Stairs to front of property

[gold3nch1c]

Hi. We've just had our offer accepted for our home. We're moving from a small two bedroom terrace with a drive in London to a 4/5 bed terrace with a garage accessed from the back (no drive) in Kent .To access the property however, you have to go up about 8 steps (it's not ground level). Currently a mum of 2 under 2, I don't currently drive only DH does. From a mum perspective,how inconvenient do you think those steps will be on a day to day basis?

Very. I had steps leading up to my house when I had a 2.6 year old and a newborn. It was horrendous. My double pram didn't fit down it either so had to do multiple journeys to get us all in and out, up and down. Really really hard work

They will be an absolutely nightmare. Not only from how you will traverse them with two little ones but I'd be afraid of the falling down them for a few years yet too.

I had about 8 steps to my front door when I had 2 small DC and it didn't bother me at all.

I had a buggy that folded with one hand so with one DC it was easy to carry toddler and buggy together. When 1 was a baby and then again with DC2 I just detached the carry cot, ran that upstairs and came back for buggy/DC2 and buggy.

It's only a few steps.

It will be v hard for 3 years while you are dealing with the buggy and toddler etc. after that it will be much easier.

is there a small front garden so you could have a shed and put the buggy in the front shed? Then you don’t have to carry it every time.

I had this when I had my first baby - just left the pushchair permanently in the boot of the car so that solved that. It did of course leave me carrying baby up and down but it was fine. There is always something that will be annoying. Ironically when we moved, just before I had my second baby, we moved to a house with stairs down from the road to the front door! Which was equally not much bother and again the pushchair lived in the car boot.

Thanks for the different perspectives. Just nervous and having second thoughts as I am wondering if it should be a deal breaker or not. I should mention that there's a garage at the back of the property which I can use to leave the house as it's second before an end of terrace of house. There is also a front garden at the front door of the house. And there's stairs from the main street to access the front garden and front door...

Sounds like a whole world of steps if you decided to out for a walk then? And once they’re both toddling/young children they’ll be wobbling up/down those steps with you watching/waiting to catch them? I’d say no sorry- they’ll really struggle and for you it’ll slow everything down. Unless you’ll hardly ever be walking though.

Honestly it really wasn't a big deal for me. And that included a few weeks where one of the steps was broken and we all had to walk over it/carry DC over. You'll end up going up and down them a lot more often than you would if you were childfree is all!

Yes, we bought our house that has 13 steps from the street to our front door. It was a nuisance for a while but they soon grow out of needing buggies. Had a 3yo and 6mo when moving here, and had two additional children years later here (2 under 2). 14 years and counting living in our family home!

Congratulations on the move. You'll find a way to make it work🙌

there's a garage at the back of the property which I can use to leave the house

When it’s dark at 4pm will you be wanting to use that entrance?
Do you have to use the big garage door or is there also a normal door in the garage to use?
Just thinking an up and over door, toddler, bags of shopping would be equally hard as toddler, shopping, steps.

Not a problem

We have a full set of stairs (12 I think) at the front door as house is built into slope.
I just bounced our mountain buggy pram up and down every day for 3 years of pram use. The large tyres made it super easy. We also have a small handluggage type pram and that just went up and down folded.

our garage is also a few minutes walk from door. It’s a bit annoying in rain, and I had to pull car out to load larger pram. But honestly it’s never been a problem. Ds doesn’t use a pram now and it’s such a short time really, a few years max.

Very. I lived in a house with a big ramp leading up to our row of houses when the kids were little. That was a pain, but I remember saying that I was grateful it wasn’t steps. Don’t underestimate how much of a pain it will be getting kids safely up / down with shopping, moving goods in etc. It would be a big no from me.

We have 12 steps up to our front door. I used to bounce the pram up and down. When you’ve been shopping you take the DC in and make sure they are safe, then you get the shopping. And, remember, they will grow up and be able to do the stairs themselves soon enough.