Living in a small house, we’re constantly on the lookout for new ways to utilize our space more efficiently. One wonderful way that a lot of people have found to save some space is to wall mount their flat panel televisions. While this is a great space saver, mounting a television on your wall instead of just setting it on a piece of furniture can be an extremely important safety step to take as well.
When some people think of safety and their television, their first thought is about the TV getting knocked over and damaged, especially with the easy to tip flat screen TVs. While this is a real concern, even more important is the safety of people, especially children. Approximately 18,900 emergency room visits a year are from injuries with a television that tipped over, and a child is killed every three weeks because of television instability! This should be a frightening statistic to any parent, not just ones with small children.
We have, thankfully, never had to deal with that last horrible statistic, but we have had a family member who, as a young child, was able to tip a television onto himself and sustained injuries. I can’t imagine how it would have changed our family if things had been worse during the incident.
As I mentioned, this isn’t just about families with small children. With large television watching events, such as the Super Bowl that is coming up, it can be easy for large groups getting together to have accidental tip overs even with adults. Of course, it might also happen that your older children will decide to re-enact the action during half time where one bad football pass could put your child into that 18,900 emergency room visits a year statistic.
If you still have a larger, non-flat panel television, you should consider buying a safety strap to latch it to the wall, similar to what is available for pieces of furniture like bookshelves. If you have a flat panel television, you have the opportunity to use a wall mounting system that will increase safety in your home, save you space, and probably look pretty darn cool all at the same time. Bonus!
Now, I know that it can seem a little intimidating to think of trying to mount a television to your wall. However, most wall mounts can be done in just a few steps and use tools that you probably already have at home, such as a stud finder, a drill, and a screwdriver. No need to pay someone to come into your home – you should be able to do it yourself! If you’re really too intimidated by the process or just don’t want to mount your flat screen television to the wall, then you should have a safety strap system on it to protect your family from a possible tipping.
While I could share more statistics with you about the dangers of tip-overs, I will assure you that they are both startling and scary. Of course, the kicker of it is that many of these accidents are also preventable. To read more about these statistics as well as what you can do to protect your family, please go check out TVsafety.org as well as TVsafety.org’s Facebook page and Twitter page.
I’m so excited today to be able to help one of my readers make their television safer for their family. Thanks to SANUS, one of the leaders in television mounting systems, we’ll be giving away one SANUS TV Mount for mounting a flat panel television. (Value of this prize is $100 – $150.)
The giveaway will be open from today through January 29th at 11:59 pm EST. One winner will receive a SANUS TV Mount! The winner will need to respond within 24 hours after being contacted with their name, shipping address, phone number, and their TV brand and model number (so they can receive the appropriate wall mount).
To enter the giveaway, please use the Rafflecopter widget below. Thank you!
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Disclosure: I have been compensated to participate in this campaign through Burst Media. However, I strongly believe in the importance of the safety of families and was happy to participate. The television mount system will be provided through SANUS at no cost to me.
Terms and Conditions of giveaways/sweepstakes on Many Little Blessings
We always keep toys ect… off stairs to avoid falls.
We don’t have any coffee tables or end tables in the living room so no one runs into them and gets hurt.
Kristina Best´s last [type] ..Previous Post
We have cabinet and drawer locks, window sensors, and are in the process of wall mounting all tv’s
The one thing I’ve done in my home is put a special grip tape on the stairs. Since our stairs are tiled I wanted to make sure there was no slipping. Most important is rules, rules, rules. My kids know they are not to use knives, the gas stove (they are both under10), and have a good understanding and respect for electricity. I was surprised to know that so often children are actually killed by these tv’s , thanks for the heads up.
We buy furniture that is solid and low-slung, to decrease tipping over when active little boys scramble over it. We also have an “everybody knows where everybody goes” policy — even for Mom and Dad — so that everyone’s whereabouts are known by all.
Kim´s last [type] ..A Winter Battle Re-enactment
We changed out our corded windows for ones with a wand.
We have baby gates that are on all the stairs. They have been slowly removed for all except the basement stairs as the youngest one has gotten older. We also still use our baby monitor even though the youngest is 2. Often during the day it is left on downstairs so I can hear the kids if they are playing upstairs.
I love the look of the wall mount. Accidents occur so easily–my mom’s neighbor lost their 3 year old when a dresser got pulled over on him!
Baby gates are really helpful for little ones
Outlet covers, cabinet locks, a baby gate…and an eagle eye
We took out our coffee table, too many bumps and bruises! We also have all our outlets covered, and harsh chemicals put up high!
Make sure cords are tied using cord ties to prevent tripping on them.
We use safety gates
we use electrical outlet covers