Baby gates and under 2s

[LoftyTealSwan]

I've got a mum friend who has a 20 month old toddler. He can apparently open baby gates and doors. I guess he can reach doors to open them but I thought baby gates were a lot harder because they require the opener to be slid to the left and lifted up, in that order and without a break?

She's a friend of a friend and find she bends the truth alot. So no sure if it's just my dislike for her picking this up as another lie or not.

Even if she is lying about it, so what?

I will have to rethink my security measures for my child?

Different baby gates working if different way. I never had one which works the way described here.

I wouldnt want my child to risk falling down the stairs. So I would buy a taller room divider to keep him safe in the room until he can go down stairs safely

If your DC can open your baby gate before they can manage the stairs then rethink then. At worst this is a future problem

I've known multiple children who could open baby gates at that age, it's not uncommon or unusual and certainly not something a person would lie about.

Really depends on your child and their nature and their gross motor skills. Mine were little escape artists who could get out of almost anything! Even if they could open a baby gate from about 15 month they could climb over it!
I had friends with docile DC who wouldn't even attempt it.

Some gates are much easier to open.

Also not all DC will figure that kind of thing out.

I don't think you need to change your gates if your child can't open them.

That's interesting. Mine is BabyDan/SafeTots. How does your open?

Not surprising that a baby can figure out gates, it's not like breaking military encryption systems.

I saw on social media a child climbing over two stacked baby gates lol lol lol.

Not sure, my friends little boy would climb it, he was an early walker and climbs everything.
My little girl doesn't stand a chance 😂
It depends on your toddler :)

Bit of a weird comparison....

I’m well past baby gates (youngest is 5) I seem to remember a button to press in as you lifted the handle. I had tall children and climbers so not long after they turned 5 I removed them anyway.

What if it is a taller room divider, 105cm tall. What age do you think it would keep them from escaping? A room divider is a baby gate but just in sections.

We had one which you had to push in a button with your thumb and that would allow you to lift up the handle. If you used one hand it was doable but tricky, with two hands it was really easy. Also you only had to lift the handle slightly to let go of the button as then the fact the handle was up would keep the button depressed. Really easy for a curious and determined toddler to figure out! I just distracted mine if I saw them trying to do it so they would never quite get there, DS2 got it at about 3 but was OK to go in and out of the kitchen on his own by then anyway.

Ah right I was thinking maybe they would be ok until 3/4? I'm trying to think of family members and what they did.

My mum can't remember having baby gates so goodness knows that we did lol

Do you know what kind of baby gates she has?

There is no chance any kids would open ours when they are locked. It's a press and lift system, even if they could figure out how to lift the gate they would never have the finger strength to press the button to unlock it.

But I have seen some much easier to open. For instance our nursery has one to separate 2 areas which is just lift and push, our 3 yo opens it easily. I have also seen some that I think we're designed for pets rather than children with no real locking system.

Ah right. Yes the ones I have are really hard to open.

Bit of a weird thing to call a stranger a liar about it, and go posting about it in a forum full of strangers...

Not sure. She sends about 20 messages to my one liner and she not clear in what she is trying to communicate.

But weird you don't understand threads or people....

My DN is 2.5 and can open the baby gate, although not quickly so it is only an issue if he’s left unsupervised for several minutes.

My 75-year-old mother still can’t open the baby gate despite being shown multiple times and makes a big performance of having to climb over it any time she wants to use the stairs.

I think you are 100% overthinking this. Keep the set up you have and if you think your DC is getting close to working it out, then first analyse if you even need a gate there, and if you do, look for another solution.

The lock on ours was really stiff, it was tricky for an adult to do one handed and our child never managed to get into it despite many hours investigating.