to wonder why having a stairgate is such a bad thing????

[LoveBeingAMummy]

OK, moving on quickly from this being a thread about a thread , HOWEVER why is having a stairgate seen as a negitive thing? I don't get it, really, why would you not have one?

Suspect she was being sarcastic, but DD is six months and have just bought our first carseat for a trip abroad, but (you guessed it) we don't have a car . Took the bus home from the hospital and everything

Was SO hoping to hold off buying one of our own until she could use a forward-facing one, but what can you do?

Do you reckon they sell adult, padded stairgates? I have been walking a rather long time and still frequently slip on my stairs, nearly tumbling down, including once or twice w DD in hand.

I use stairgates more for confining to an area or not allowing into an area. I dont want DS going upstairs during the day (especially when the windows upstairs are fully open as he DOES climb up given half the chance) and in the morning I dont want him going downstairs alone

all i ever used my stairgate for was confining too - on the living room door and DS1's bedroom door. DS2 is 14mths and I only started using the stairgate last week to keep the front door open when it was too hot to keep it closed.

Everyone on here seems to have used a stairgate for a different reason from me.
You all seem to be talking about very young ones crawing and falling back down stairs.

We use(d) a travel stairgate at the top of the stairs during the night. Both my older two were in beds and out of nappies at night by the time they were 2yrs. They are now 5 and 3 and both are still very dozy when going to the loo at night. DD1 especially and she has to walk right past the top of the stairs.

I don't think at 2yrs I could have felt sure she wouldn't have stumbled down the stairs. Not sure now and she's 3 and a bit!

So to those who don't use them at all; didn't you worry about them falling down the stairs in the dark at night when they went to the loo?

I'm much happier with a stairgate as DS1 sleepwalks. Who wants a toddler sleepwalking downstairs?

don't you worry about people getting in if you leave the front door open?

That's a good use too MRC!

Will definitely be keeping one at the top of the stairs and potentially at the front door even when DD is older as the door doesn't have a bolt and I don't want her leaving house without me.

[you think I'm kidding - mum is a twin and the two of them used to cooperate to leave home and wander at night @ ~2-3 yrs old; little brother managed to get social services called out to our house regularly by stripping to his skivvys and heading for the park @ 18 mos. we lived in lockdown for nearly a year. it runs in the family]

I suspect it depends on various factors. For me i've had them because lived in houses with very steep stairs with stone floors.

Also my children have been bottom shufflers so taken a while to learn to go up stairs as didn't crawl/climb up them easily.

DS2 also has no fear and will try and jump from top of stairs.

Up to the individuals though - am just guessing to use H&S speak that most people do some type of sub-conscious risk assesment of their home/children and decide accordingly.

I think allaboutme has grown up children?
[hopes they're at least 10 emoticon]

I have a stairgate and I don't even have stairs. It's fab for keeping kids out of the kitchen while I'm cooking, DD especially is still at the age of clinging onto my leg which isn't the safest when I'm carrying a pan of boiling water.

It has been involved in an accident that DH had, but he would probably have fallen anyway as it was something else that tripped him up.

sorry, being sarcastic.
i ahve stairgates (3 of them, lots of stairs!) and car seats!

just got riled into sarcasm by slight tone of 'well i weaned my ds at 3 weeks and HE'S fine' ness coming through
plus i saw the original thread and it did lump mothers who use stairgates into the same obsessive 'type' that never let children walk without reins and make the kids wash their hands every 5 mins

apologies for sarcasm. i love stairgates. i'm pretty sure one or both of my un co-ordinated kids would be seriously injured by now if i didnt have them!

So you were actually a stair gate user disguised as a parent of those feral types.

Well I've only needed reins for one of my 3. Coincidently, she's the same one who was out of nappies at night by 23mths. She isn't my first either.

She couldn't get on the loo by herself but she'd never shout for me until she was in there so she'd always zoom across the hall in the dark. No way would I risk her falling down steep stairs onto a solid floor in the dark. In theory she could have fallen and not even woken us as we're the other end of the hall. I really don't see that as over protective at all. I didn't see the other thread but I'm surprised people would see it that way.

Hey! My grandparents are SURE that I'm one of those feral types!

W/six kids my mum's criteria were:
1 - not bleeding
2 - fed
3 - relatively clean

In that order... nothing about being quiet or non-hellcats

I never used them. I never felt the need. I just taught my kids to do things safely.

I feel like we are living in a constant state of fear sometimes and all of this safety equipment is representitive of that.

But... however much you teach them weren't they sleepy and dozy in the night at 2yrs old?

Why is that being over cautious?

I was fed up of dd lifting out eyelids in the middle of the night to see if we were awake, so she has a stairgate on her bedroom door to limit her nocturnal wonderings.

I never had a child wandering down them at night, I don't blame you for using them in that case

when my twins were small i had stairgates at top and bottom of stairs,fireguard,play-pen,plug socket covers and child locks on fridge,freezer and the kitchen cupboards that contained bleach etc - just shoot me now!

Some houses, like ours, have very steep stairs. And stairgates can be useful for other things, like turning the living room into a mega play pen.

Stairgates fitted top and bottom in this house.

But I have been keeping my toddler between them for the past year

Seriously though we have hard tiles on the floor downstairs, I'd rather DS crashed into the gate than walloped his head off those. Could get a thick rug I suppose but then we'd all keep tripping and falling over it.

Agree with pagwatch.

If you want one, buy one, I don't see any anyone would judge you for it. But many people don't feel the need to buy one and manage fine. I never bothered with stuff like cupboard locks either - just kept all poisonous stuff in a top cupboard not under the sink, sharp knives out of reach, and taught my kids not to go into the cupboards with crockery in. I never bothered with reins either. I agree with pagwatch too that there is a huge industry based on scaring parents into thinking they aren't a 'Good Parent' unless they spend a fortune on all sorts of gadgets. Of course we all want to keep our children safe. But this industry cynically exploits vulnerable new parents.

I wonder how long ago stair gates were invented

Ok, fine, but I'm fairly sure that if at 23mths DD1 had fallen down stairs in the dark in a half awake state on her way to the loo and knocked herself out on the tiles and possibly been there all night, the first question everyone would have asked me is why I didn't have a stairgate up!

I hate my stairgates and have three of the bloody things one at kitchen door, one at top of stairs and one at bottom. But then I am a childminder and have to bow to the great God of OFSTED. What actually happens is my kids in the house = no stair gate anyone elses=all shut tight!