when do you take stairgates down?

[MaeBee]

have a 15mth old and the top stairgate is no longer useable. or rather, our weak walls wont keep up a stairgate anymore. wondering if we should look into a different type or whether its just a couple of months before we can take them down?
hes totally competent going up the stairs and is careful to hold onto the bannisters going down, but hes only little still...

I think 15 mnths is a bit little. and remmeber, when he moves into a bed and is getting up on his own potentially at night,in the dark, you dont want him tumbling down the stairs by accident.

I took ours down very late. DS1 was 5 and DS2 was 3. I left them up so long because they frequently got up at night and wandered around, and they were very fast up and down the stairs and I worired they woiuld lose balance.

I also took my fire guard down VERY late, when they were 5 and a half and 3 and a half, because they both pranced about in the lounge so madly that someone was always banging himself against it, and I would rahter it was the guard than the fire behind it.

Maybe invexst in a different brand?

I took mine down about 6 months ago (maybe more?).

Realised there was no point to them when ds kept unscrewing them off the wall and could open them easier than we could.

Ds is now 3.3.

You could always try for a bit and then put them up if it becomes problem.

Hi I have ds1 - 3 and ds2 - 16 months - no longer use my top gate in the day as both are fine up and down stairs - but find it essential in the night because when ds1 gets up in the morning he kind of weaves across the landing to our room still half asleep and has bumped into it a few times - dread to think what would have happened if it wasn't there

DD is 2.3 and we took the top stair gate off a couple of months ago (after she was 2). Realised we hadn't used it at all for a while (but the position of it and bedroom doors was such that I wasn't worried about nocturmal wanderings).

When you've finally given up on allowing other peoples children upstairs!! In all seriousness, I left mine up until no3 was 2 yrs for exactly the reasons stated by the previous posters.

thanks. i would have happily left ours up of course, but, as i said, our walls are crumbling. our shelves are all falling down too. damn these beautiful useless old houses!
boy still in cot, so hadn't thought about the night issue. hmmm. must give it some thought.

DD is 19 months - we only have a gate at the top of the stairs - I only close it if we are spending alot of time upstairs. she is pretty good at getting up and down the stairs on her own now. will need to use it when she goes into a bed.

My stair gates came down when dd2 was 15 months as we had pressure mounted ones - she had managed to push all of them over - twice squashing her fingers between the kitchen floor and the gate and once she pushed the one down at the top of the stairs and went tumbling down the stairs.
I spent two days showing her how to go down the stairs feet first on her tummy (which she loved).

She is now 2.1 and a nighttime wanderer so the stairgate has gone up on her bedroom door instead.

never had them.

Never had them here either.

I agree with 3sEnough.
My stairgates were used mainly so that other peoples kids would stay downstairs. Even if it only slowed them down long enough for me to hear what they were doing.

re: keeping kids downstairs...my dp keeps many of his "precious things" in our museum of a living room. my bedroom has somehow become the main playroom! its technically mine, but somehow we all hang out in it! it has advantages, means i can stay in bed in morning while ds plays!