The school summer break is upon us, so as part of our commitment to making people's lives easier, we look at some of the ways that industrial products can help make the holidays a success.
Even the gentlest corner or the most innocuous table can suddenly be transformed into a playtime ending incident if ran into at a typical toddler speed. As soon as you have heard the tell-tale bang and crying, a bruise the size of an egg has appeared on their head and you have to spend the next two days saying 'He ran into a wall' in a loud voice whenever you are at the park, for fear of other parents thinking you spend your time at home throwing building blocks at his head. Some standard warehouse impact protection profiles could reduce the risk of all this drama, you could even go the whole hog and cover the entire room in a foam wall protector - the only issue now is trying to integrate yellow and black into your interior decorating plans.
What is better than having the kids paint a picture at home? (Obviously, apart from having them do it in someone else's home). Of course, they don’t just want to paint a single picture. Within half an hour, every flat surface in the house is covered in loving recreations of the greatest stars of the late cretaceous period and now suddenly everyone wants lunch. Instead of finding yourself putting an elbow into a still-wet bright orange triceratops whilst trying to make a Dairylea sandwich, you could leave all the masterpieces in a drying rack until they are ready to stick on the fridge.
This one has all kinds of uses - from protecting the carpets from the contents of the sandpit to softening the landing when a particularly daring dismount from a trampoline goes wrong. Heronrib matting is ideal for around the paddling pool and is available by the metre or as a 10m roll.
At the risk of sounding like I grew up in Victorian Britain, I'm sure toys have got larger and more numerous. Suddenly Barbie’s house seems to be the size of an actual semi-detached dwelling and Peppa Pig's family owns so many vehicles, holiday homes and gadgets that I assume Daddy Pig is either a merchant banker or a master criminal. All this stuff has to live somewhere once it gets put away at the end of the day. As a simple toy box is unlikely to do it, why not invest in a four-sided roll container that can be pushed around the house and filled up with toys as you go? The next day you can simply open the front gate of the cage and let them all out again.
Obviously an essential of many businesses, but surely they could come in handy at home? We all know the dangers of oil spillages, but nothing can chill the blood like the sight of a cup full of Ribena falling onto a pale carpet. Keeping tidy can be made fun by persuading the kids that there is nothing greater than having a picnic outside, whilst sitting inside a giant drip tray.