How to stop 2 year old coming into mum and dad's room at night?

notanewuser

meritaten wrote: »

stairgates are for stairs not toddlers doors!

I agree with putting them straight back into their own beds - as many times as it takes! after a couple of nights - the toddler does give up! it does mean a few nights where parents get little or no sleep - best for them to take it in shifts.

We don't have any on the stairs. We have a funny shaped staircase and nobody makes a suitable staircase. DD is 99.99% of the time very safe on the stairs.

They're actually called "safety gates" these days - so not just for stairs!

balletshoes

Chakani wrote: »

No matter how upset it makes them, no two year old of mine is having the freedom to wander round the house without anyone knowing what they are doing. They might generally just wander into their parents' room and make a bit of a nuisance of themselves, but mine can open doors, cupboards, break things, hurt themselves even when I am awake and can hear what they are doing. Just imagine how badly they could hurt themselves unsupervised in the middle of the night, while their sleep-deprived parents sleep like the dead.

I don't see that having a stair gate on a toddler's room is any more "locking them in" than having them in a cot they can't climb out of.

do you sleep like the dead though? I used to, but as soon as I became a mum I became a light sleeper, even now, my DD is nearly 12 and I can hear her as soon as she stirs in the morning.

What happens when your child is fully toilet-trained and needs to go to the toilet in the night, if theres a stairgate across his bedroom door?

notanewuser

balletshoes wrote: »

do you sleep like the dead though? I used to, but as soon as I became a mum I became a light sleeper, even now, my DD is nearly 12 and I can hear her as soon as she stirs in the morning.

What happens when your child is fully toilet-trained and needs to go to the toilet in the night, if theres a stairgate across his bedroom door?

Okay. Put the gate across mum and dad's door. Problem solved.

I absolutely can sleep like the dead. If it were a sport I could be an Olympian!!

Chakani

Yep, I have two busy kids and am 8 months pregnant. So personally, I can be very deeply asleep at times, and I know that when my eldest was a poor sleeper, there was nothing on earth that would wake me on the odd occasion that I got more than an hour of sleep in one go. It's not always like that, obviously, but there are times in any parent's life when they could be forgiven for not hearing a small child tiptoe down the stairs.

My two (four and two) share a room, the four year old can open the gate if he wants to use the toilet, but he generally doesn't, and there is a potty in the room in any case.

meritaten

the difference between a cot and a stairgate (and that is what they were originally called) is that a cot prevents a baby from falling onto the floor and injuring themselves - not for confinement.
a stairgate was fixed to prevent toddlers from falling down the stairs. not to confine them to their rooms.

notanewuser

meritaten wrote: »

the difference between a cot and a stairgate (and that is what they were originally called) is that a cot prevents a baby from falling onto the floor and injuring themselves - not for confinement.
a stairgate was fixed to prevent toddlers from falling down the stairs. not to confine them to their rooms.

Funny that the product pictures don't show them on stairs.........

http://www.babysecurity.co.uk/products/1516/Bettacare-Narrow-Stair-Gate-68.5%252D75.5cm-%28ext-to-155cm%29.html

Chakani

My stair gate (the only one in the house, incidentally) stops my toddler injuring herself by drinking bleach/letting herself out of the front door/playing with whatever broken glass she manages to create...

Why is that different or more cruel than stopping her injuring herself by falling a few inches?

lindseykim13

wow harsh on the kid imo, i have 3 children and they all came in at some point in the night until they outgrew it around about age 4. Whats so wrong with him sleeping with his mum and dad for a few hours? My 3.5yr old dd comes in about 3-4 in the morning gets in the middle and sleeps. No way am i getting into a fight with a tot that time of the morning! Getting the sleep for all of them is the most important thing.
Each to their own but the kids only 2 he wants the comfort of his parents.
And they do grow out of it-my 10 and 8yr old have slept fine on their own since around 4. It's normal!

lindseykim13

notanewuser wrote: »

Funny that the product pictures don't show them on stairs.........

http://www.babysecurity.co.uk/products/1516/Bettacare-Narrow-Stair-Gate-68.5%252D75.5cm-%28ext-to-155cm%29.html

For info you can only use screw fixed stair gates on the top of stairs-the suction ones are for the bottom of the stairs i believe.

Eliza_2

Completely agree with Lindsey and notanewuser. Why not let them into bed then everyone goes back to sleep - warm and snuggly and no problem.

My son gave up coming in at about 4, my daughter a bit later but so what? We all slept well all night. Just doesn't seem worth the aggro to go through all that returning them all night, or fussing with gates.