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Parenting

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Original poster

living room safety issue

8 replies

highgatemummy · 27/02/2009 19:05

hi ladies, thank gawd it's friday and all that...

wanted to quickly ask some sage advice on something (not sure if this is quite the right forum but can't think where else it might go!)

we moved into our new house last september and (because the house is built on a hill!) the living room is sort of divided into two areas - there's three stairs between the areas, and the 'drop' from the top stair to the bottom is probably about 3 feet.

I've got an incredibly lively DS who is 18 months old and so far has been fine with these stairs. we've been INCREDIBLY careful to watch him whenever his is near them, and he has been climbing up and down them with enjoyment and ease for months now. he runs around in the top living room and has always (so far) seemed to know not to get too close to the stairs. again, i always watch him carefully when he's doing this.

however, now he's increasingly confident and fast on his feet (running around - often in circles etc!) i'm actually getting more worried about this and considering putting a stairgate in. trouble is (without meaning to sound like an total interiors snob), this will look AWFUL! has anyone ever faced this issue? it does seem that he 'knows' to be careful around the stairs but is that utterly misguided of me? at what age does one tend to stop using stairgates? (we have them in our house on longer flights of stairs of course...). any advice would be greatly appreciated...many thanks x

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thisisyesterday · 27/02/2009 19:11

i wouldn't bother. if you haven't had one this far then I can't see any point now.

your ds will be fine, he knows the steps are there! and even if he did fall down it's only sa short way

nicewarmslippers · 27/02/2009 21:02

definitely no stair gate (and not because of design issues). He allready knows the stairs are there, the worse that will happen if he falls is a nasty fall and he'll learn from that. This is a valuable lesson. we needed a stair gate on our stairs as they were leathal (too steep and ended in a stone floor) but I think its best not to portect kids from all small obstacles

kbaby · 27/02/2009 21:40

I wouldnt put the stair gate up. He has already learnt that the step is there. If he does forget one day then its only a small fall and as long as it will be a soft landing he should be ok.
We had stair gates on top and bottom steps but once ds was 12 months the bottom stair was removed so he could walk up the stairs, he would get to the top and close the top one behind him
Hes now 2.5yrs and the top gate is still there but we only close it at night as he has been able to walk down the stairs unaided since 2yrs.

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MollieO · 27/02/2009 21:46

I wouldn't bother. We have the same thing in our house, steps all over the place (and I don't mean the staircase!). We taught ds to be careful and asked his playmates parents to keep an eye on their dcs when they came to visit. Only had one child who would launch himself off the top step if he could (from a wooden floor to tile so no soft landing). He would do the same from the top of the climbing frame in the local park so his mum knew to keep him away from our steps.

Original poster

highgatemummy · 28/02/2009 12:18

thanks for your reassuring responses ladies, and sorry for the delay in reply. really good to know. the floor at the bottom of the stairs is wooden but has a rug on it - very small chance he could hit the wood on either side of the rug in the event that he DID fall...but i guess, as they say, you can't wrap them in cotton wool all the time! thanks again...

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TheDevilWearsPrimark · 28/02/2009 12:19

It sounds fine, it's good for him to be used to stairs. Maybe you could get a fluffy pure wool rug that covers the area, just in case. Nothing worse than having a niggling doubt all the time.

UniS · 01/03/2009 20:53

sounds like you have done a good start on stair proofing the child. We make sure the best big place for playing run about game is not the top of the stairs, but further into the living room ( similar layout to you).

snickersnack · 01/03/2009 20:57

We have a split level sitting room - two steps down. Not as much as 3 feet, but I did worry when we first moved in. Both dcs fell down once, and got huge bumps on their heads, and never did it again. I'm sure it helped them get used to stairs - they were both pretty good at going up and down them very young, and it's made life easier in other respects as I've never worried too much about them navigating other stairs.

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