When did you take the baby gates down in your home?

well my gates are still up,it makes it so much easier for me especially when im cooking and they stay in the living room,my babies still climb it,they have been climbing over for awhile now,but when they do that i just pick them up,and put them back over,ofcourse they dont listen all the time they are in the horrible 2 stage,which i feel this stage doesnt end,it goes on and on.but we do have most of the stuff in the house child proof,and the doors closed,but these kids are so smart that they know how to undo the stuff,so we have to be very careful and just teach them whats to touch and what not to touch.take care.pattie

I never relly used baby gates in our home. I did have one for the kitchen tho so that I could put up when I was trying to get dinner ready for the family. I have always just made sure the house was quite simple (not alot of stuff laying around) and that everything was safe for my newly mobile son. Instead of a baby gate for the stairs that led downstairs...we had a door. I think I stopped worrying about the door always being closed when he was around 2 or so. Once he showed that he wasnt interested in the stairs anymore as well as once I know he was ok to go down them if he choose to go near them. I would say leave the gates up as long as possible (or until they learn how to take them down :)) Better safe than sorry!!!

I do daycare in a large home with both an upstairs and a downstairs. When the children first come to me I take them upstairs and downstairs so they can see that there is nothing fabulous there (just bedrooms and our basement) and then teach them that those places are off limits. I never have gated my upstairs because it has a strange bannister and the gate does not stay up well. I am not willing to screw the gate into my woodwork either. I do gate the basement stairs because I suppose it would be possible for a child to fall down the stairs (but you can't fall UP the stairs!). I simply teach the children that the stairs are off limits(and the bathroom, and anywhere else I don't want them to be) and if they choose to go upstairs anyway they will be in trouble. The little ones usually have to sit in time out a couple of times before they figure out that it is just not worth going up the stairs. Obviously I remove any objects that might pose a threat to a small child, but other than that I don't go to extremes to childproof the house. For example, they have to learn that they are allowed to read the board books (on the bottom shelf where they can reach them) and to leave the "big kid" books (on the higher shelves) alone, or they will have to sit in time out. I hope this does not make it sound like the kids are in time out all the time at my house, because time out is truly a rare incident. You also have to consider that Grandma, Uncle Joe, or other people you might visit probably have not placed everything valuable or dangerous out of reach of a small child. Kids need to learn boundries without having to put up roadblocks all over. lol I feel for you though. I have been doing daycare for a while and I know there are certain kids who just can't resist temptation!

i think two and a half years is about right. We did it when out youngest daughter was 2 and a half but it had interesting consequences. Her elder sister, who was then almost 5, became very protective and would guide her little sister around the house blessed be

We just took the baby gate down when we moved to our new house . Inside the house , although we still have one set up outside on the deck so she can't get down the stairs and onto the road . My daugther is now two and she is free to run the new house . It is so much bigger and was so much easier to baby proof although I don't have to worry about to much because there are so many of us that there is always someone in a room to make sure she is not getting into things as there are four other children besides her and then my husband and I . I can't think of any extreme measures we have had to take with any of the children to baby proof . Cleaners and such were always kept well out of reach and still are and any potential dangers are kept up so that the younger children can not reach them even if they were to grab a chair and climb . My other children were somehow easier as they didn't try to get into things but my youngest will climb anything and will do things the other children never did before so she has to be watched with hawk eyes or she will find some way to get into something she knows she is not allowed to have . Maybe because there are so many of us in the house or she is just smart enough to figure things out quickly , she has always been able to master getting into what she wants with little effort . When we had the baby gate up at the other house for the stairs , she figured out that she could get up the stairs with the gate up by climbing through the rails as she was tiny enough to fit through the rails . When we tried to block the room she would push anything out of the way to get in the room . We would have taken drastic measures if we could have thought of anything that would have worked but we couldn't think of any way to keep her out of rooms we didn't want her in so someone always had to be and still does have to be in the same room as her or she will find her way into something she should not have . Your little one was extremely clever though as she even figured out how to get into locked rooms . My older children still haven't figured out how to do this yet lol .

i use to put my son in a dragger. so he could nt get far to open locks,doors etche used to push the dragger all over the places in the house.he was happy to be there in that.

I have a baby saftey gate only up at the bathroom door so my daughter doesnt get in and play with the toilet.LOL.SHe will be 2 years old on the 12th of this month.MY son is 3 and a half years old so he know a little better as to what not o get into.But thats not to say the have the honery moments.LOL.I cannot put a gate up in the kitchen doorway because the doorway is to wide to do that.I just put saftey locks on the cabinents that have cleaning chemicals,ect. in them and also the side that has trash bags and store bags I put a saftey lock on them as well.Where we used to live I liked it because I could out the chemicals on a high shelf so they couldnt get to them.But when they got older and could possibly get to them I would put them somewhere and have a lock on the cabinent.But we moved to a house and all I have to put the clenaing stuff ,ect. in is a cabinent.SO I got lcks that go around the knobs of the cabinents and they cannot get them open.I also have a door saftey knob on the back door leading to the basement only because it could be easier for them to open.People might think I am a over protective parent I give the kids some freedom but when it comes to their saftey and them getting into cleaning stuff,et.You can never be to careful .