Do you shut LOs door at bedtime?

bluejayway · July 2012

DD has slept in big beds instead of her crib a few times lately (vacations, grandma's, etc.) I'm considering moving get to a full bed at home, but just keeping it low and putting up a rail. I am, however, concerned she will get up. We currently close her door every night, after stories and rocking her a bit, we lay her down awake and leave her in her crib, bedroom door shut. Sometimes it takes 30 mins or so of talking to herself before she is asleep. If I had her in a big bed, I'm certain she'd wander. But is it mean to shut the door if she can't open it? We've always shut it to keep it quiet for her (we now have a younger DD who is right across the hall and DD2 is getting up every few hours to BF still, so I wouldn't want that to wake her.) There is also a baby monitor still in DD1's room, so its not lile she'd be flying free, totally! What have you done re: doors and big kid beds?

dragon_chica · July 2012

No, it's not mean. We've always shut her door at bedtime. DD rarely wandered and when she did I would go in and lead her back to her bed. In the beginning there were times when I was so tired of going back and forth I just let her be and she would end up falling asleep in front of her door. Nowadays we don't have that problem. She is now able to open her door but the only time she does is if she needs to go pee or can't sleep.

Kadyra · July 2012

It's not mean. We shut his door at night. Only recently we took the child lock off the inner doorknob. We open the door after he is asleep. He wakes us in the morning.

KateLouise · July 2012

I leave it open in the first instance, But if she starts wandering out I give her a warning, and if she still persists then I close the door.

Some nights we have to close the door on her, sometimes not so much.

She's PT, and although she wears a nappy at night, she'll sometimes ask to use the toilet after bedtime. Sometimes she played us, it's mostly been a genuine toilet need. So we wanted the toilet to be easily accessible.

groovygrl · July 2012

Mean to shut the door? That's the first I've heard that. Mine have always slept w/ their door closed b/c they woke each other up. We sleep w/ ours open so we can hear them if they cry out. (ETA sorry missed that you said was it mean 'if LO can't open the door'. I don't think that is mean either though, since it is for safety, see below).

I think every child is different. DD went to the toddler bed and never leaves her room except right at bedtime sometimes she will go to the hall to get a new book or put her books out there but in the morning she doesn't leave at all & never in the night. However, DS was moved to a bed b/c of crib climbing and he left the room CONSTANTLY (even with the door closed) and after finding him out in the hall at 3AM we decided to switch out his handle & put one with a lock on the outside on. I hated locking him in there but it is for his safety & our peace of mind, I could not sleep at night wondering if he was going to wander the house, fall down the stairs, etc. I would have just done the childproofing thing on the inside but we have those lever handles & none of hte options seem very good and this was just easier with the same result. 2 months later he continues to wander his room & frequently ends up sleeping on a pile of pillows right next to the door so until he stays in his bed all night consistently for a long time, we'll be doing this.

PinkPeony6210 · July 2012

We always close the door.

MNgirl326 · July 2012

I don't shut the door all the way because my house has bad air flow since it is old.

I do however have a baby gate at the door way and I have a blanket hanging over the door so that I can close it almost all the way with out it acutally latching shut.

I don't know if I would call it mean to shut the door, you just have to do what works for you. We have never shut the door all the way, so i probably not start now, but LO is used to it being closed most of the way.

CalinsBride · July 2012

DS door is shut at bedtime. There is no way he'd stay in there otherwise.

MeghanF13 · July 2012

For fire safety it should be shut.

juliane2004 · July 2012

We have always shut their door, from day 1 to now. We also have a plastic handle lock thing for the inside of DD's door so she can't open it herself.

It keeps her safe and blocks out noise. I don't know how someone couldn't close the door but still have their kids sleep. Mine would never sleep.

MNgirl326 · July 2012

juliane2004:

We have always shut their door, from day 1 to now. We also have a plastic handle lock thing for the inside of DD's door so she can't open it herself.

It keeps her safe and blocks out noise. I don't know how someone couldn't close the door but still have their kids sleep. Mine would never sleep.

We have a CD player that plays music all night long to drown out any noise. And when we have people over we close the door but then crack it open when we go to bed.

juliane2004 · July 2012

abartow:
juliane2004:

We have always shut their door, from day 1 to now. We also have a plastic handle lock thing for the inside of DD's door so she can't open it herself.

It keeps her safe and blocks out noise. I don't know how someone couldn't close the door but still have their kids sleep. Mine would never sleep.

We have a CD player that plays music all night long to drown out any noise. And when we have people over we close the door but then crack it open when we go to bed.

Are you not nervous they'll roam the house while you're asleep?

MNgirl326 · July 2012

juliane2004:
abartow:
juliane2004:

We have always shut their door, from day 1 to now. We also have a plastic handle lock thing for the inside of DD's door so she can't open it herself.

It keeps her safe and blocks out noise. I don't know how someone couldn't close the door but still have their kids sleep. Mine would never sleep.

We have a CD player that plays music all night long to drown out any noise. And when we have people over we close the door but then crack it open when we go to bed.

Are you not nervous they'll roam the house while you're asleep?

I said in my first response that I have a gate at the door. THe gate is mounted to the outside of the door frame and has a section that swings open so we can get through. THe door can close behind it when we want it to. But I don't want it to latch, so i have hung a blanket over the door, so it can close almost all the way, but not latch. If I want it to latch, like when we have people over or what not, I just take the blanket down and close the door. But the baby gate stays up all the time.

Oh and DH rigged it so I can open the swinging door portion of the and keep it open for the day.

We have really bad air flow in the house and if the door is closed LO's room will either get really hot or really cold depending on the season, so we really can't close the door all the way.

LIAngel · July 2012

We used to shut the door and now we don't. DS requests that we leave it open and we're fine with that. We have a gate across the top of the stairs, so if he were to wander it would only be into our room or DD's room (her door stays shut though and he knows not to go in there).

groovygrl · July 2012

juliane2004:
abartow:
juliane2004:

We have always shut their door, from day 1 to now. We also have a plastic handle lock thing for the inside of DD's door so she can't open it herself.

It keeps her safe and blocks out noise. I don't know how someone couldn't close the door but still have their kids sleep. Mine would never sleep.

We have a CD player that plays music all night long to drown out any noise. And when we have people over we close the door but then crack it open when we go to bed.

Are you not nervous they'll roam the house while you're asleep?

I do think it depends on the kid- my daughter's door is always closed but not locked and she could walk out of it but seriously never does. She cries for us and will on occasion open the door a little & yell for us but doesn't leave. It's kind of weird esp b/c her brother wants to break out constantly!

jborgia · July 2012

Dd always left room at bedtime. We gated her in the room and stood at the game and screamed for us to get her. This would go on hours if we let it. We ended up putting a lock on the top of the outside of the door. Once she falls asleep we unlock it. She stays in there till the morning after that! I felt horrible locking her in for bedtime but she would stay up 4 hours longer than needed and be extremely cranky the next day.

superaunt · July 2012

her door is always shut to keep the cats out and she's used to it and prefers it that way.

mojito14 · July 2012

Always shut. He is still in the crib, but even if he wasn't it would be the same. He can open doors as well. We do have a gate across the top of the stairs. Our room is on the main level. Both boys rooms and a bath is on the upper level.

brewcitybride · July 2012

Our kids sleep with their doors shut, and so do we. I like to create the peaceful, sleeping cocoon of an atmosphere, so that they know mentally, the day is done, it's time for sleep, literally and figuratively shut out the day

stdldb29 · July 2012

We shut DD's (just turned 2) door when we put her down, and then we open it before we go to bed. She will get up in the morning and come to our room. She will also come to our room in the middle of the night if she needs something. We do not use a monitor, so this works.

DS is almost 4 and we leave his door open.

The only reason why I would question it is because what if your kid needs to go potty?

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