You know, it’s somewhat ironic, but I’ve carried a few tamperproof 15A duplex receptacles on my truck for probably four years now and haven’t been able to convince a single customer that they are worth the extra $5.60 that I would charge them for one. This is because they know they can just go down to Job Lot or somewhere similar and buy a big package of those plastic child proof receptacle inserts for less than half of that and put them on every unused receptacle in the house. I even tried to explain to them that one genuine “advantage” of the TP receptacles is that they don’t need to keep removing and reinstalling those little inserts every time the want to plug in the vacuum cleaner or a lamp. I guess from now on, at least for new work, they no longer have that option.
When I was an infant/toddler, I think like most other people my age, I grew up in a very old house with the usual combination of knob & tube, BX, two-wire receptacles with metal wall plates and a fuse panel. We never even heard childproof caps.
I don’t recall ever once getting shocked off a receptacle and I was one of those little bastards that was always into everything.
The reason for this, I believe, is that at least one of my parents were always around and I can distinctly remember my father telling me to leave those outlets alone and not to play with them because the electricity “ inside” will hurt or kill me.
The first time I every got shocked was as an apprentice in the trade. Score one for old school, hands-on parenting.
