3 Garage Door Safety Tips to Stress to Your Children

June is Garage Door Safety month, so this month we dedicated our blog specifically to the subject of the safety of children near garage doors.  If you have children you know that anything that may normally be dangerous can be even more so to little ones. Here are the top 3 messages we think are important to communicate with your children about garage door safety.

1. Only adults should press the buttons

As with many things, kids can be enthralled with the concept of having control of anything they can see results from the action of pressing a button or flipping a switch. Light switches and remote controls are two common examples. This power can seem fascinating to little kids. If you have a button on the wall to open your garage door, this should be at least 5 feet from the ground, out of the reach of small hands. Overuse of the garage door not only causes its technology to wear faster but also increases the chance for something to go wrong that requires a repair.

2. Don’t Play near the Garage Door

If your children play outside, make sure they know not to play under or near an open garage door, and to always keep their hands away from section joints, hinges, tracks, springs, and other door parts. It’s all too easy for someone to give the button a press to close the door, so be sure to stay away so you are not in the way of the door when it closes.

3. Do Not Share Your Garage Codes-- and keep track of your openers

Some of the most important garage door safety tips have to do with your garage door accessories. Your garage door codes and garage door openers are just as important as the keys to your house. You should know where your remotes are at all times, and your codes should be not be shared with those outside of your family or your trusted circle. If your children take a remote with them as a way to get into the house after school, they need to understand the importance of the remote, and why losing it or having it stolen will pose a security threat.

If you have an external keypad to open the garage door, make sure your children know they must keep the garage code a secret. If they tell one friend, that friend could tell another friend, and so on. The code could potentially fall on the ears of someone with less than honorable intentions.