Making Home Theater's Kid Friendly

A home theater is an investment in a family's free time. For those with a passion for movies, it's a place to kick back and relax and let the worries of the day or week fade into black as a great story unfolds on a screen.
Home theaters for families are wonderful additions because they provide a place for everyone to get together whether to watch flicks for pure enjoyment or educational purposes.

The problem for families, however, is that home theaters generally don't come cheap. They are, in fact, an investment and one that needs protecting - especially from little hands.

If your home theater will be frequented by little people, there are steps you can take to make it kid proof and friendly.

Here are some suggestions:

• Pick furniture carefully. Don't buy items with sharp edges or jutting corners. Instead, opt for end and coffee tables that have rounded edges and make sure component holders, such as entertainment centers, are protected as well.
• Protect the screen. If there are small children in the house, make crayons, markers and other drawing objects off limits in the home theater. It only takes one turn of a parent's back for a screen to take a major beating from a little person. Cleaning crayon off a big screen's screen is not a fun undertaking.
• Make sure components and furniture are well anchored. There's nothing scarier than watching an object topple on a toddler. Avoid this at all costs by properly strapping heavy objects to the walls.
• Hide wires. Make sure wires for electronic components and surround sound systems are out of reach. Run them under the carpets, through the walls, anywhere but in plain sight. This is not only good safety sense for a house where there are little ones, it just makes the room look better, too.
• Protect components. Ever hear about the kid who tried to toast his bread in the VCR? Don't let this happen to you. Keep components that break easily or can have "foreign objects" stuffed in to muck up the works out of reach of little hands. Lock them up in armoire designed for components if you must when not in use.
• Keep movies you don't want them watching out of reach. If your collection is all R-rated or beyond and you don't want little eyes and hands getting a hold of them, store them in a secure location. Keep the kids' movies where they can get them and leave the grown up stuff for the grown-ups.

A good home theater is inviting for the entire family. With some careful planning this can be achieved.