Where can your LO go?

sdpookie13

In your homes...how much freedom does your LO have?  Are they able to freely go anywhere in your house or are they gated to a particular room or rooms?  We pretty much feel comfortable with her going anywhere but during the day when we're home we shut our bedroom and bathroom doors and she's free to roam anywhere else.  Although, she's starting to figure out how to open those doors so it's time to get the baby proof knob covers! 

JoJoMama730

We just gave her access to a "new" part of the house (kitchen and back room) and she is loving having new areas to roam.  She was previously confined to just the living and dining area, and I figured that small of a space was getting pretty boring.  She has her own cupboard in the kitchen with a tub of stuff for her to play with, and every chance she gets, she pulls it out and spreads the stuff all over the kitchen floor.  When we're upstairs, I pretty much let her roam in any of the bedrooms and the bathroom, though I keep a good eye on her.

lrn327

He has free access to the kitchen, living, and dining areas which is most of our place.  We generally close off the bedrooms and bathrooms though too.  He is fascinated with the stove knobs so we just pulled them off and only put them on when actively cooking.  It's actually worked really well.  I have an oven lock for that door. 

[Deleted User]

Pen has free range over our upstairs (bedrooms and a bath), and the main floor (kitchen, living room, dining room).  By free range, I mean that she can be left unattended if need be for a period of time AND it's kid resistant. 

The downstairs has all the bookcases, the fireplace, the laundry room (with the cat's food & litter boxes), as well as our office.  We can close a door to restrict the bathroom, laundry room, and office if need be.  However, I just don't feel like dealing with the bookcases.  She IS allowed down there to play, but one of us is always with her.  

TBLilyRose

We only live in a small apartment so he can go anywhere, though I do keep the bathroom door closed since the baby latch on one cabinet broke and he finally realized it the other day. He hasn't learned he can lift the toilet cover up yet but I'm sure it won't be long so I try not to let him go in there when I'm not right with him.

OhSewCrafty

TBLilyRose:

We only live in a small apartment so he can go anywhere, though I do keep the bathroom door closed since the baby latch on one cabinet broke and he finally realized it the other day. He hasn't learned he can lift the toilet cover up yet but I'm sure it won't be long so I try not to let him go in there when I'm not right with him.

Pretty much this. We close our bedroom door too a lot of the time, but otherwise he's free to crawl. 

CFH79

Our spare bedroom isn't baby-proofed, so we keep that door closed.  If she heads into the laundry room (dog's food/water) or the bathrooms, we will close those doors, but she can roam in our bedroom, kitchen, livingroom and her bedroom freely.  Though, if she goes into her bedroom, we usually will follow her in there.

KissyFishyLips

She has access to the full "back" of the house, where our main living areas are. So, she can wander the kitchen/breakfast area, family room, and half of our huge office, which we converted to a sitting area and play area.  

There are gates blocking off the "office" part of the office, the foyer, and the walkway to butler pantry/powder room/dining room. We also pull the pocket door to shut her out from the mudroom off the kitchen (dog bowl is in there).

When I'm sitting on the couch, I can see her in all of these areas, so that's why we blocked off the front of the house.

Then we have her playroom in the basement. She isn't allowed to roam upstairs yet (just plays in her nursery with her door shut if I'm putting her laundry away or something).  That's because we still have to get gates for the top of the stairs.

kj07

B mostly has free range downstairs - we keep the bathroom and laundry/mudroom doors closed.  Our living room is (almost) completely baby-proofed so we leave him unattended there, but only if we're downstairs in the kitchen.  We don't leave him alone in the kitchen, but he's got some areas that are his and we try to direct him towards those. 

kj07

KissyFishyLips:

She has access to the full "back" of the house, where our main living areas are. So, she can wander the kitchen/breakfast area, family room, and half of our huge office, which we converted to a sitting area and play area.  

There are gates blocking off the "office" part of the office, the foyer, and the walkway to butler pantry/powder room/dining room. We also pull the pocket door to shut her out from the mudroom off the kitchen (dog bowl is in there).

When I'm sitting on the couch, I can see her in all of these areas, so that's why we blocked off the front of the house.

Then we have her playroom in the basement. She isn't allowed to roam upstairs yet (just plays in her nursery with her door shut if I'm putting her laundry away or something).  That's because we still have to get gates for the top of the stairs.

Our gates finally just came in the mail last night.  So glad we aren't the only ones lagging on this.

EVM1216

We have a pretty small house and LO has access to all the "public areas:" the kitchen and living room, as well as her room.  We usually close off our bedroom and the computer room and the bathrooms, although I've been lazy about it lately and she's left my bathroom alone.  She tends to prefer to be were we are so it's not been to big of a deal.

jarebearsmom

DS has free range of pretty much everything except for our bedroom, the laundry room, the spare bedroom, and his bathroom. We have to watch him in the living room because the fireplace is in there and we all know how much he loves getting in that fireplace. He doesn't know how to get in the cabinets so if he takes a toy in the kitchen it's not that big of a deal because we can still hear him. As for the bookcase, we keep the bottom 2 shelves with some toys on it so he doesn't try to get above those.

jillybean800

We have a gated living room and sunroom and he basically spends his time in there for free crawling and exploring.  We are thinking of moving our gate to include the dining room for his free exploration, but we haven't figured out what to do about our wine rack, which also has our wine glasses on it (we don't really have anywhere else to put that stuff)  We only go upstairs when it's time to sleep honestly, so we haven't even baby proofed those areas.  He's allowed in the kitchen when one of us is in there, but usually he is very content to sit in his high chair in the kitchen and play with a toy or watch us cook.

Anyone have any suggestions about the wine rack?  I'm thinking some kind of cover?

GrayGhost13

Sounds like I'm in the minority, but we limit him to one room at a time, and there are certain areas he's not allowed in ever at all (kitchen, bathroom, hall where the litter box is). We have two dogs and a cat, and we never leave them together unsupervised, so knowing where LO and pets are at all times is a necessity.

Plus at this stage, if I so much as turn my back for 30 seconds LO is destroying something, climbing something or "adjusting" our electronics. I can't imagine the trouble he'd cause if he were allowed free reign of the house.

I think we will be using gates for a while...just imagining him roaming the house loose is making me sweat. LOL

Five Months to Plan

The family room and kitchen are free space. We also have a living room that is just blocked by a laundry basket. We try to keep her out of there but it is not a big deal if she goes in. She has has free range of her room. If she is in our bedroom or the basement one of us is with her. Those doors are closed and a door knob safety thing on the one to basement. We also keep the bathroom door closed becuasei f we do not she tries to get in the tub to get her toys. I am afraid she will fall in head first.

chrisncassie

He can go anywhere downstairs that he wants.  We do keep an eye on him when he sneeks into our bedroom though.  We have a huge garden tub that is currently covered and holding our plants - and he LOVES to turn the water on and make a freaking mess! 

Going to need to get a gate for the upstairs though, so he can't go up as he pleases and fall down the stairs

lilmgirl

LO can go pretty much anywhere.  He's learning he can't go up the stairs unless someone is with him.  We have gates to "lock" him in our lower living area where all of his toys are when we need to do stuff where we can't watch him.  Otherwise, he's free to roam.

kat81again2

We let LO go everywhere, but we have practically nothing babyproofed, so we just have to watch him like a hawk. It is annoying and I think we ought to babyproof more. We just kept buying things, bringing them home, and realizing that they didn't work with our furniture for some reason or another. ugh. 

TMNTgirl

Pretty much anywhere in the whole house. We have a very small house and the kitchen/dinning/living spaces are all open, so there would be no way to gate them off at all.

Sometimes I'll shut our bedroom door and the spare room door. But if I'm in those rooms while he's awake then he's usually in there with me. 

He plays in our bathroom (the cabinets are baby-proofed) while we shower/get ready in the morning. And he loves going into our walk-in closet and pulling out all my shoes and bringing them to me in the bathroom or putting them in laundry baskets. He makes a mess, but I don't mind cuz it keeps him occupied when I'm getting ready. And at the end of the day it takes like 30 seconds to clean up.

Moonbeam828

W's allowed access to about half of the house.  We keep all the doors to the other bedrooms/bathrooms down the hallway closed, but he can go in his bedroom.  We keep the door to our bedroom closed too (lately it's just as much to keep the cats out).  The laundry room is gated off too, because the litter box is in there (and the gate is just as much to keep the dogs out of the box).  So he can go in the office/playroom, family room, dining room, kitchen and his own bedroom.  Otherwise, he's only allowed in the other rooms if he's supervised.

alicb

We keep DD confined to the living room a lot, this is where all of her toys are and the one place that is 100% baby proof.  We do let her roam free a little bit but it's only when one of us can follow her around and keep an eye on her.  My MIL actually recently told my DH she thought DD was "bored" and was worried that we always kept her "cooped up" which pissed me off.  Maybe we should work on baby proofing the rest of the house... it would just require a couple more gates and securing a bookshelf.

And just because I'm super defensive about this I will add 90% of the time I play with DD in the living room.  Our day usually consists of story time, some puzzles, shape sorters, stacking stuff, and song time.  Not to mention I build little "tunnels" for her to crawl through (she loves this).  It is not like I just toss her in there and go about my day.  I give her about an hour a day for playing by herself because I think it's important that she learns to entertain herself and then I do most everything else during her nap - which is 2-4 hours. 

Wow, that got long sorry, I will stop shouting at my MIL through the Bump now. 

bosha711

He is allowed everywhere except the bathroom. He's only allowed in there for bathtime, obviously. I don't really like him going in our unfinished basement, but MH takes him down there with him sometimes when he does laundry.

Our house is very small, so I can't imagine sectioning him off - especially b/c he's cared for in our home. I don't think it'd be fair.

jessrenee11

Our house is small and very open so she is free to roam. It's not all baby proof but she is learning what she can and can not play/touch. She is never left alone so I refuse to waste my money on babyproofing (we have a gate on our stairs and outlet covers) I let her explore everything ( I have moved all harmful stuff out of reach)and distract her from what's she's not suppose to play with. It works for us

Mommysaurus123

He has access to almost everything except the home office, garage, and my craft area because there are needles and scissors everywhere.

He's only allowed in bathrooms if we're with him, or else he tries to play with the trash. (He can't get in the toilets, so no worries about drowning yet.)

We let him climb the stairs when we are right behind him. If he tries to climb them on his own, he turns around to see if we're looking and will fall down.