if your living area is one 'great' room, how do you corral baby?

[echoesofspring]

So we're getting into baby proofing and I'm kind of at a loss as to how to 'contain' DS in the main area of our house. We have a pNp, currently being used as a crib at my MIL, but I'd just as soon leave it there as I don't think that DS is going to stand for being put in there when he's awake once he figures out how to walk. We have one of these very open floor plans, and there aren't any obvious places we can place baby gates, but I'd like to be able to contain him to part of the living room when I'm in the kitchen (it's one big space). Any BTDT? I'm wondering about 1 (or 2?) of something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/North-States-Superyard-Play-Classic/dp/B00020L78M/

But some of the reviews said their child was able to move it around, which didn't seem great. TIA!

[lhafer]

We have that problem in our house as well. I think super yards are super ugly. I preferred the Kidco gates and they are SO much nicer than the super yards, more sturdy, and easier to deal with. They are made of metal, not plastic, so kids have a harder time moving them around, and it's impossible to move around if it's anchored to a wall. My ILs actually started using them to gate off their 4 labs in their backyard! They began using them 5 years ago, and they still look new.

Anyway, we didn't get put gates up in our living room. Instead I made a large pinned in area for my DD2. She loved it. I had these from when DD1 was a baby, and we had a certain portion of our old house gated off. So all I had to do was add a couple of more panels to create this area for DD2.

They do offer a free standing play area one, and they are much heavier duty than the super yard ones: http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?erube_fh=kidco&kidco.submit.safetfyGatesByCategory=1&kidco.categoryid=4&kidco.bc=gc

I prefered mounting ours to the wall, because I found it very stable that way. And you can easily take them down, and all it leaves is a small oblong plate on the wall. http://www.kidco.com/main.taf?erube_fh=kidco&kidco.submit.safetfyGatesByCategory=1&kidco.categoryid=3&kidco.bc=gc

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[candaceb]

We have a SuperYard. DS can only move it if it's on hardwood - on carpet it stays put though I suppose at some point he will figure out how to move it. He mostly doesn't bother though because he doesn't mind being in there for short stretches of time - he even asked to be put in there this morning. I have a few favorite toys that I leave in there so he can play with them while "in captivity".

[belovedgandp]

I played it by ear with my first and discovered that I just never needed it. All three have had free reign of the kitchen, hall, laundry and great room area. I can gate off our stairs and the formal room in the front. They wanted to be where I was and I'm horrible about actually closing things.

[wendibird22]

We have a very open floor plan. We used a superyard with both kids for maybe 3 mos mostly to keep the dog from stepping on them. We found the superyard, since it folds flat, came in handy too when we traveled to baby proof the hotel room and as a barrier to the fireplace once the kids were mobile.

[acmom]

We did the same thing as PP - gave free reign of great room area (kitchen, living area, sunroom) and gated off the hallway that led to stairs, formal living room and dining room in front of the house. I put door knob covers on the pantry, laundry room and basement doors (all within our great room area) as well as put cabinet locks on any I didn't want opened or weren't safe. It worked out ok for us. If I really needed to contain him in that area, I would put him in his highchair with some toys or snacks.

[swissair81]

I have a One Step Ahead little playzone that my parents bought me when my oldest turned one. http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=187755&parentCategoryId=85183&categoryId=85217
I bought a few extensions to make it bigger. It is amazing. I love it.

[Giantbear]

we have a big living room that flows into the dining room with both having a door to the kitchen. We used a kidco gate around the stairs going up and down encompassing the doorway from the lr to the kitchen and then put a gate on that entrance way. DD has complete access to the lr, kitchen and dr, but is locked from the stairs.

[roseyloxs]

I have a One Step Ahead little playzone that my parents bought me when my oldest turned one. http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=187755&parentCategoryId=85183&categoryId=85217
I bought a few extensions to make it bigger. It is amazing. I love it.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qxNzaRAnL._AA300_.jpg

We had something very similar but we had the 8 panel one from some random internet site. I only used it with my DS and it worked out great. When DD came around I gated off the kitchen, the stairs, closed the door to the bathroom and the rest was just open. Sold the playzone on CL. I don't know why but the second time around I didn't feel like using the playzone.

[Clarity]

I played it by ear with my first and discovered that I just never needed it. All three have had free reign of the kitchen, hall, laundry and great room area. I can gate off our stairs and the formal room in the front. They wanted to be where I was and I'm horrible about actually closing things.

:yeahthat: We never contained our girls either. We were with them at all times and it just wasn't necessary. The only thing we gated off were our stairs for safety purposes. The rest of the house was very baby safe.

[swissair81]

For me, I like having the closed off area because I already have so much going on at home. My kids play with things that are not necessarily for my baby, and she likes to see her kids. If nothing else is babyproofed (and that might be the understatement of the year), at least I know her play area is safe. Unfortunately, I don't have it now. It is in storage with everything else they promised to give us when we got to our temp place. When I talk to that company, I am going to give them a large piece of my mind. In the meantime, I let her play in the pack n play during the day. Keeps me from having a heart attack everytime DS gives her small lego to play with.
I don't abandon her. I drag the playard over to wherever I am, so she can see what I'm doing. As long as she can see me she's happy. And I'm just happy she's not playing in the toilet.

[jbbhb]

We have this gate...

http://www.amazon.com/North-States-Superyard-Metal-Gate/dp/B000U5FOT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328547249&sr=8-1

It was very easy to set up and get bolted to the wall (except for me missing the stud on one try :))

Our living room, dining room, and kitchen are essentially one big square, so giving ds free range all the time would make me crazy. What we did was move all of the furniture out of one corner of the "square" and bolt the supergate in an arc shape from one wall to the other. This is gives him a pretty large play area but he is still in the room with everyone else. I also like that it contains all of the baby toys to one area of the living space.

This has worked out great for us. I'll try and put a pic up later.

[echoesofspring]

Thanks everyone. I think DS bought a superyard yesterday, should be here tomorrow. I've been going back and forth about it, since when we are playing with him it's been free reign.....But I would love to have a way to keep him happily contained while I do a bit of dinner prep, etc.

[vonfirmath]

We had a couch in our "one big room" living room sort of partitioning the room off. When we wanted to corral our son, we used a pack and play between the end of the couch and the wall to keep him from getting past.

When there was a LARGE blank area, we used a superyard pulled out nearly flat (some diagonal on either side to keep it from falling over)

It would not have held up to a dedicated attempt to get out. But it was used for small bits of time when he was 12-13 months old successfully.