Who has little'uns? And what is the best way to keep them away from the keyboard?

[Sesshi]

Kids are adorable. Until among other things, they discover the favourite past-time of infants left near a laptop... "Let's pull all the keys off and try and chew on some of them".

I can think of all sorts of ways to keep them away actually, but I wondered if there were any effective solutions already on the market. A simple rubber cover over the keyboard wouldn't work because they'd pull that off and then start on the keys.

 

[heehee]

Tell them not to touch it?

 

[Steven Jackson]

Razor blades between the keys? Dirty needles? Poison?

 

[shecky]

a leash and a stake in the ground?

 

[wordmunger]

I bet a big rubber band around the whole computer (while shut) would work.

 

[RedHook]

Elevation works for me. Much like the coffee cup and the candles, the laptop sits on top of the TV box, and I stand up to use it when she's awake.

If all else fails, I dig out an old keyboard and give her that to bang on.

 

[Steven Jackson]

Break all their fingers.

 

[mkrishnan]

Mmmm, how old?

I think with infants, you're not going to do much better than keeping the laptop off the floor and away with them. Telling them to not touch it is probably not realistic. Otherwise, perhaps you can use one of the skins you were talking about, but carefully tape / glue it in place or something, so that it cannot be easily torn off?

But then, if you're talking about having the strength and coordination to rip off laptop keys, how old is this child?

(EDIT: No infants, but elevation is the key for my kitten....)

 

[dan-o-mac]

keeping the lid closed might help.

On secend thought, what about an alarm.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21348

 

[atszyman]

Kids are adorable. Until among other things, they discover the favourite past-time of infants left near a laptop... "Let's pull all the keys off and try and chew on some of them".

I can think of all sorts of ways to keep them away actually, but I wondered if there were any effective solutions already on the market. A simple rubber cover over the keyboard wouldn't work because they'd pull that off and then start on the keys.

Your kid's pull the keys off the keyboard? Never had that problem....

My daughter loves to hit the keys on the keyboard. I had at one point showed her the CardBus ejector button and that was enough of a distraction until about a month or two ago. Up until then she was content to wander up the the laptop while I was using it and just push that button in and out.

Lately she's decided the keyboard is more fun... I even caught her at one point raking a hair clip over the keys... I was not too happy about that...

Typically now I just tell her "No" and let her pout for awhile... sometimes I'll help her type in an innocent website if I can find one....

 

[yoak]

I make sure the table is so close to the sofa so she can´t manage to climb up and start hammering the keyboard. She loves punching away on both my keyboards

 

[nutts]

How about a Griffin Elevator, along with a wireless keyboard and mouse?
Then you can move the keyboard and mouse out of the way when you're not there, without the worry of cables.

Plus the fact they don't have cables mean they can't pull it (followed closely by your laptop) onto the floor

I don't have kids, but this is my setup.

 

[emw]

I've found the best way is to tell them you want them to touch the keyboard as much as possible and that by doing so they're really helping you out.

Mine haven't touched it in months.

 

[mikes63737]

Maybe one of those $10 kiddie laptops? I don't think the buttons came out of mine (easily) when I had one.

 

[Sly]

Buy them an old keyboard to play with, give it to them when they want to play with Daddys computer. The old Apple ADB keyboards are great for this, they are bullet proof and make a lovely click clack sound which my son loves.

 

[atszyman]

Buy them an old keyboard to play with, give it to them when they want to play with Daddys computer. The old Apple ADB keyboards are great for this, they are bullet proof and make a lovely click clack sound which my son loves.

I tried that for awhile... cleaned off an old gateway keyboard and ripped out the cord. It worked for about a year.... now she knows that it doesn't do anything and the wife threw it out...

 

[myshoeshurt]

My little one is a cat. I keep him away by endlessly picking him up and setting him 2 feet away, haha...

Why do cats always want to sleep ON your keyboard anyway?!

 

[BlackMax]

I have several lil'uns and I have one in particular who likes to pull the keys up off of notebook keyboards.

My strategy is to:

1. Shut and/or lock office door when I'm not there
2. Place notebook above their reach and make sure no cables hang down
3. Take notebook with me

Each day I'm amazed at what those lil'uns try to get into, so I've learned not to take any changes.

 

[jimytheassassin]

Could you have it blare an annoying noise when it's woken up from sleep(kids trying to pry keys off) unless a password is entered?

 

[Peterkro]

Electric fence.

 

[Antares]

It may not be too ethical to use on children, but it works. In your situation, you can use an "invisible fence." Basically, it's a dog collar that administers a slight (harmless) shock when the dog approaches a burried line or posts. For your purposes, you can put the collar around a small child or infant and then put the transmitter near the computer. The little one will learn very quickly to stay away. Now, I can't say that I would entirely agree with going this route. However, this is one more option available for you.

 

[skunk]

Pit Bull.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

When it comes to errant tykes and computers, you can't beat barbed wire.

 

[dan-o-mac]

Could you have it blare an annoying noise when it's woken up from sleep(kids trying to pry keys off) unless a password is entered?

Maybe a video demonstration would get your attention, since I said this already.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZNpSKohDaJo

 

[Sesshi]

Gee... thanks for the REALLY helpful suggestions amongst the sensible ones.

I think the Alarm might cause... well, alarm, and I'm not sure I could deal with prolonged wailing on top of the alarm.

Oh well, time for me to think about alternatives I guess.