It's about to get ugly (literally)

Just be thankful that you haven’t got cats as well!

Have you tried Supernanny ?

I lived in a very strict househould.  I used my Dads radiogram and reel to reel, very carefully though as there would have been consequences. I made every effort to leave everything in a nice tidy condition. That way I got to use it again.  It's a learning exercise for life really.

It's enough to choose between contributing to life on Earth or to supporting audio business. I have no kids, so although I may regret that no child of mine will ever cure SLA or build perennial peace between Israel and Palestine, I am relieved to know that no child of mine will ever build a toy bomb or become a mass murderer. As for PMC speakers, perhaps your three kids are trying to convey a message to you....

Interesting post. I had hifi when my children were born and they never touched or damaged any componant. It was always on display and easily accessible. It was never off limits they just weren't bothered. They weren't perfect, aged 19 & 17 they held a party in our newly renovated and decorated living room and the carpet never recovered and the house was a sticky mess but the hifi was the same as when we left it. No solutions I'm afraid just shows how different children can be.

Your music will still be enjoyable, even if the setup is no longer optimized. I have just changed my loudspeakers to a different model with a lower center of gravity and the ability to go near the wall to lessen the risk of a collision between speakers and kids.

Not what I wanted to do, but the right thing nonetheless. And guess what, listening is still a pleasure . Enjoy both your kids and your system and stop worrying, life is better with both around.

PG posted:

Interesting post. I had hifi when my children were born and they never touched or damaged any componant. It was always on display and easily accessible. It was never off limits they just weren't bothered. They weren't perfect, aged 19 & 17 they held a party in our newly renovated and decorated living room and the carpet never recovered and the house was a sticky mess but the hifi was the same as when we left it. No solutions I'm afraid just shows how different children can be.

They're not too bad when it comes to pawing the hifi with the exception of top fastening speaker spikes.

The issue is the cramped living conditions and having speakers poke out into a room. If the space between is filled snugly, the whole thing becomes a whole block and less likely to be dinged.

You wanted them. Now you’ve got them.

Suck it up, matey... ????

All kids are different, some more inquisitive then others....

I would either leave your system as it is or do as you have suggested... either way just enjoy the music when you can

before you know it your kids will be growing up and leaving home....

enjoy them well you can and worry less about  the Hi-fi .....

Get a 3D printer, then design and print caps to go over the knurled nuts on the top of the spikes; you could even add padlocks! 

Maybe try talking to them about it...and please don't touch as daddy will be angry....just a thought . lol.

I'm well into the kids-are-out-of-the-house phase.  Enjoy them while they're with you . . . you'll still have music to listen to . . . when they're grown and gone you can re-arrange the parlor.

We were either a vicious mother and father to our babes or were lucky but we never had real problems with them meddling. OK it didn’t take them long to find the volume knob. When it scared the life out of them and us once or twice they soon learned. Gentle discipline and a fear of what might (but never did) happen to them seemed to work for us. Rich 

Instill some fear of the system.

Select something noisy, get them to sit in front of the speakers and wind the volume up as far as it'll go.  

I empathise entirely. The tweeters on my Dynaudios proved to be magnets for my kids' fingers, easily remedied with the  end of a Henry vacuum but after coming home from work one day to find a crumpet in the drawer of the CDX2 I decided enough was enough and put the whole lot up in the loft where it remained for 8 years until this Summer. It's not just your kids you have to worry about, it's friends' kids as well and I found it too stressful and it wasn't fair on the children who really didn't know any better.

I have only the 1 rack but it's between my speakers, mainly because the room design dictates it. I know it's not ideal but it's a compromise and if your kids and their friends are young these are the sort of short-term compromises you're into I'm afraid.

My solution was extreme but in your situation I'd probably leave the racks as is and get a pair of speakers which can be wall mounted. If that's too extreme then maybe a move to a different room which is "off limits" to the children or they wouldn't naturally go in. 

The kids have little to interest. My ekdest is 3 and knows it's off limits. 

The problem is, in a small flat the kids will play wherever they can find room and currently between the speakers is where they like to play and store lego. Hence many clumsy dings and tipped speakers.

The AV sub has become a puzzle storage shelf. If I fill that space with the hifi, the cannot get in there to have clumsy accidents. Other furniture will shift a bit closer to the outer sides of the speakers. This should reduce the access to the hifi itself (which they don't touch) and the soeakers from 3 sides to 1 (front).

Incidentally, the other sub in the bedroom is smaller and has become a stool/nappie changing paraphernalia shelf. You use what you can when options are limited.

I had the same issues with my 3 kids.

I have now got my speakers well protected when not in use using custom made padded vinyl covers, and they look good too.

https://imgur.com/6pMikaL

Did they already use the bass reflex ports of your PMC Twenty5.23 as a garage entry?

I removed a lot of Lego from my BW CM5's recently.

Consider Ovators, these are loudspeakers designed having a family live in mind :-)

It is difficult if space is limited and there are competing needs. Often you see on house programes that people want more space when they could just edit what they have. When you have a space for living, listening and playing then lots of competing requirements. Personally I would look at what is in the room and what is essential and what could go into storage or be disposed of. Also it might be worth sacrificing the speakers for somthing more compact and wall mounted until things change. You can always store speakers. I love floorstanding speaker, but our new home has the living room on the first floor and has a very hollow suspended floor and limited width. So I've had to go for small bookshelf speakers mounted on a nice metal and glass shelf. It's not exactly what I would like but is very enjoyable until we move again.

Get Ovators!!!!!!

I don't have kids but I have a totally manic border collie who hurtles round the lounge like a dervish.

If he bumps into the Ovators - he comes off worse.

Industrial strength hi fi.

Very true, Numpty.

I always tell my wife that the kids will heal after a collision with a Naim amp or the Ovators. Thats a good start of a serious discussion.

I have spotless Ovators and the veneer of my B&W loudspeakers are damaged all over the place.

In the unlikely case they get damaged - I'll consider concrete loudspeakers.

Ah, don't forget: Nac A5 can be used as a whip. Much better than K20 or any TQ loudspeakercable :-)

Glad to know it's just not me. Stands between speakers is really not that big a deal. However, it still might not solve your problem. 

Now that your speakers are all beaten up, you don't have to worry about your speakers getting beaten up anymore. :-)

In a few years time, I'll hire a guy for a few days to restore the pianolack (of various loudspeakers and my ... piano) and the loudspeakers. The guy doing the tuning of my piano said that this is well possible.

Since we have kids, I decided that anything which I buy is immediately wasted. This has given me peace of mind. In our busy household it is more or less the only way to stay mentally healthy.

Some funny responses. [@mention:17757776930523932] is on the money. The speakers are functionally perfect but visually wrecked. My main concern is just protecting the kids and the floor now. 

We intend to sell this place in the next 18 months before the kids have devalued it too much. 

As for speakers on the wall, nah. I'd rather have the speakers I like but compromise on rack placement for a while. I have a feeling that between now and when we build a new house, things will get worse before they get better. There is likely to be a period in a rental property between those periods of which, in Japan, rental properties generally have no earthing (it just isn't a thing here. I had to pay about GBP1000 to have at least one earthed mains socket installed in each room where we are now during the initial construction).

I'm not of the mind that the hifi should be packed up and the kids enjoyed (and at 1 and 3, anyone who says they enjoy that time has merely blocked the trauma from their mind). Without some grown up escape, I'll go mad, end up resenting the kids, and no one will be happy. I'm just trying to live with both as best as possible.

The post is mainly a bit of fun. I'm doing the re-racking this weekend if I can. I think the pics that will follow of the hifi before kids, the hifi now with kids, and then eventual ugly re-racking should be worth a chuckle and a knowing sigh for some readers.

I reckon you are doing well if you get any time to listen to music at engaging volume! With two young kids in a flat that can be a problem. Frankly I find that a problem with teenagers in a large house - there are always competing demands on the living room.

As someone else said, I don't think being strict with your own kids really helps. My kids were respectful of our hifi. It was friends that poked the drivers in on my speakers...

Well I work from home and have the place to myself in the daytime so I get lunch breaks to kick back. But there are sometimes whole weeks that go by with only the office system in use. 

I find in our place, we have taken zero child proofing precautions for most everything and the kids are fine. Conversely, other people's kids who always live in highly child proofed homes (we're talking about all table edges covered in foam and stuff like that) always just about kill themselves in our flat.

When I'm inclined, I just rock out with the kids in the room on a weekend. They struggle with English so if they pick up four letter words from my music, I'll even take that as a small victory.