Do you use safety gates or barriers?

[briggsy's girl]

we have one between our main living area and the "adult" area - our bedroom, and the formal lounge/bar. there is a lot of glass up that end of the house, so it's done for safety. it became a very important thing for us when we moved in because there is no security door at the front door as well - so we keep it closed to keep her away from the front door unless we're there.

[Rowellen]

We don't have any gates but we do have a playpen that's set up surrounding our computer desk. We don't have enough rooms to have a separate study so the computer is in the living room. There are so many cords & things that I don't want destoyed or could be dangerous so I think it's justified. We have a single level house so we don't need to block off stairs. I have often thought about what I'd do if we did have stairs, & I would definately use a gate. While it's great the kids have freedom, they also need to be safe, & it's impossible to be watching them every second. It only takes a second for an accident to happen so better safe than sorry IMO.

[LuluHB]

In our old house I had gates at the top of the stairs, and a gate on a hallway downstairs. The downstairs gate together with some other doors restricted the girls to the kitchen, dining room and family room, although once DD1 could reach the doorhandles we needed a gate across the doors as well. I think in a two storey house they're pretty much required equipment, and the layout of your house decides how many you need.

Our house now is single storey and I don't think I'll have a need for gates this time around, but that will depend on how adventurous this baby turns out to be.

[Mrs P]

We have one that blocks off the kitchen and also the laundry that comes off it, mainly because the laundry has cat food and a litter box. It was a pain to get used to but it's peace of mind for us. The rest of the house is plenty of space to explore!

[Loveinamist]

We live in a two storey Terrace house (UK) so we have one at the top of the stairs so DS can freerange over all the first floor. Downstairs we have a sort of open plan arrangement with the kitchen and lounge (nowhere near as open plan as you get in Aus. I guess it is just an open doorway into the kitchen from the lounge. Pretty open plan for the UK!) So we have a gate in the doorway to the kitchen. We often leave it open so DS still gets access but when the oven is hot or what we are doing is unsafe etc, we can shut it.