What annoys you about baby gates ?

[user1491577193]

Hello,

I'm a new member here as we have a little one on the way.

We're on the search for a new baby gate for our baby due in August (yes I know its early, however it gives us time to research).

We've had lots of experience with friends and family members with little ones who have various baby gates and many are a real pain.

What annoys me is;

They don't open automatically for parents when your hands are full or you can't reach the opening mechanism.

They don't all auto close and those that are supposed to don't do a very good job.

There aren't any really good universal ones so depending on if you have walls of not you have to buy different gates.

They all look a bit clinical.

I'd love to know what your pet hates and annoyances are for baby gates so I can give this some real thought.

Thanks all for considering your reply and look I forward to reading your replies as one or two might have funny stories attached, hopefully not to many horror stories

I hate trip bars.

Toddlers that can open them. . All bloody cable tied shut now!!

Trip bars!! Also if they are easy for parents to open they are for toddlers too.

Loved mine, easy to open if you knew how to and toddlers just didn't have the strength, also it just pushed shut

Yes toddlers open them but you lose this ability after 60 years of age.
My dm and Mil would be there for hours if I didn't let them out.
In fact it could be marketed for this purpose alone

Just googled ours were Lindam extending push to shut ones

That when I'm carrying washing up the stair, I forget the gate it shut so I'm trying to balance the washing now with one hand and open the most awkward opening gate ever with one hand whilst trying not to fall down the stairs and die.

When u try stepping over it and get a fanny bash

I hate them! In the end we bought travel baby gates (these were no good for the top of stair cases but this was not an issue for us) that way we could be free of them in the evening or on days when we were both home. We also only really ever needed one on the kitchen when we were cooking.

That said I also had one of these for DC's 3 and 4, more to keep them safe from older DC's (small age gaps).

The plus with the travel gates is that they cover a fairly wide rage of door sizes. We are just about to get rid of the last one...yippee.

Fanny bash ha ha x

You can get wooden ones that look less clinical rather than the standard white ones. We also had a lindam 3 part one in the kitchen that has stood up to a lot of use and was ok to open once you got the knack of it.

I don't think I'd have liked one that auto closed (tbh I didn't even know that was possible), as I think I'd like to have control over shutting it.

Ours have trip rails and I can say they bother me - I deliberately chose these U-pressure ones as we have a new house and I didn't want to drill into all the walls.

It's so true that grandparents are unable to open them. I get woken up numerous times each night FIL stays as he battles to open the stair gate to get to the bathroom!

We didn't bother with them. Kids had no problems with stairs. Supervised them going up and down and they got the hang of it pretty quickly. Never fell down. Only time my eldest fell on stairs was tripping over a stair gate trip bar at a friends house.

1. Toddler screaming like a caged animal if I leave the room for 30 seconds and close the gate to stope her following me.
2. Feeling like my vagina has been punched with the force of a heavyweight boxer when I try to climb over it and trip
3. DH always "forgets" to fucking close it!

Fanny bash hehehe

I think wooden ones look nicer than white metal ones. Or at least in our house they did.

For keeping crawling babies safe for a while I found a huge playpen more useful. I could park one DT in there with some toys while I dealt with the other one.

The sodding bar at the bottom, I've broken a toe on that bastard.

Brilliant! Informative AND entertaining. Keep 'em coming.