When did you get rid of stair gates ?

[bluemondae]

How old were your children / toddlers ?

34, 32, 30...they left home years ago.. we now have a lunatic dog!

We never used them either.
Didn't even occur to me!

Took them away when youngest aged 3. Main worry until then was her quietly going downstairs at night/morning.

We've never actually had them on the stairs but we have a screw in gate on our 2.5 year old's bedroom. Her room is on the to floor of a Victorian house and opens straight onto a very steep stair case.

I imagine the gate will be there for some time to come - I'm not sure I'd sleep at night if it wasn't!

I've never had any.

At 20 months, he was stood next to me at the top of the stairs and then in the next second he did an Olympic-worthy vault over the top. My eyes never left him so fortunately I rugby-tackled him. The gate came down that day and weren't used for the next DC.

Never had any. Taught stair safety really early. Made us more vigilant I reckon! Never ever any running near the stairs in our house!

We've never had them at the top of the stairs. We had one at the bottom for DC3 and 4 and had to replace it for a 'large dog gate' when DC3 was able to climb it.
We got rid completely when the youngest was 18 months and my Mum was carrying him downstairs, she opened the gate from the second to last step. She thought she was on the bottom step and overstepped broke her leg really badly and DS banged his head on the gate during the fall and was knocked unconscious.

9 months when he learnt to crawl down backwards.

My dd is 3, we have just taken the one off her bedroom door as she now stays in there herself at night, one at top of the stairs is there just for night time so i know dd stays upstairs

Never used them. Just taught them to slide backwards down the stairs as soon as they were mobile.

At 20 months when DS would climb over the then "drop" and therefore it was safer to have none than one there.

I had one for the kitchen for a couple of years. DD was able to tackle the stairs before she could walk independently.

We have bannisters and shallow stairs, but I was more worried about kitchen stuff TBH.

The screw in ones are the type you can use forever provided they’re at the top (not bottom) of the stairs.

We never had them and there was only 18 months between ours. They were so active I had no choice but to follow them around everywhere anyway so didn't see the point. As others have said, they were taught to go down backwards from about 10 months when they first discovered going up the stairs was fun, and both of them could walk up and down one step at a time by 2.

They both still come in with us at night by midnight at 4 and 5 as well, but they're far more interested in our bed than going down the stairs.

On or shortly after the day I was standing at the top of the stairs with my hands full of stuff, and my (nearly 2-year-old?) opened them with a deft click of his fingers and said, “Ta-dah! Der y’go mummy!”

Got rid of ours at about 17 months I think. DS is quite sensible for a toddler (for the present, at least!), our door handles are too high for him and he’s pretty closely supervised anyway and knows he’s not allowed to go up or downstairs without us.

We actually don’t close the one at the top of the stairs at night though, not since 3 year old sleep walked once, as I was so scared he would sleep climb over it.

I don’t understand the point of people not having stair gates at the top AND the bottom though. Surely you need them both ends?

When dc1 was around 15 months I think. Dc2 was an early climber having been trained on her cot by dc1 so they never went back up.

@Justheretoaskaquestion91

We actually don’t close the one at the top of the stairs at night though, not since 3 year old sleep walked once, as I was so scared he would sleep climb over it.

I don’t understand the point of people not having stair gates at the top AND the bottom though. Surely you need them both ends?

When toddlers and babies fall their bodies will instinctively roll or tumble to avoid impact to the head and neck. If there’s a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs that rolling motion can fracture bones when the child hits the gate. That’s why nurseries often have stairgates on doors & top of stairs.

I didn't have one but I only had one child to look after
Won't be getting one with my now 4 month old either
I Dont see a point in them I think they are more dangerous that stairs

My son started climbing over them around his 2nd birthday so I’d have gotten rid of them then had it not been for the dog. Now they’re mostly wide open unless I need to keep the dog separated

@Ozanj

But the stairgate at the bottom is surely to prevent them from climbing up stairs alone? And the stairgate at the top prevents them falling down at all

The stairgate at the bottom is only really for babies who can’t come down. It’s not for toddlers.

Can’t come down or climb.