Child Locks and safety gates

I've heard of people who don't use these...ever, at all. I'd love to be one of those people. We've spent a fortune in locks and gates. We have very inquisitive children, who like to see, taste, hear, feel, eat, and know EVERYTHING. They have so much potential for when they get older as they Will always be wanting to do and know more. But right now I can't keep up. We have locks on the kitchen drawers. This came about from the time Miss 4 who was 2 at the time, got a serrated knife out and attempted to slice her brothers head. He escaped with a s superficial wound.

We've tried every lock available for the fridge. I had to do this as one day as I was cooking french toast for the kids, i had my back turned, and thought the kids were playing nicely. As time went on I thought wow, they're so quiet. I creep down the hallway and they've cracked about 5 eggs  and rubbed them into the carpet. They also had a block of cheese and were happily taking bites out of that. So, out we went to buy a lock. Then another one, and a few weeks later yet another one. Not only are our kids inquisitive but they are also determined and persistent (all the traits of a spirited child), and they worked out how to undo every single shop bought fridge lock. A few months ago I had enough. I told DH we have to do something because my stress levels were rising. We took a trip to bunnings and a few hours later i'm already less stressed

Yes, we've screwed a lock onto it, and have a combination lock. Unfortunately i DO know the combination so it doesn't keep me out of the fridge. I do HATE having so much control over the fridge but the kids do tell me when they're hungry and I prepare a container for each of them with food in it to eat during the morning. Over all though it's less stressful yay!!

We'd just gotten to a stage where we didn't need all the locks on the drawers, then bub could stand and her favourite past time is to open the drawer with the cling wrap, and al foil and unwrap them all. She does have full access to the plastic cups and plates cupboard and she loves it. She will stack the cups into each other. We did allow her access to the bottom drawer with saucepan lids in it however she kept sitting in it and we were worried 1. about her falling out...which did happen and she got yet another head bruise, 2. that the drawer will break. So we;ve had to stop her and she gets very frustrated when she can't open it.

As for gates, we've had quite a few and they've moved from doorframe to doorframe as needed. The kids can of course open these with ease but it's more so bub can't enter a certain area.

Some people say it's not teaching the child limits or boundaries etc by preventing them access to everything, but in my opinion it's making the area safe for them to be children without me having to be negative and say no and don't all the time. Instead we can focus on doing other stuff and remaining positive. The only thing i struggle with is the fridge at other people's house lol !! I do have to stop them from eating food out of other people's houses. At least I know they feel comfortable at friends houses hehe.