Do you use safety gates or barriers?

Just curious as to how many members use safety gates and or barriers?

We have a very large, double story house with wooden balustrades that have large enough gaps for my kids to fall down. We have safety gates on every door way that leads into that area. We also have an extra one on a doorway that leads into the kitchen, one on the doorway for the bathroom and a large barrier with a gate that separates our lounge room, giving the little ones their own play area.

Now, I have heard that my use of gates is excessive and that kids should be able to be free range. Anyone that has come to my home however thinks differently as it is noticeable that the gates are there for safety purposes. The gate to the bathroom stops DD2 from putting things down the toilet but DS2 is still able to open it. When DD2 is being toilet trained we will remove it.

What are your thoughts on gates & barriers?

We have a gate at our kitchen as we have a low oven and I was also worried about stove.

A friend who has a 2 story house that had a "wire type" support stuff upstiars actually had a plastic fitted all the way along so what kids could not fall or lean on wire stuff. She also has gate at top and bottom of stairs.

I think that gates are a great peace of mind for everyone. Yes kids should have freedom but within reason they dont need access to the kicthen etc when they are small and exploring.

Love gates, barriers etc. Never seen anybody go overboard with them, we all have reasons that work for OUR families and anybody that tells you its excessive will be somebody who doesnt have to clean up after the accidents. Tell them where to go hun.

we have a three story house and gates all the way up the stairs. If it keeps your children safe then you need to have them.

I have a gate on the kitchen, with an almost 4, 3 and 2 yr old it is as much for their safety as my sanity.
The few times they have got in to the kitchen the eggs in the fridge have been their favorites!
My little ones still have freedom but it is safe freedom.

we don't have any gates or barriers. however we do live in a small, single level home so there isn't a concern regarding stairs (which i would def have a gate/barrier for). we also only have one child at the moment - i think once #2 arrives & gets close to being mobile that we will be looking into gates. DS is only just getting to the point where he can reach the door handles so we have been able shut doors as a safety precaution as well.

and i think it's like most things - only you know what works best for your family & gives you the most peace of mind.

Im not personally a fan BUT in our situation we have a single story house. I know it would be different if we had 2 stories though! We do close the bathroom door and as yet DD isnt tall enough to open it but the toilet is always open as is the kitchen. We were pretty persistant in teaching her not to the oven, the cupboard under the sink is locked but otherwise its free range. But like Sloane, we just have the 1 child too :)

We have one on the kitchen to keep ds out when we are in there though he comes in. we do like him to roam free :)

We have gates as we have a second storey and a split level so it's way too dangerous not too. I can't in the kitchen as the opening is too wide so I have a safety latch on the oven.

We have a gate to the kitchen, and then a gate to our study, which is DH's and my area, so no kids allowed lol. Our kitchen is a small U shape, and they just get under feet, which IMO, is unsafe especially when cooking. Maybe if the kitchen floorspace was bigger, it wouldn't be an issue. We just have 2 kids chairs at the end of the kitchen bench that DS and DD can stand on when we are cooking.

As with most things related to parenting, its a personal choice. I know that I am more safety conscious than a friend, but then its a personality thing with me to worry about the small things.

Ours started out as doggie gates, but will be practical when bubs gets here too.

We have one from our kitchen to lounge (originally to keep dogs off carpet when we werent home, now to keep kids away from hubbys games machines unsupervised), from lounge to hall way (stop dogs/kids accessing lounge from the other side) and for now we have one on bubs rooms to keep the dogs out but that will be moved later to separate hall way from back part of house (steep step).

People always comment on our gates. Works for us lol.

No, never but then again we don't have stairs and I did initially have 'locks' on the dangerous cupboards but DD knows not to go in them now (she is 4yo)

We dont have any gates at the moment, but we dont have a need for them. One of our previous houses we lived in we had an area fenced off so that DD1 couldnt get into the cat food, water and litter. But now we dont have a need for them and when we move into the new house we wont need them again.

But you do what works for you and gives you the peace of mind you need.

No, I haven't used them with either but I may have if I had stairs or something.

We used to use them on the stairs and also after a rather scary episode we put one over the door to the room with the kitty litter.

We have 3 gates which keeps DS out of the hallway/bathroom/kitchen/master bedroom. This would equal 1/4 of our floorspace so still plenty of room to roam free but safely! Its great when we have other little ones here too, we (all the mummies) know they aren't "out of bounds" :)

Only bothered in the first house and then only had gate across the doorway to the kitchen. Every other room had its own door.

For some reason we have not bothered in this house, probably due to every room having door as well. Thinking about it, probably more due to having clingy babies/toddlers, always had to have them in the same room as me otherwise they got too distressed.

No we don't use them.

We have a single storey home but if it were doible storey I would use it on the stairs. We do not have any locks on the cupboards nor do we restrict access to the kitchen. AT the moment supervising one child is ok, we do have to repeatedly tell her NOT to go into the cupboards etc and it can be frustrating butwe believe she needs to learn what not to do by being told rather than "keeping things locked" so to speak.

I say that now but we may reaccess once the baby comes.

We also have removed all the sharps from the drawers as well as poisons.

Nae x

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.