you said it yourself 1. public bathroom with the danger of catching something deadly – stay away. why would I even let my daughter play in a public bathroom? I’d just help her pee and take her out again, I never even let her step on the floor, I hold her about a foot over the toilet seat and dress her in the air. 2. home – try to keep it cleanish and let her play with anything. I’ve had two strict rules: a) she’s not allowed anywhere near cables (partly because I sometimes record stuff at home and I have microphones and so on everywhere, but mainly so that she stays away from electricity cables). b) she’s not allowed to step on asphalt unless an adult is holding her hand. She makes a point of running to the edge of the pavement and raising a foot over the street, but not letting it touch until I get there. Her little naughty trick to drive me nuts (but I trust her). I am very strict about these rules, and let her do whatever else she wants. Usually she’s well-behaved though. My place is generally full of soft toys, and if she makes a mess she knows she’ll have to clean up later, so she doesn’t generally break stuff (at least not willingly). She once broke a glass bowl and got startled (must have been around 1 at the time) and she’s stayed away from glassware ever since. And ever since she could crawl, I’d let her move about and even have little accidents in controlled environment (as in falling from the couch onto the carpet) so that now she’s got a pretty good balance and co-ordination, and is generally very careful. But of course you always need to keep an eye on them.