Poll: LO bedroom door

stgn01 · May 2014

So I'm curious what others do....My DD will be 4 in 2 weeks (yikes!) and sometime she shuts her door when she goes to sleep. She doesn't always, and sometimes when she shuts it, she'll get up in the middle of the night and open it again. I haven't had a monitor in her room for a while and I still don't feel comfortable with not seeing she's ok. So if the door is shut I open it a tiny bit and leave it. I'm not too worried about privacy yet and if she ever mentioned it, I would stop opening it. What do you do when your LO shuts the door at night: leave it shut or open it?

NCMichelle · May 2014

My 4 year old likes to have her door shut at night... we haven't had a monitor in there for about 2 years now. Her room is upstairs with ours so I'm not worried. My 2 year old has to have his door cracked open - in fact, he screams if you try to shut it.

ss+el · May 2014

I have actually always put him to bed with his door closed. When he asks me to leave it open (he only asks me, DH is allowed to close it...), I close it as soon as I know he's asleep.

Eskimokisses13 · May 2014

I shut it, always have shut it when we leave her room for the night. We got rid of the monitor years ago. I am a pretty light sleeper so I will wake up if her door opens. If she opens it to go to the bathroom she may or may not reshut it.

sunnydays99 · May 2014

DS goes back and forth on wanting his door open or closed so it's different every night. Before I go to bed I check on him and leave his door how he wanted it. I remember being very particular about wanting my door closed all the way when I was this age, so I try to respect his wishes. I used to get so upset if my mom didn't close the door until it "clicked"! Lol

Leap08 · May 2014

My 4 year old really, really prefers to have her door open and it has to be open a certain amount. She developed some sort of fear of the dark around the time she turned 4 and started requesting that we leave the door open about a foot and leave the hall light on. My 2 year old has to have her door shut and will close it if it's left open even a crack. I always close the 4 year old's door when I go to bed. I don't want any noise we make or lights we turn on in the morning to wake her. Neither of the girls have monitors in their rooms anymore. Their rooms are across the hall from ours and I always hear them if they get up or call for us.

Spin313 · May 2014

Both kids (six and three) sleep with closed doors and no monitors.

meldoo2002 · May 2014

My kids have slept with their door closed since they were born. I know they are safe in there.

LSU628 · May 2014

DS goes to bed first, so I close his door so we don't wake him up. DD falls asleep with her door open and I close it once I know she is asleep. Their rooms are right across the hall from ours so I would hear if anything happened.

stgn01 · May 2014

Guess I'm in the minority. Thanks ladies.

WhitePicketFence · May 2014

My girls (4 and 2.5) currently share a room. Since DD2 still sleeps in a crib, we still have a monitor in their room as DD2 can't just come and get me or DH if she needs us yet. My girls have always slept with their door shut. Their rooms are on the main level of our home and if we didn't shut their door, I'd be concerned about us waking/keeping them up at night since we go to bed quite a bit later than they do. When DD1 wakes up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she just closes the door again once she's ready to get back in bed.

Mrs.Greg · May 2014

We close our kids' doors when they go to bed. They stay shut all night.

groovygrl · May 2014

Ours were always closed until they went to regular beds, when Ds wouldn't sleep anywhere but in his open doorway and dd decided she had to have hers open too...now they like having some light come in from the hall and will not allow us to close them. I slept w a door open as a kid for the same reason but over time closed it, I don't remember,bet what age. My kids have always had issues w sleep though and Ds is still up almost every night coming to our room at almost five years old soooo who knows.

*LrCg* · May 2014

All our kids & our bedroom doors are shut at night for fire safety reasons (growing up with many firefighters in the family it was just always a given requirement). My kids know its non-negotiable and we also explain why its safer for fires. All my kids still have video monitors in their rooms- for my older 2 (they are 4 & 5) its because they do quite time in their rooms/play in their rooms and its my way to keep tabs on them or call them down when needed without shouting (we have the talk back feature).

*LrCg* · May 2014

ClaryPax said:

Does anyone still have a baby gate at the door? DS has a potty in his room and a baby gate. Since I can gate the stairs, it probably is OK for safety reasons to get rid of the gate at his door. He could go wander around the finished attic though.
I think since we weren't sleeping because of DD for so long that we have kept him in his room at night so we could all sleep better. If he needs us he calls for us rather than him getting us.
I was wondering though at what age do you allow your child to wander around the house? I kind of feel like getting rid of that gross potty, and having him use the big toilet at night.
When I have tried it though he always comes into our room and wakes us in the middle of the night. Maybe I need to do a 2 week trial and teach him not to wake us, maybe use one of those when to wake clocks when he could come get us.
I just don't want it to turn into getting up at 6 am with my kids thing, but I think by 4 he should be old enough to leave his room. He is 3.5 now.
ETA- to answer your question we all sleep with our doors shut.

Our kids sleep upstairs (we sleep downstairs) and we've never had a gate at the stairs. I have a 5 and 4 year old and a 16 month old. All are PT (even at night- even the 16 month old- they were all trained by that time). We kept the door knob covers over their knobs until they figured out how to open the door with them on (@3 years old) and prior to that if they had to be potty in the middle of the night (which was pretty rare) they just called out into the monitor for us and we went up and took them. Its even more rare now for my 4 & 5 year old to go pee in the middle of the night (they sleep @10-11 hours) but if they do they just go and go right back to bed. They each have a flashlight by their beds for this purpose and of course there is a night light in the bathroom. We've just always discussed the safety issues of them staying in their room from the time they earned their bed and they knew if they didn't follow the rules they'd be back in a crib so none of them have ever wandered. They wake up in the morning and come down and usually we're awake and if not, they come snuggle in our bed with us (all my kids get up @7-:7:30 am).

*LrCg* · May 2014

@ClaryPax‌ they were @ 2 1/2 years old when they had to earn a bed (we do chore charts & they had to have a certain number of stickers per week to work to the main goal- so it took a few weeks). When they transferred over we discussed how it was important to stay in their room in case of a fire so fireman could find them or if the tornado sirens went off we could quicky get them, etc. We made it clear they would be given no warnings and if they couldn't listen they would be back in a crib. I can recall setting up a PNP with one to scare and that was enough!

juliane2004 · May 2014

Shut and unable to be opened by them.

groovygrl · May 2014

We haven't had a gate since my kids were 2 1/2, they were safely able to navigate stairs by then and they really didn't wander around the house at night even on the 2nd floor. However, when DS was first in a bed (really, on the floor, as I said in my previous post), we did try to lock his door on the outside (the double gating door thing seemed really complicated and I think he would have tried his best to bust it down anyway) and that didn't really go well b/c he wanted to sleep in the doorway so after a few weeks of that we were resigned to the doorway/floor sleeping. He actually never got up & even walked down the hall to our room in the middle of the night, let alone the stairs until he was over 4. Both of them still, at almost 5, come to our room & ask if they can go downstairs when they wake up in the morning. I don't think either of them would go down alone in the dark in the middle of the night though at their age I wouldn't even be that worried about it anymore...I could totally see us getting up one morning & finding DS asleep next to his lego table LOL.
Re the bathroom, we have a jack & jill between their room and leave the light on in there at night so that has never been an issue for us, but they rarely get up in the night to go to the bathroom anyway.

MNgirl326 · May 2014

No gate- haven't had a gate in awhile.

Door gets mostly shut. I don't shut it all the way. I don't know why, just never have. I have mostly closed but leave it open a crack.

starlettedir · May 2014

We have a gate but would probably leave shut.

fancynewbeesly · May 2014

Door is always shut. We have a gate at the top of the steps (mostly to keep the cats out). She never gets out of bed though. And definitely never leaves her room.

litzo27 · May 2014

My kids are 2.5 and 5.5 and share a room. They like their door closed because the don't want cats walking in. We are in the bedroom on the same floor with door open at night so we hear if they get up and walk out for some reason.

Ardmhs83 · May 2014

fredalina said:

It's always been shut, but we still use a monitor and she is on the 2nd floor with us on 1st.

Exactly this for us too. Since we are on a different floor I still feel more comfortable with the monitor. I've always shut his door because of fire safety reasons.

rsd12 · May 2014

All doors are closed, but not completely closed. Sometimes they ask for it to be left open and we just close it over when we go to bed. Both bedrooms have a night light.

We have not used a gate or monitor since the youngest moved to a big boy bed at 2 yrs old.

Fortunately (ha) they always come into our room first if they wake in the middle of the night. Otherwise they go down stairs to play on their own ; )

macchiatto · June 2014

I want their bedroom doors shut so they won't be disturbed by DH and me. Their bedroom doors are right by the living room so if we're there with lights on, talking or watching TV or whatever, it would keep them awake.

HerHighness · June 2014

I shut her door until i go to sleep. Then i open it so i can hear her if she gets up during the night

kiki_1218 · July 2014

DD has always slept with her door closed. I did as a baby to keep our cats out of her room and now she prefers it closed. She comes and goes as she wants, but always closes it when she goes back in.

zeptattoo · July 2014

We shut it. He likes being in his own space. But, when we are somewhere unfamiliar he likes the door open (Grandma's house, hotel suite, etc.). If something is wrong he comes and tells us.

rnbeth477 · July 2014

We leave the kid's door closed so our cat doesn't wake them.

Tootermi · November 2014

Doors all closed here. Little one falls asleep with it open and then we close it.

sunnyday016 · November 2014

DD has slept with hers shut. We shut it when she was a baby to keep her room as quiet as possible and then when she went to a toddler bed that was what she preferred. DS likes to have his open and will absolutely freak out if it is closed. We don't use monitors in either room.

Kaelynn91 · December 2014

My daughter falls asleep with her door cracked, but usually I end up closing it before we all go to bed. She's 2 years and 7 months old. I stopped using a monitor about a year ago. I never worry about it. If she cries I definitely hear it. She has very good lungs

Personally, I'd rather her get undisturbed sleep more than anything else.

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