What age do you let your child wander the house on there own

[Hitchyhero]

Our stair gate has fallen off at the bottom and I'm just wondering if now is the right time to let my child go up stairs on his own if he wants. But I don't know if he's too young? I'm terrified of him falling. He's nearly 3 in 2 months time.

I've just rejigged his room and put some of his Xmas items in his room and he now has his train set there and he clearly wants to go upstairs sometimes, but I can't supervise him constantly say if I'm in the kitchen cooking.

Obviously I need to think about items left about could be potentially unsafe, but I still don't know if unsupervised play in the house is right at this age. Should I just buy a new stair gate?

Mine was about that age I think. We had stair gates but really only closed them for play dates. I think it depends on your DS - is he the type to run around when excited, or the quiet type?

My children were going up and down the stairs themselves from about age 2 but i spent a bit of time practising the stairs with them- getting them to hold on to the bannister or to sit down on each step as they go down stairs.

I've let my daughter wander since she was about 7 or 8 months old but I'm in a flat with no stairs and I baby proofed everywhere. If you're cooking maybe just bring the toys downstairs to the living room. Or take him upstairs and lock the upstairs baby gate and close bathroom and other bedroom doors etc and do your cooking.

Mine was honestly less safe with a stairgate by about 16MO She could get herself up and down easily by then and she would just pull at the stairgates and mess about with them making it more likely she'd have an accident that way. She's 2.5 now and I have no issue leaving her in her alone in a room as long as I'm listening out for her but tbh she won't reliably keep herself busy with anything more than 10 minutes so I don't tend to bother much. She still likes me to at least be in the same room