, you never want to leave them anywhere that an idle child could find. If your kid gets the remote, they have total control over opening and closing the door – another potentially hazardous situation. After you have a conversation with your child about safety, make sure to also put your openers out of their reach.
These are the simplest steps you can take to ensure the safety of your children, but there are other steps you can take to child-proof your residential garage door. Read our full blog on childproofing your garage door to learn all the things we recommend, but the most important step is still education! No one has to fear the garage door, but it is heavy enough that being careful is a great idea.