These locks will keep the most determined toddler out of the cabinets.  Our son has little arms and was reaching into the cabinets through the gap left by other locks.  These locks hold the doors shut tight - no gapping.  After we purchased the first set, we bought more to keep him out.

fandersen

Mosinee, WI

As a Realtor I have been in lots of houses, and had seen the Totlok system. I love that I can sometimes have them locked and easily turn it into the open position. It is versatile and makes is easy when I am busy cooking. I can unlock cook up a storm and then relock the cabinets/doors with the breakable and sharp items. My 3 1/2 year old still can't open a locked cabinet. She will grab the magnet and hit the door trying to open it, but still can't. So many parents are frustrated that their kids figured out the cabinet and made them useless. My youngest will open the garbage cabinet to see if it is unlocked. Look at me, shake her head no, and flip the lock to lock it and close the door. :-) As they get older I am able to keep more cabinets unlocked. And the locks will still be in place should I need them down the road. The only con I found was the installation. MANY online reviews commented on how awful/terrible/miserable/etc installation was. I didn't really have any problem with installation, but I could see how it could be difficult. Some things to remember are the age old advise 'measure twice, cut once' Measure the depth of the cabinet drawer the magnet piece fits in the door and if you drill your whole to deep you will come out the front and completely ruin your cabinet. I marked my drill with tape so that I would drill far enough for the magnet without going through the door. Be slow and tedious when installing, or find someone with a lot of experience to do it for you.

CindyWilsonRiddle

Princeton, MN

We decided on the Tot Lok when my daughter (now 22 months) first became mobile at around 6 months.  We have a combo of the Tot Lok on most of the lower kitchen cabinets, with the traditional lever locks in the bathrooms.  The Tot Loks work GREAT to keep your kiddo out of the cabinets; the kid pulls and pulls, and the door won't budge.  The downside to this is that if YOU want to get into the cabinet, you have to locate the little magnet thing and find the spot on the door where the magnet "catches" the lock underneath to open your door.  This gets annoying when, say, you're doing the dishes or in the middle of cooking something.  However, the locks can easily be completely turned off by moving a little switch thing on the lock mechanism itself, so you can turn them off if you're going to be doing some serious cooking (such as Thanksgiving dinner), or if you only have a kiddo around part-time.  For instance, my parents installed these locks on their cabinets, so they can turn them "on" when my daughter is around, but still maintain normal, unhindered use of their cabinets when she isn't.  Because you can turn them off, there is no reason to ever "uninstall" them; just turn them off, and if you ever need them again for child or pet or whatever, turn them back on. Also, you can't see anything from the front of the cabinets.   The downsides are that they are a bit of a pain to install, and they are EXPENSIVE.  

cinnamontoastgirl

Las Cruces, NM

We bought a townhouse two years ago.  It was a foreclosure, so there were previous occupants.  For the first few weeks we were in the house, we could not figure out how to get some of the kitchen cabinets open!  We could eventually yank them open (pulling REALLY hard), but it was really annoying. Eventually we found a magnet stuck to a metal surface in the kitchen and figured out that they were childlocks.  We left them installed because we had a two-year-old daughter and one more baby on the way.  We liked them so much that we went and purchased more for other areas in our home. The locks are a lot more expensive than other ones, but they are so worth it.  Our second child, a boy, has been able to undo just about any other child lock device known to man.  This is the only one that he is not able to get open.  And the newest Tot Loks come with an on/off switch, so they can be installed, but you don't have to use them.  That is very convenient after your children get bigger, because they are kind of a pain to install.

whimsicaldream

Abingdon, MD