Gadgets and Gizmos a-plenty

Okay so maybe this suburban Mom HAD to sneak part of the lyrics to the song Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid to the post title, but I do have a point other then making you sing to yourself the rest of the song. My son likes gadgets, gizmo's and whatever else is electronic. Not sure if this is a toddler loved thing across the world or if I am one of the lucky few that has to hide electronics to keep from having melt downs.

Pumpkin loves playing with anything that has buttons, knobs, etc., Never mind the Toys R Us explosion of flashing, noisy and ridiculous over priced toys in our house that is just for his pleasure. He ignores them for the most part. He wants to inspect everything that is gadget like and because of that, my (or my husbands) gadgets have suffered a great deal. Yes we can hide them (which we do) or tell him "no touch" (which we do), but its hard taking something away that won't harm or hurt the child when he is so into inspecting and exploring his new found gadget. I am all for exploration as a Mom, but I do have my limits. Our remote now rattles with broken plastic pieces inside and we have to baby proof even more so with things like plug in fire alarm/carbon monoxide detectors because we would like them to actually work. Is this just a toddler fascination? A male gadget fascination? Or what?

I am sure I am not the first or last Mom whose baby runs away with the remote and promptly hides it while something inappropriate (too much info on Discovery Health) is on while watching Mommy scrambling to find the remote and then finally turning the television off manually to shield toddler eyes. I would just like some peace in not wondering who Pumpkin has accidentally called this time and wondering how long the phone has been off the hook and wondering what conversations people overheard (there is a downfall on having cordless phones around the house). I just wonder how many Moms, how many parents go through this same thing? Do you turn over your over sized calculators because your child is interested or perhaps old remotes hoping that your usual remote can be finally left alone?

I am not trying to complain. This post isn't about that, although I am sure it sure sounds like it. I know I can hide things, or tell Pumpkin "no". I have and will continue to do so, but I also want him to explore things that interest him. I guess I have to walk a fine line with what is okay to have and what is not okay to have for my sanity and so I can have private conversations without checking to see if the phone has dialed someone first.