how long is your Feb toddler unsupervised?

brachysira · December 2014

We have the living room gated, and I can leave M in this child-proofed room for a few minutes of unsupervised time, especially if her 3 month old brother is with me or in the pack n play. I can leave her for an hour if I turn on Sesame Street, but I still check frequently, and I only do this if chores have become insurmountable and I really have to leave her alone. She can play by herself well, but I like to be in the same room because she tends to get bad ideas that remind us that nothing is really completely childproofed.

With potty training, we are thinking about taking down the gate. I can't chase her around the house because I am often nursing or otherwise busy with her brother, and plus I just don't want to run through the halls visiting every room 1000x each day. With the gate down, she would have access to the bathroom, dining room, kitchen, our bedroom, and her bedroom. I am working now on childproofing these rooms more, but I am worried about letting her just play in the kitchen or whatever by herself. Right now she gets only about 30 seconds alone in any other room or on our enclosed deck. I suspect we are conservative compared to other families, but M just finds trouble. On the other hand, maybe she would be able to be more trustworthy if I gave her a bit of independence.

Rosebean · December 2014

DS has full run of our house, except to the basement. That is safety gated still. We used to have all the doors closed to rooms so he had to stay in the general living room area, but once he could reach the knobs/levers, that was it. He pretty much sticks with us in whichever room we are in, but will run to other rooms and we check on him if he doesn't run back after a few minutes and is too quiet. The kitchen, our doors are very sticky, so he can't pull those open yet, and the bathroom he's learned not to play in.

I get how you feel about wanting them to have independence while you deal with your Littlest One. We are in the same boat. We always know where he is and check on him when it feels right, but most of the time, he comes if we call out to him or if he's bored (as in, we are cooking and he can't see us from the living room) he'll come find us before that.

Also, I have learned how to nurse while standing and walking. Fun times.

lc&jw · December 2014

DD and DS have open access to the living room, kitchen, and dining room. That being said, most of the kitchen cabinets have child locks on them (except for the one with the pots and pans they love to play with), and there is a baby gate that prevents them from getting to the kitchen garbage can and the downstairs bathroom (I wouldn't trust them for a second with either!).

I am pretty comfortable having the kids in a different room than me when we're downstairs, although if it starts to get quiet for too long, I always go check on what they're doing. The stairs are gated and they're never allowed to go up or down them without an adult. They also never really spend any time upstairs in any room alone.

We also have child-proof handles on the doorknob of the front door and the basement stairs.

I can see how potty-training presents a supervision/child-proofing dilemma. How critical is it to potty train M right now? I wonder if waiting a few months would give her a little more maturity and impulse control so you could feel more comfortable with the lower level of supervision. Either that or could you put a child-proof handle on the outside of the bathroom doorknob or an easy open walk-through gate across the door? You'd have to open it for her every time she needs to go, but that would prevent a lot of bathroom mischief. Although it might also result in more accidents.

brachysira · December 2014

The thing about potty training is that DH has a few days off for New Years, and so it seems like the perfect time to do the 3-day thing. I do not think I can pt her otherwise, because I really cannot figure out how to spend time with her in the bathroom with our baby. Once she gets it, I can take her to the potty when she needs to go, but we can't hang out there waiting for her to go for long periods... We're doing that now, but poor AJ is on the bathmat and it's just not really working well. We can always wait until summer or something--I'm really in no hurry at all. Just seems like now is a nice time with the vacation time. I'm thinking about just keeping the potty in the living room...

lc&jw · December 2014

It might be confusing to have the potty in the living room. You want her to associate peeing/pooping with the bathroom only, otherwise you could potentially have issues later on with her going to the bathroom in other places in your home.

If the 3 day weekend is the biggest motivation for potty training right now, it might be worthwhile to wait a bit. Even once she gets the idea of how to use the potty, she's still going to need a LOT of supervision and assistance in there for a while. Waiting until both kids are a little older might make life easier.

Moty2013 · December 2014

We have all bedrooms and bathrooms closed. Ds has full reign of the living room, his bedroom, the playroom and kitchen. I have his monitor set up in the playroom and his room so if he's in one of those two and I'm in the kitchen or living room I usually have the monitor on me and I spy on him if others quiet for to long. For the most part he'll come back and see what we're doing pretty often but if he hasn't for say 30-45 mins I'll go in there and say hi and play with him a bit. He's a pretty independent kid. We've done a thorough job of baby proofing though..... I think.... (Crossed fingers, knocks on wood I didn't jinx myself)

holly321 · December 2014

We shut ds out of the bathroom, laundry room and our bedroom. He can go in his room, his sister's room, living room and kitchen. The kitchen has the fridge and cabinets locked. He won't stop pushing chairs up to the counter and getting into stuff,but that is more of a nuisance than a safety issue.

We give him pretty full reign of the house. We didn't while the tree was in the house, he would not leave it alone.

jenniferraborn · December 2014

DD is pretty much free to go wherever downstairs. We do keep our bedroom door shut most of the time but not always. That leaves her with the kitchen, living room, playroom, and bathroom(The kids rooms are upstairs). She will play but unless in the toy room pretty much stays with us or is back and forth. I also have a 6 year old who will tell me if one of my little ones is doing something too ridiculous. We also had some issues wanting to unroll the toilet paper but the bathroom she can go in is a half bath and I just sat it on the sink. When she has to go I will give her some to use and that works ok for now.

tamarar5 · December 2014

E has run of the house except the kitchen and bathroom. Kitchen because he pulls all my pots and pans out and gets them dirty. And knives. Bathroom because he likes to flush the toilet. And stuff down it.

wineandcake · December 2014

He can go wherever. I typically stay in the living room because that is where he spends most time, but he runs around with the pups and grabs things from other rooms and comes back to me. I like being with him so if he goes to the play room I usually follow so we can play together, if I'm tired though and need to lay on the couch, he does play alone very well.

We don't have a gate at the stairs now because we finished the basement. We are always on the same level of the house, if he goes downstairs I do too. If he goes up I'm up too. We don't have cupboards locked, there's nothing dangerous in the ones he can get at so I don't worry. He had snacks accessible to him in the kitchen and pantry at all times and comes to tell me whenever he takes something.

holly321 · December 2014

@jenniferraborn‌ reminds me, dd is a tattle tale, so I have that advantage.

mishka29 · December 2014

We are fully gated bc we're in a townhouse. The main level has three sets of stairs. DD is very good on stairs but not that good!

ericalee27 · December 2014

We close our bedroom and bathroom, other than that he's free to roam. Except this week he has figured out how to open doors so now we have a new problem, gahh. Need to get some door knob covers for the doors we usually keep "closed"

kleigh926 · December 2014

DD can go wherever she wants but I never leave her alone for more than a couple minutes. Our house is not fully child proofed- dresser drawers aren't locked, not all cabinets are locked (the ones with dangerous substances are, but there are also cabinets that store non toxic items that I still don't want her in), we have litter boxes that she could get to, etc. It's not really an issue because our house is very small and she prefers to stay with me anyway.

BBS! · December 2014

Hmm, maybe I'm conservative but we never leave him unsupervised. He's a bit manic though.

jdilorenzo · December 2014

She can go anywhere but we have such a small house we are never more then a couple feet away from each other. The house is pretty baby proofed so she can roam. But I wouldn't leave her unsupervised for more then a couple minutes.

MrsCarroll.6-10-07 · December 2014

Not too long usually unless she's hiding. We are pretty child proofed. Doors get closed and locked so she can't go in them usually. The rest of the house pretty free reign. We have cameras set up a few places so if I'm upstairs and looking for her I can peak down stairs at her or something. My kids are not quiet so I usually know where she is!

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