CP- Free Roam of the House?

courtneyt13 · November 2012

DD is not yet 2, but I figured I would get better results here since she much closer to 24m than 12m. We currently co-sleep but are making the transistion to DD's big girl room in the next few weeks.

Her room is across the hallway from our bedroom. Should I put up a baby gate, close the door or leave the door open? For naps we leave the door open and she just wakes up and gets us. Bedrooms are on the second floor, but she is fine getting down and up the stairs herself.

My parents certainly didn't use baby gates with us and as soon as we were in big kid beds we pretty much had roam of the house if we wanted- never any issues with this. But that's not safe....right? I mean these are the same people who use a a moses basket as my car seat (1980).

If you leave the door open does your toddler get into things at night or pretty much stay in the bedroom?

[Poll]

memali26 · November 2012

I voted sleeps with door closed, but DD1 can open doors so keeping the door closed won't keep her in her room if she wants out. I don't worry about it though, because A) She always waits for DH or I to come get her after she wakes. No idea why, but she won't get out of bed until one of us opens her door and we have no stairs except to the basement, and that door is baby proof so she cannot open it.

If we had a 2 story house, I would keep the door closed to her room, but still gate the stairs at the top in case she left her room. Even though she's a pro at stairs, if she was sleep walking or drowsy in the middle of the night she would probably fall.

aglenn · November 2012

SS: We put a gate in the hallway outside DD's room so that she can get up and come to our room but can't wander about the rest of the house. She now sleeps with her door closed more often than not, but at that age she wanted it open.

Cherryblossoms07 · November 2012

I should add that DD can open her door now. She wasn't able to when we first moved her to a toddler bed (at 15 or 16 months). When she learned how to open the door we tried one of those knob covers, which lasted a whole 5 minutes before she learned how to pry them off the door to get out. Then we placed a couple of bells on her door so I would know when she opened it (I am a light sleeper). Now, her door is bare and she has free roam - the bells were waking up her brother (who is also a light sleeper). She doesn't go anywhere, but to the bathroom or our bedroom and our stairs are well lit by nightlights so we are not too concerned.

*LrCg* · November 2012

For fire safety reasons we always close doors for naps and bedtime. We have video monitors in each of our kids rooms. When we moved them from cribs to beds we just put those knobs on the door so they couldn't get out. We did this because our room is downstairs on one side of the house and theirs are upstairs on the other side of the house (we've never used baby gates- we taught our kids how to crawl the 17 stairs at a very early age). If they ever had to go potty in the middle of the night (which is rare) they just talked into the montior. However, since my DS has been about 3 1/2 years old we've taken the knobs off his door and he can come and go as he pleases but he always stays in bed and leaves when he wakes up in the morning.

TiffanyBerry · November 2012

I voted "sleeps with door open" because, though the door is physically closed when I leave, she can open it entirely on her own. Also, we still co-sleep in her room most of the night, so I'm often in there if it's not nap time. We do have a gate at the top of our stairs, which I generally keep closed, but that's for the dog as much as her.

groovygrl · November 2012

SS for a number of reasons.

DD: when she switched to toddler bed at 2 1/2, she was so excited & pretty much stayed put in her bed/room from the get go. Since age 3 she started getting more bold and walking out of her room at bedtime or in the morning (b/c she saw her brother do it) but would never venture downstairs at night & frankly very rarely leaves her room in the middle of the night, if ever- she screams for us instead, like 4 nights a week. Sigh.

DS: Started climbing out of crib a little after 2 1/2. He would not stay in bed, crib, room, etc. We were very concerned he'd go downstairs so we did the turned around doorknob and locked it. After a couple months of that, I started feeling a little bad b/c he would freak out and sleep lying against the door pretty much every night...then one day he took off a poopy diaper & had a field day...and let's just say I stopped locking the door after that. Unfortunately it has been a huge challenge getting him to stay in his room (he still sleeps on teh floor, refuses the bed) and it has been months of sticker charts to try to improve bedtime & nighttime behavior... still an issue & he does walk down to our room in the middle of the night probably 2-3 nights a week, though he has never gone downstairs in the night.

GL.

jf198400 · November 2012

Sleeps with baby gate and door closed. She can open the door, but the gate keeps her in.

kegallagh · November 2012

aglenn:
SS: We put a gate in the hallway outside DD's room so that she can get up and come to our room but can't wander about the rest of the house. She now sleeps with her door closed more often than not, but at that age she wanted it open.

We do this also. Honestly, I don't think DS would go anywhere else in the house anyway. When he wakes up he just wants to climb in my bed.

courtneyt13 · November 2012

Thanks for the help, ladies! I think I will try the baby gate and see how that works.

Want a personalized experience?

CP- Free Roam of the House?

Re: CP- Free Roam of the House?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards