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Gate Hunters

March 29, 2011

Our new home has 3 sets of stairs.  THREE!  I always wanted a house of my own where you could go upstairs.  The home I grew up in had 4 levels.  A basement, a first floor, the second floor and then the attic--which was fully finished and the coolest bedroom in which I spent at least ten years occupying, all stacked on top of each other.  The home we will be moving into is a little different, it is a multi-level.  While it has a full staircase going upstairs, it has just four stairs going down to the family room and another nearly full staircase going down to the finished basement.  This post isn't about giving you a tour of all the levels of our new home--you can expect a video tour by the end of the week--but about the predicament we are finding ourselves in with all of these stairs and a 13+ month old who has very little experience with stairs coming from a single-level apartment.  The few times Greta-girl has seen stairs, she bolts for them and has no problem shimmying herself up the staircase in less than a minute.  But getting down--she has no clue.  Of course, our natural thought is to get baby gates for her safety and our sanity.

While researching baby gates, I knew I wanted something that 1.) looked good 2.) functioned easily and 3.) was safe.  The only one that I had trouble fitting into the magic trio was the first.  We fell in love with a home that was begging for a facelift--a makeover.  I couldn't bring myself to slapping the cheap-o light wood and plastic standard baby gate all over my house, first thing.

Although, at just $10.99, it gets me questioning How long will it really have to be up??  Is Greta to an age where it will be a matter of a few months or weeks before she can trek the stairs?  I have no clue.  Chris and I discussed baby gates for a while last night.  We definitely plan on having more children which means baby gates may need to be a permanent fixture in our home for quite some time.  Should we invest in our favorite gate that checks off all three of the magic trio?
The Munchkin Numi is a beaut, isn't she?  At $129 she better be!  We think we would need 3 gates:  One for the top and bottom of the main staircase and one for the top of the 4 stairs leading to the family room (the staircase to the basement has a door, so we don't worry about that one).  That would add up to about $400 on baby gates!!  Ouch.  Is it worth it if it will be a permanent fixture in our home for years?  Or is climbing stairs a learned art that we can easily teach??
The third option would be to DIY an aesthetically pleasing gate of our own, like this one found here.
It would be cheaper than option 2, but that would mean getting a substitute (similar to option 1) in the meantime. Here's where we would love for you to chime in.  Parents seem to have an endless supply of advice to hand out and we promise we won't stop it from coming in on this topic.  
Would you go with cheap-o, not-so-functional (meaning you have to climb over it, instead of walking through it) gate number one.
The permanent gate that has everything we are looking for at a hefty price.
Or option three, make three of our own and get interim gates in the meantime.  
Spill all.  
(If there is a baby gate that you love, we'd love to hear about that, too!)

You can also "like" a video of Greta cruising around on Munchkin's facebook page  and help us WIN a baby gate.  The trip over to their page won't disappoint, the video is adorable.   The video with the most "likes" wins. 
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  1. We have a pretty cheap one. SuperGate III on sale from Fred Meyers. It does the job. Not great looking but not as bad as the first one you posted. Make sure she can't climb on the gate. I wouldn't do horizontal slats if it were me. We need another one for the top and think we'll get the same one. Noah is terrible at going down the stairs, always tries to go head first. My VT suggested making going down the stairs fun. So I help him turn around and then pull him by his feet (gently of course) and cheer all the way down. He has fun and hopefully he'll learn soon to slide down backwards.

  2. I don't usually post but we raised 6 kids in a split entry house. At first I thought I needed gates but they were such a pain for me that I soon decided we would just teach the kids how to do the stairs as soon as they started crawling. Jeff would spend time pulling them down backwards and then helping them climb back up. They really learned fast. The tricky part was teaching them to back up at the top. We have continued with 9 grandkids and never had any serious falls (knock on wood). Anyway, that is just my experience. I couldn't deal with the gates. Maybe I would get a cheap one first before you spend a ton and decide you hate them. We are sure going to miss you, but so excited for your new house. :)

  3. i like meagan's thoughts. i'm trying to remember when i took the gate down for my kids. my youngest is 2 1/2 and i took it down a while ago, maybe at the end of last summer when he turned 2. i'm pretty protective though. another friend of mine has the same long stairwell as me and never got a gate for her little ones. i just like to have the whole house safe for my kids for if i need to step away for a minute or something.

    i would consider the permanant gates that can swing open by stepping on a lever or whatever for the areas you're going to be going through most. my dad made gates at his house for the grandkids. don't know if i can explain it well, but in essence, he put two pieces of wood on the doorways (doors could still be closed) then had a thin peice of wood (like ply wood but finished and heavy, don't know what it's called) that we would slide in- drop in from the top. he cut them so they were shorter than traditional gates and not as difficult to climb over. when the kids were big enough to get over the gates we figure they are responsible enough to not need them. at the top of stairs though, you'd want a gate to be high enough. good luck on your move and setting up the house!

    also, i start training my kids on the stairs by putting the removable gate a few steps up from the bottom. that way they can experiment on a couple stairs and not fall very far if they do fall.

  4. I don't usually post but we raised 6 kids in a split entry house. At first I thought I needed gates but they were such a pain for me that I soon decided we would just teach the kids how to do the stairs as soon as they started crawling. Jeff would spend time pulling them down backwards and then helping them climb back up. They really learned fast. The tricky part was teaching them to back up at the top. We have continued with 9 grandkids and never had any serious falls (knock on wood). Anyway, that is just my experience. I couldn't deal with the gates. Maybe I would get a cheap one first before you spend a ton and decide you hate them. We are sure going to miss you, but so excited for your new house. :)

  5. NO GATE! :) Make her learn! My oldest, who is 3, never had a gate but figured it out REALLY quick and we never needed one! No hopping over gates, worrying about them falling down and the baby tumbling. Plus, when we went to others houses that werent baby proofed, we didnt have to worry. That being said, we do gate our dogs into the kitchen daily and I WISH, we would have just invested in the bolt into the wall gates that have a door that you can lift to open to get thru. I wouldnt personally go with the cheap again because it wears on the wall with the indents and the scratching and then where to store when not using for the moment, the hassle of the up and down with the gate....but honestly, you have a mini genius on your hands, she will catch on QUICK!

  6. i like meagan's thoughts. i'm trying to remember when i took the gate down for my kids. my youngest is 2 1/2 and i took it down a while ago, maybe at the end of last summer when he turned 2. i'm pretty protective though. another friend of mine has the same long stairwell as me and never got a gate for her little ones. i just like to have the whole house safe for my kids for if i need to step away for a minute or something.

    i would consider the permanant gates that can swing open by stepping on a lever or whatever for the areas you're going to be going through most. my dad made gates at his house for the grandkids. don't know if i can explain it well, but in essence, he put two pieces of wood on the doorways (doors could still be closed) then had a thin peice of wood (like ply wood but finished and heavy, don't know what it's called) that we would slide in- drop in from the top. he cut them so they were shorter than traditional gates and not as difficult to climb over. when the kids were big enough to get over the gates we figure they are responsible enough to not need them. at the top of stairs though, you'd want a gate to be high enough. good luck on your move and setting up the house!

    also, i start training my kids on the stairs by putting the removable gate a few steps up from the bottom. that way they can experiment on a couple stairs and not fall very far if they do fall.

  7. They learn stairs very fast! We used to spend time "playing" on the stairs every day until she figured it out and she became a pro very quickly. There were only like 2 months where I was worried about leaving her alone. I do have a gait (Safety First brand, nothing fancy) for the kitchen--so much easier than baby proofing the thing--and it does the job just fine, but I can definitely see why you would want a more expensive gait, it looks waaaaayyyy better than mine!

  8. We have a pretty cheap one. SuperGate III on sale from Fred Meyers. It does the job. Not great looking but not as bad as the first one you posted. Make sure she can't climb on the gate. I wouldn't do horizontal slats if it were me. We need another one for the top and think we'll get the same one. Noah is terrible at going down the stairs, always tries to go head first. My VT suggested making going down the stairs fun. So I help him turn around and then pull him by his feet (gently of course) and cheer all the way down. He has fun and hopefully he'll learn soon to slide down backwards.

  9. We have one of the cheap wood ones from Walmart. The best advice I can give you, is maybe invest in a better gate for ones that you're having to climb over ALL THE TIME. The one at the base of our stairs stays there the WHOLE time. When we are upstairs, usually only at naps and bedtime to play, read books and then go to bed, I've taught Brinley to WAIT for me at the stairs if she starts running at the top wanting to go down. She can now climb down the stairs, but I don't let her just do it herself. She is really good at waiting for me at the top. She just stands there with her hand out waiting for me to walk her down.

    The ones that I've liked, when I nannyed two girls, was at the top of the stairs where they had their bedrooms and playroom and spend most of their time there was one of the opening and closing ones. Which sounds like the best idea if you're having to go in and out constantly.

    I don't think you really need to spend HUNDREDS on a gate. There are great ones at Target or Walmart that will do just fine. The problem is when they get loose, but as long as you keep them tight and secure, even the cheapest will do fine. As we've seen with our $10 one. It has seen a lot of action and hasn't broken. And if it does, it's only $10 to replace instead of $100? ya know?

    Anyways, you may just have to try it out and see what ones you like. I'm glad we only have ONE gate. I can't imagine all those stairs. it'll be a nice work out for ya everyday!!!

  10. We have baby gates all over our four-floor house, ever since Annie (the dog) and Doug (the cat) got into a fight. We're trying to keep them segregated. But, not only are the gates unattractive, they're such a pain! I'm constantly hoisting over them. I'm certain that I'M going to fall down the stairs!

    ...We're also searching for alternatives.

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