Safety gates for older children

delain

I have all sorts of problems with my 7 year old DD sneaking downstairs in the night and rifling through the kitchen!

Not only does it mean she eats things intended for everyone, she takes fruit upstairs so i find mouldy banana skins etc when i clean up :mad:

This morning i found out she had got some 'hair glitter' that i took off her when it got all over the wall from off the top of my 6ft tall fridge freezer :eek:

Which explains all the scribbles on the walls upstairs because she's obviously been getting up to the pens too :rolleyes: I had been wondering where they had got the pens from.

She is also now encouraging her sisters to do the same.

Sort of installing some kind of laser system or me having to sleep in the kitchen, can someone recommend a gate that might stop her? or anything else we can do?

Money_maker

She should be old enough to understand 'no'.

How about encouraging her to stay in her room in the mornings by leaving some books for her to read. Is she bored?
Have you punished her - taken away favourite toys?

PrincessPlaty

Have you tried something like this?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3763430/Trail/searchtext%3ESTAIRGATE.htm

I had one and not only is it really difficult to open :rolleyes: it also has a built in alarm that goes off when it is opened

delain

Money_maker wrote: »

She should be old enough to understand 'no'.

How about encouraging her to stay in her room in the mornings by leaving some books for her to read. Is she bored?
Have you punished her - taken away favourite toys?

Yes we've done all that, it's not always in the morning, sometimes it literally is the middle of the night, on one occasion I've been still up and she's come down.

She was given lots of new books for christmas and she has a nintendo DS.

She seems to be totally oblivious to being punished, she shouts and screams when you do it then goes straight back and does it again :rolleyes:

delain

PrincessPlaty wrote: »

Have you tried something like this?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3763430/Trail/searchtext%3ESTAIRGATE.htm

I had one and not only is it really difficult to open :rolleyes: it also has a built in alarm that goes off when it is opened

I might just go out today and get one of those! thank you

snapping_crocodile

Is she wide awake doing it, or is she sleep walking?

delain

snapping_crocodile wrote: »

Is she wide awake doing it, or is she sleep walking?

I've thought about this but she seems to be awake, the fact that she hides things and will shout 'don't come in!' when you walk past her room suggests that she knows what she's doing, rather that just walking about like i used to when i sleep walked as a child.

Tootsiepops

Could you put a small lock on your kitchen door? ive put one up to keep the dog in the kitchen, mines a small bolt at the top of the double doors, its to stop my DD opening the back door an escaping too,

carolinosourus

Is she doing it because she's hungry? Do you know why she's doing it? Also do you know what she's doing when she's shouting 'don't come in'? Might get shot down in flames but have you noticed any behavioural issues?

Edit: I have to agree with other posters that she should be old enough to understand that no means no, but that's not always the case. Why do you keep pens away from her? Is it because she has always written on the walls? Have you always kept pens away from her? Maybe she thinks they're novelty items if she's not often allowed to get hold of them. When I was little I had a big ice-cream tub full of pens and pencils and crayons, don't think I ever drew or wrote on the walls, especially at 7, it sounds like something a toddler would do who has found a pen and having some fun with it!

Edit again: have you sat down and asked her why she is doing it, or have you just told her off for doing it? I'd advise that you sat down with her and ask her why she is doing it and then let her tell you WITHOUT interrupting. My mother never listened to me, just told me off and didn't even try and understand me. I'm nearly 24 and we're only just being able to sort out our relationship after me being at boarding school from 11-18 then going to uni as far away as I could then moving straight out. Maybe she's doing it to get the little ones in trouble because she thinks that you favour them, and is trying to divert your anger at her onto them.

Mely

She needs parental discipline, and not a safety gate! She is 7 and old enough to understand when she is doing wrong!

thorsoak

No 7 year old should be allowed to shout "don't come in" and get away with it!

At 7 she is just at the age when you can reason with her - and explain why she is not allowed to do certain things - she is old enough to recognise right from wrong and you should be teaching her that. OK - so you may have to reinforce it with the gate or bolts at the very tops of the doors - but she has to know why she is not allowed to do just what she wants when she wants.

I get very concerned when I read that people do not like using the word "no" to their children