When did you take your baby gates down?

[Ms B]

We have gates at the top of our stairs, as well as at each of two access points to the bottom of the stairs.

I am sick of the gates. I have a ground floor laundry room and lugging laundry through two gates in each direction is a pain in the keister. Plus, as a result of FIL's overtightening of the gate at the top of the stairs, we now have a hole in the drywall where the gate originally was and I would like to get it fixed. Add on that The Biscuit's new interest is trying to open the gates and it might be just a matter of time.

I plan to keep the gate at the top of the stairs for at least a while longer to prevent The Biscuit from going downstairs on his own while we are getting ready in the morning, but I am seriously considering getting rid of the downstairs gates. (I amgoing to keep the gates so that we can put them up to keep The Biscuit and MIL out of the kitchen during Thanksgiving.)

When did you take your baby gates down? Anything I should think or know about before we do it?

TIA!

[Philly Mom]

Ummm, we never put any up. With DD1 2 3/4, she is compliant and asks us before she goes down to the basement and I am not worried about her being downstairs/upstairs without me. I like that DD1 can come upstairs/ go downstairs on her own. She rarely does it, but makes it easier for me to tend to the baby and have DD1 follow when she is ready. We do have a door to our basement and we kept it closed when she was little. Hopefully, we won't need them for DD2.

[basil]

My DS is the same age as yours, and we would be done with the gates except for I like to keep the dog out of the upstairs. DS is good on stairs these days (goes down on his bottom stair by stair) and if we need to keep him upstairs, we just keep him in our room and close the door. He thinks it's funny to slam his body into the gate to try to get it to open, which seems more dangerous than no gate, and can't be good for our railings...And if he climbs up by himself, I think it's safer that he just keep going rather than get to the gate and start pulling on it.

[wellyes]

By 2.5 for both kids. I think gates are mostly for babies who don't understand boundaries and depth perception. After that, completely optional.

[lizzywednesday]

We had a single pressure-gate in our kitchen.

DD defeated it at around 18 months old.

We continued to put it up when we hosted parties because it bought us a little extra time to grab her before she got into anything (and it kept the OTHER kids out of my way while I cooked), but it's really pointless now.

We did not hard-install any gates, although I bought 3 (one for each stairway I'd wanted to close off, plus one to fit an odd-shaped entryway), because AFTER the purchases had been made, DH decided he didn't want to drill into the walls. (And, yes, he'd already opened the packages so I couldn't return them.)

If we have another kid, they're being thrown to the wolves.

We still use child-safety locks on cabinets and the fireplace doors, though, because she's sneaky.

[belovedgandp]

For bottom of the stairs between 1 and 1 1/2 depending on the kid. Longer for the younger ones because I was distracted more and they'd want to follow their siblings but didn't necessarily have the skills to do so safely.

I kept the one at the top of the stairs until closer to 2 because the kids would be between their bedrooms and mine when I was in the shower and wanted to keep them on the floor.

As for holes, I had the wall mounted kind that slid out of the hardware. I left the hardware up until just a few months ago when we were remodeling those areas and were doing drywall work and painting. So even though the gates had been in the attic for years I took down the hardware when my youngest was 4.

[indigo99]

We got rid of the one at the bottom of the stairs once DS2 could go up and down safely on his own so about 1.5 y.o.. We left up the two that blocked off the kitchen until after age 2 so that I could keep them out of the kitchen while cooking. We still have one at the top of the stairs so that I can keep them upstairs when I'm in the shower or putting one down for a nap. DS1 will just walk outside on his own sometimes so I always need to know where he is.

[lalasmama]

Never had them up with DD. with DGSs, we had them up until younger DGS was about 18 months. Then we taught him to go down on his booty. With the new grandbaby, I imagine we'll put those gates back up at 6 months, and take them back down around 18 months.

[AJP]

I'm sick of them too, but we still use some.
We just removed the one from the top of our stairs. It had come loose a while ago when someone pushed it with force instead of asking how to use it (thanks MIL!!). All 3 DC (5 1/2, 5 1/2, 2 1/2) knew if it was closed they shouldn't go down because the motion alarm was on. They also knew it wouldn't keep them safe from falling since it was broken. If I need to contain DS while showering or getting ready he stays in my room with the door closed.
We keep some gates on the main floor to keep our dog in/out of certain rooms. The kids can open the gate to their play room and the one to the family room. I keep a loose gate propped at the bottom of the stairs to keep the dog from the bedrooms. If she tries to sneak up she knocks it down and I hear it lol.

[bisous]

By 2.5 for both kids. I think gates are mostly for babies who don't understand boundaries and depth perception. After that, completely optional.

This is what I think!

[mackmama]

Ours are still up at 3yo. We recently moved into this house that has stairs. Our old house didn't have stairs, so DC wasn't used to them. I'd be fine taking the gate down at the bottom of the stairs, but we plan to keep the gate at the top of the stairs - esp since DC will soon transition out of the crib and will have access to the hallway/stairs.

[123LuckyMom]

I took them down as soon as I felt my kids were competent on the stairs. They didn't have to be able to walk them, but if they could navigate them safely by going down backwards and feet first or forwards bouncing on their bottoms, that was good enough. DD is two, and the gate has been gone for a long time. I think with DS we left it up longer, but this time around it came down ASAP.

[Mamabear4]

We still have ours up (with a 3 & 5 year old) but we never use them. They stay open all the time

ETA: the only time we use it is for Christmas morning. Our master is downstairs and we really want to see their reaction when they come down so we lock the gate Christmas Eve

[cono0507]

We only had gates at top and bottom of the stairs. When we moved into a new house and our youngest was 2.5 yo, we didn't re-install them in the new house.

[Chitowngirl]

Wow! I'm surprised at the number of kids who could safely go down stairs at 18 mo. My son is 19 mo and he can't go down stairs at all. I don't know if that's partly my fault since I've never taught him how, but I don't even know how to go about trying to teach him that. I also don't trust him not to accidentally fall down. He does have depth perception, but he also gets caught up while playing with toys and things and I could see him falling easily if distracted.

We have a gate that separates the kitchen from the hallway. We didn't get it until he was about a year old, but it has made my life SO much easier. Before when I was cooking dinner I was always trying to chase him down the hallway. Now he's contained and just plays with his toys until I am done. The toys were always there, but without the gate I just couldn't keep him in one place. We also have a gate at the top of the stairs, but it rarely gets used. We just have one child and he is basically never alone when we are upstairs. We put him in the pack and play when we are in the shower and not directly able to watch him. Otherwise we play in our bedroom or his bedroom with the door closed. We try to minimize hallway play near the stairs.

I have a recurring nightmare that he learns how how climb out of his crib and he falls down the stairs while we are sleeping. I've been trying to remember to close it at night due to that, but I usually fall asleep before my husband and he never remembers to close it.

[doberbrat]

We keep them b/c we also use them to contain the dogs but dd2 could open them by age 3 and she could climb over the pressure mounted WELL before that - age2 tops.

But she could also go down stairs by around 9mo .... by 18 mo she could climb a 6ft tall rock wall at the playground!

[123LuckyMom]

Wow! I'm surprised at the number of kids who could safely go down stairs at 18 mo. My son is 19 mo and he can't go down stairs at all. I don't know if that's partly my fault since I've never taught him how, but I don't even know how to go about trying to teach him that. I also don't trust him not to accidentally fall down. He does have depth perception, but he also gets caught up while playing with toys and things and I could see him falling easily if distracted.

We have a gate that separates the kitchen from the hallway. We didn't get it until he was about a year old, but it has made my life SO much easier. Before when I was cooking dinner I was always trying to chase him down the hallway. Now he's contained and just plays with his toys until I am done. The toys were always there, but without the gate I just couldn't keep him in one place. We also have a gate at the top of the stairs, but it rarely gets used. We just have one child and he is basically never alone when we are upstairs. We put him in the pack and play when we are in the shower and not directly able to watch him. Otherwise we play in our bedroom or his bedroom with the door closed. We try to minimize hallway play near the stairs.

I have a recurring nightmare that he learns how how climb out of his crib and he falls down the stairs while we are sleeping. I've been trying to remember to close it at night due to that, but I usually fall asleep before my husband and he never remembers to close it.

I should say that we never did have a gate at the top of the stairs, only at the bottom. We would only be upstairs for nap or bedtime, so the kids would be thoroughly supervised while up there or while going down the steps. The gate at the bottom was to keep them from climbing the stairs without supervision.

I think to teach your kids, you just need to give them opportunities to try. Also. you can show them by doing it yourself. Sit down next to your son and bump down the stairs together. You can let him go down by himself every time so long as you're right there. He'll be safe, and he'll figure it out with practice.

[o_mom]

Our first house we had them top and bottom of the stairs along with one in the kitchen to separate the dog. That was from when DS1 was crawling until we moved and they were 1, 3 and 4.5 yo. Throughout that time we always had a baby or new walker, so it was easier to not have to worry about it.

When we moved, we never put up any gates. DS3 (14 mos) had learned to go down feet first on his belly and we didn't really need it at that point. We just would tell him to go down on his belly, showed him a few times and then he had it from there.

[Ms B]

Thanks for the all the responses! You have made me feel brave, so while the ILs are in town this weekend, we are going to move all of the breakables in our LR, DR, and foyer (currently gated off) to higher ground, install a hook and eye lock up high on the basement door, and then take off the downstairs gates.

We plan to leave the gate at the top of our stairs up until after The Biscuit has transitioned into a real bed. We do not want him trying to go downstairs in the dark until he is a older. (And we also want to contain him in the mornings for a while longer.)

But I still am gating off the kitchen over Thanksgiving. It is the only way to keep my MIL out from under foot and FIL from opening the oven every ten minutes.

[lizzywednesday]

...

I think to teach your kids, you just need to give them opportunities to try. Also. you can show them by doing it yourself. Sit down next to your son and bump down the stairs together. You can let him go down by himself every time so long as you're right there. He'll be safe, and he'll figure it out with practice.

:yeahthat:

Of course, my DD was (is!) a climber, so she figured out stairs very quickly. Which is why I wanted the gates in the first place - to keep her out of areas where she wasn't supervised!

She was climbing stairs by 8 or 9 months old.

[sarahsthreads]

Wait, you're supposed to take them down? :)

We have part of the downstairs gated off (so the dog doesn't destroy the kids' toys) and a gate at the top of the stairs - again, to keep the dog out of their rooms. We've never gated the bottom of the stairs, but most of the time the baby is awake he plays in the part of the downstairs that's gated off from the stairs anyway. These gates have been up since the dawn of time. Or, well, at least a decade now!

Sarah :)

[echoesofspring]

We moved 3 weeks ago and have yet to install the gates, except on DS's room. Which he just climbs over when he wants to get out, so I'm thinking we should just take it down. We may put a gate on the one 'adult' room we have downstairs where our TV and stereo will ultimately go. We did move to a house with stairs from one that was single story, and had planned to put gates on the stairs, but it hasn't happened yet, and I was just thinking we probably won't at this point. Our stairs do have a landing however, or I would have one at the top. Both of the kids were massive climbers of the stairs when we first moved in but have really mellowed out about them. DD learned to go down stairs on her belly at my parents house at Xmas and always does that. DS won't do that but I've worked really hard with him about going slow, putting both feet on each step and waiting before he tackles the next step. We have had a couple accidents/tumbles down a couple steps which were scary, but I'm starting to think that with DS's propensity for climbing over the gate that a gate would be more dangerous than just the stairs. And I'm adamant about no playing on the stairs. DS is 3, DD 16 months.