After age five, the need for precautions can become less urgent, but older kids can still discover plenty of ways to find danger, or at least get into trouble. Even if you yourself don't have children, chances are your home will be visited by a youngster at some point, so it's good to know what to look out for, now more than ever. With modern technology, children have more avenues for mischief than ever before. There are likely plenty of common insurance claims in your neighborhood associated with common household items.

Heat

This is the oldest rule in the book, but anything with heat -- a fireplace, oven or candles -- is a lesson in the importance of kid-proofing. For example, a friend's young son innocently decided to store the family's Tupperware in the oven, unbeknownst to his parents. When his father pre-heated the oven to make dinner, the kitchen filled with smoke from the melting plastic, setting off the fire alarm. Lesson learned: Check to see if anything from junior's home storage experiments is in the oven before turning it on.

Technology

Anyone with an iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, laptop computer or similar device knows how fast a credit card bill can go up if a child gets a hold of the gadget. Too many games require buying "credits" to stay alive, and opening an iTunes library can easily lead to accidentally downloading songs, albums, movies or complete TV shows at the touch of a button. And every parent knows how much children love buttons. We recently watched a friend's young daughter casually click on the "buy this app" button on her dad's Kindle Fire. The device doesn't have a parental control when connected to the Internet, so the best thing for a parent to do is to require a password before connecting. A secure password is another important step, and it shouldn't be as simple as your child's name or birthdate in reverse. Passwords should be long, complex and changed often. Password checkers can help determine how secure a password is.

TV

With a remote control in their hands, children can flip around to all kinds of programming they shouldn't be watching. Since 2000, all new TV sets larger than 13 inches are required to have a V-chip with parental controls. If you don't want your five year old to adopt Snookie as a role model, this can be a helpful tool. Start by going to the menu key on the remote control and finding the "main" or "setup" menu. Then look for an option that says "V-chip," "locks," "block," or "parental controls." What unexpected ways of getting into trouble has your child discovered? Share your child-proofing tips and stories below.

Sometimes these parents are elderly, but more than half of the increase in intergenerational families is from parents who are still under age 65, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Due to a combination of unemployment, rising living costs and debt, we boomers are now joining our kids in being described as a boomerang generation.

Consider Advantages, Disadvantages

Of course, an intergenerational household may have advantages. Boomer parents are well noted for having close relationships with their children. And having extra adults around to help with expenses, child care, or just to keep each other company, can make life less stressful, more memorable and more fun. But you don’t have to dig deep to imagine the potential negatives.

Having extra adults around to help with expenses, child care, or just to keep each other company, can make life less stressful, more memorable and more fun.

Having Suzy leave her dirty clothes in the bathroom, or Junior deplete the gas in the car, may be mildly irritating when they are still in high school. But when they move back home, after college or after losing a job, these sorts of problems can quickly mount. Add to that grandmother’s sensitivity to loud noises and the kids’ tendencies to evoke them and, well, the situation can quickly become overwhelming.

Coordinate a Family Conference

So, where to begin? Before you consider combining households, you need to bring the adult parties together to discuss expectations, boundaries, and rules. This can include housekeeping duties, rent, or contributions towards expenses. It may even include behavior. For instance, if one party is moving in because of a job loss, maybe no rent is expected. But there will probably be expectations that the unemployed person will look for a job, and, at least, that dirty clothes will find their way to the laundry basket. Neither party will be happy if there’s too great a compromise on lifestyle, savings or retirement as a result of the other party failing to pull their weight. Nobody wants to feel taken advantage of or misused.

Set the House Rules

Once you’ve decided to green-light the intergenerational living arrangement, you will want to outline each party’s expectations and create house rules covering areas such as:

• Rent and other expenses. Will the moving-in party pay rent, buy groceries, or make sure the family car has a full gas tank?

• Housekeeping and repairs. Will housekeeping tasks be shared, or at least, not made any worse? If one party breaks something, will they assume responsibility?

• Space concerns. Is your home ready for intergenerational needs? Do you need to baby proof? Or make accommodations for someone who might have trouble navigating the stairs?

• Fitting in and getting along. This may be harder to discuss than the more tangible financial issues. If you are moving in with your adult son, for example, how will your presence affect his new wife? If your son and his family are moving in with you, will they expect live-in babysitting services? Is that what you expect? How will mealtimes and other routines change, or stay the same?

• Goals and progress. If the new living arrangements are supposed to be temporary, while one party works to find a new job or pay off debt, what goals, timetables and milestones can you put in place? If Junior should be looking for a job, to help pay off $50,000 in student loans, should he be participating in multi-player Internet games until four in the morning?

I have known blended, intergenerational family situations that worked out very well. Young children got the benefit of having grandparents around; adult kids got a chance to get back on their feet; and older folks enjoyed companionship and some help with household bills and duties. But I have also seen generous people taken advantage of by “boarders” who never put food in the refrigerator, a load of laundry in the wash, nor have never made a meal. In these cases, the host family exceeded its budget and eventually lost its patience -- relationships and finances were seriously damaged. Intergenerational households might very well be a solution to financial problems, health issues or even loneliness. While it can be tough to impose rules on adult children, or on parents, you’ll only benefit by having these discussions and making everything clear in advance.

Guest blogger Marilyn Katz is the founder of the Over 50 Website, which is dedicated to topics that concern today’s baby boomers.

People without children of their own often remark to me that "kids are a learning experience," usually after one of my kids does something adorably ridiculous like emptying a jar of pasta sauce onto the living room carpet. In response, I smile and nod, biting my tongue about how drastic the understatement is. Here are just a few of the life lessons I've been taught so far. The Amazing Shrinking Domicile. If you were lucky enough to purchase a dream house, dream car or even just a dream diaper bag before your baby arrived, you probably wondered how you'd fill all the space (I know I did). Boy, did that "extra room" evaporate under the volume of clothes, toys and unidentifiable paraphernalia that started arriving during the baby shower and just never stopped. Lesson learned #1: You can never have enough space or be too prepared with a baby on board. By the Seat of Your Pants. Regardless of whether you read every last parenting book or you decided to more or less wing it, chances are you had some idea that you'd know what you were doing when the time came; an idea that promptly flew out the window for me when my beautiful little monsters took up residence. But everything turned out okay because I realized that I actually was capable of dealing with marbles in the garbage disposal or toys down the toilet. Plus, having a homeowners insurance policy helps give me peace of mind. Lesson learned #2: Admitting that you might not know what you’re doing but that you’re doing your best isn’t too bad after all. Drive Me Crazy. The job of driving has never been harder: I can't be the only person who's endured an in-car screaming session caused by a dropped "lucky penny" or the distribution of the wrong flavor of juice. Still, you'll find yourself battling through it somehow and end up as a safer driver than your pre-child self could ever imagine.  Not to mention the fact that you’ll become much more aware of other drivers. I can see a teenager texting and driving from three miles away. And never again will I talk on the phone while driving – I can’t believe I ever did! Lesson learned #3: Keeping harmony in the car deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. The Sands of Time. When you're up at midnight trying to get your aspiring opera singer to fall asleep, the minutes might drag; but you'll find the rest of your time with your child fast-forwarding at warp speed. Before you know it, you'll be shelling out big bucks for college. All you can do is take plenty of pictures and videos - the more embarrassing, the better - and hang on for the ride. Lesson learned #4: The days are long but the years go fast so cherish every moment like it’s your last. Unconditional Love. If a friend suffered the occasional five alarm diaper explosion, spewed the contents of your best culinary creations onto the table, and halted the functioning of your household because of a refusal to put on shoes, the friendship would probably die pretty quickly. It would be a lot to deal with even from a much-loved spouse. But when it comes to my kids, I've happily dealt with all this and more, just because. Lesson learned #5: Motherhood is one of the greatest gifts. Sure it’s crazy and messy at times, but in the end well worth it. Bye-Bye Bubble Bath. If you enjoy taking the occasional peaceful moment by yourself, you might want to stock up before your baby arrives. Because afterwards, you'll never get a moment to yourself again. Never. So don’t count on being able to take a leisurely soak in the tub. And you can pretty much forget about candles too. Lesson learned #6: Embrace and take advantage of being together 24/7 with your family. Your kids will be out of the house more quickly than you'd like. My Precious. Before we had kids, there were certain possessions that I really preferred to stay in a whole, undamaged form. That's not a realistic expectation now that I've got the equivalent of hurricanes on legs living in my household. Your furniture, your pets, your jewelry, and especially your electronics; none of it will ever be safe from little fingers bent on destruction. This gave me added incentive to stop buying nice things now and put the money toward a college fund. Saving money is so important when you have little ones, especially a set of twins that will be entering college at the same time. All it takes is a few dollars to start. Think of it like any other planned expense and before you know it the kids will be grown – and so will your college savings plan. Lesson learned #7: Helping your child secure their future is one of the best gifts you can give. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream. Yeah, perchance to get more than half of the recommended daily total of forty winks. If this is your first experience with child-rearing, you might think that the worst is over once your little one figures out how to sleep through the night. Not so. According to a National Sleep Foundation survey, you can pretty much count on never sleeping well again. Lesson learned #8: Keep lots of coffee on hand!