It's all over now, baby blue. Or is it not?

All my gear was along one short wall of a family room with the speakers a few feet in front of the wall. I set up a fence with a gate across the entire wall in front of the speakers -- all the off-limits equipment was behind the fence and out of reach. We could listen to music and I never had to worry if my child (or, more importantly, friends while on a play date) was/were about to hurt themselves or the equipment. The fence and gate came down eventually.

I found the fence/gate at a baby-proofing site. The product was originally intended as a fireplace gate. Here's an example: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=538171&parentCategoryId=85183&categoryId=85217. I guess there isn't a market for "audiophile gates."

Congrats on the family. You'll be amazed how much kids love music if you can find some way to have both in the same room.

I have a two year old and we listen to music all the time, it's what we do together. Getting out of the hobby is a terrible idea unless all you listen to is death metal. Here's what I did:

-Digitize all my CD's
-Move my record collection into a spare bed room that I lock
-Move all of my expensive equipment up higher on the rack.
-Be very clear with the baby that she is not to touch the stereo stuff, they are smarter than you think
-All speaker grills on

Enjoy, audio is an awesome experience to share with your daughter.

Google the words "baby jail" and you'll find a way to coral your toddler to keep both the toddler and your equipment safe. Use words like "that's breakable" to differentiate what’s off limits. We day cared our five grandchildren and my wife used the words “that’s Grandpa’s and it’s breakable” and believe it or not that worked like a charm.

Im sure Im in the minority, but I really had little problems with my 2 boys. They were greeted with a stern
"NO!" and "Dont touch that,it's Daddys!" Worked fine, never had an issue. Now when other peoples kids came to the house....

Share your enjoyment of music with your loved ones. Your wife will understand and welcome your hobby when she sees you dancing around to your system with your kids. They will get older soon enough and put on their earbuds and tune you out. Put on fun danceable music that you might not normally listen to. I did this over the weekend and got a bunch of records cleaned with no signs of disapproval. Try it and see. And give your kids respect and they will give it back.