Stairgates?

[Coldhands]

We have just decorated our front room, which is where the stairs are too. My DS is 2.3 and has always been very good with the stairs. We have left the bottom gate off since decorating (couple of weeks ago) and he goes up occasionally (top gate is still there and shut) and never has a problem.

I sometimes nip up to the loo, or nip out the back to put the washing out which leaves DS on his own in the frontroom. Basically, would you put the gate back on as he is still quite young or just leave it off now?

if he can manage the stairs fine he would probably be ok.....but he is still small so I guess he could lose his footing and hurt himself. Might be an idea to put it on for your own peace of mind...

When we took the gate off the bottom of the stairs, DH insisted that the top gate be left open, so that if the DCs got upstairs, they had somewhere to go, IYSWIM, rather than try to turn round on the tiny landing to come back down. Top stairgate is shut at night, to prevent little people wandering off downstairs in the night (DD2, who's 4, can get a bit confused looking for the loo in the middle of the night!).

So, I'd leave it off but think about leaving the top gate open when he's downstairs, IYSWIM.