We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelly Melistas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Shortly after the birth of my twins, my husband (George Melistas) and I (Kelly Melistas) began to baby proof our home. No matter what child safety products we purchased or fixtures we installed, nothing seemed to curb our twins’ curiosity with electrical outlets and light switches. It was the one thing that truly scared us in our home and we had little control over it.
After working with several local, Michigan-based suppliers and gaining two United States patents, Child Be Safe Wall Outlet and Switch Covers were born!
OUR MISSION IS TO ELIMINATE AVOIDABLE CHILD & PET INJURIES! We want parents and pet owners to have peace of mind that their children and pets are being protected from harm’s way when their eyes aren’t always on them.
Eye-Opening Statistic: Children have the highest risk for injury and accidents. More than 3.4 million children experience an unintentional injury every year. Nearly 90% of babies and toddlers who suffer these types of injuries are under the age of six years old.
– Kelly Melistas
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
A parent’s primary responsibility is to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their children. This in itself is a full-time responsibility with never enough eyes or ears available to catch all the little things that go on everyday. As parents of twins, my husband (George) and I (Kelly) immediately experienced double of all the new parent challenges.
As a Child and Adolescent Psychologist (Kelly) and my husband (George) a Civil Engineer, helping people and solving problems has always been in our DNA. As parents of twins, my husband and I were concerned about household safety, including electrical wall outlets and switches that control fireplaces, garbage disposals, overhead fan, sensitive electronic equipment, etc. We quickly discovered that most products we tried for baby-proofing were just baby-resistant – and some came with the added concerns of being potential choking hazards.
Eventually, kids figure everything out, By 18 months, our twins were pulling the standard plug-in outlet covers that are sold on the market with their little fingers out of the socket and placing them in their mouths, which is clearly a choking hazard. One friend’s son was pulling them out with his teeth. I scoured every brick and mortar and online store out there and told my husband we need to come up with something better!
What we invented is known as Child Be Safe safety products. Child Be Safe manufactures and sells hard plastic cover devices that use a patented three-button system for parents to access the switches and outlets when needed. They can be installed using regular mounting screws in less that one minute.
In addition to keeping kids safe, the covers also can keep your pets safe and protect them from harm’s way as well. We have received a ton of praise from Pet Owners regarding our safety products!
Our goal is to help the community. I don’t have to worry about my own kids, or my friends coming over with their kids or pets – it’s peace of mind that I’m so happy we can give to other parents and pet owners!
Above all, our life-saving child and pet safety products are “MADE IN USA” which is certainly something that my family and I are very proud of. We are very proud of our registered trademarked brand and all that it has to offer. It feels great being able to make a difference in a parents’, pet owners, child’s and pets’ life with our life-saving safety products!
Kelly Melistas
Owner and Founder
Child Be Safe
Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?
Our life-saving child and pet safety products are available for sale on our website; https://www.childbesafe.com. Our safety products are also available for purchase on Amazon.com (USA), Amazon.ca (Canada), Walmart.com (USA), Walmart.ca (Canada), Etsy, ebay, and Bonanza.
We love, value and respect each and every Ecommerce selling platform that we have a partnership with. We are very fortunate to be living in the Ecommerce world. These days, it is all about convenience and given the time crunch that everyone is in, we can help in solving their problem by getting our safety products in our customers hands within 1-3 days. Customers value our quick and friendly service and our product reviews speak volume to what we have to offer.
Each and every one of our ECommerce partners is phenomenal to work with!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our company’s reputation is solid and is highly praised by parents, grandparents, neurodiverse families, nannies, pet owners and business owners. Our patented and registered trademark child and pet safety products are “one of a kind”.
Our products are Proudly “MADE IN USA” and are made of high quality and extremely durable materials that will last for many years. That in itself speaks volume! Our customers are willing to pay a little more for a higher quality and extremely durable products in order to give themselves some must deserved “Peace of Mind!” and to know that their child or pet will be protected from harm’s way!
We really appreciate everyone’s support since Day #1!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.childbesafe.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childbesafe/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChildBeSafeLLC/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/child-be-safe
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/childbesafe1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfjISbMsmoCWZ6kprbUj9Zw
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/childbesafe/