Well ladies, I am so excited because we are moving into a new house this weekend! YEAH! I have a couple of major concerns that I wanted to ask you about. My three (almost four) year old son has always lived in an apartment and we are now moving into a two story house with a basement. I am worried about the stairs for one thing. How can you keep a child from playing on the stairs or going up and down constantly? My biggest concern is due to a recent development of liking to play in his room at bedtime rather than just go to sleep. How can I keep an eye on what he is doing upstairs while I am downstairs? How can I make him understand that he could get hurt trying to climb on things (BIG ISSUE RIGHT NOW)? In our apartment, I can hear what he is doing and go in to catch him in the act. But with him being upstairs I will be less in tune with what he is doing. Any suggestions on ways to get him to understand that bedtime means stay in your bed and go to sleep. He has never had a problem with this before and has always put himself to sleep without getting out of bed. I am at a loss on this new unpleasant development. Thank you in advance for all of your help.
Baby gates will help with not letting him down in the basement. And a baby monitor in his room will let you know what he's doing while upstairs and you are downstairs. Maybe a baby gate at the top of the stairs at night so he doesn't stumble down them if he gets up at night.
Good luck and congrats on the new house!!
You shouldn't have to worry about this...as long as he knows how to climb stairs he'll be fine. My 3 year-old has been using the stairs in our house since he was under two. He has always gone all the way up from his bedroom, down to the basement where the toys are just fine...I've never thought twice about it.
Congrats on the house! I think that if you bought a baby monitor so you could hear what was going on in your son's room would be sufficient. He is going to be 4 and should know how to go up and down stairs by himself already. I realize that if you didn't have stairs at the apartment he wouldn't be all that familiar with them but he has had to have gone up and down stairs somewhere before!? If you "coddle" him he will never learn. I am sure your son will be fine if you let him be and don't make him afraid of the stairs. Let him grow up a little!! GOOD LUCK!!
I agree with Kari N. My 2 year old goes up and down the stairs fine, but I especially like the gate at night because I don't need to worry about her going downstairs if she comes out of her room. A monitor should work fine to hear your son and definitely anchor everything to the wall. I only keep a small bookshelf in my daughters room. All of her other toys are in a play area we created in the basement or in an ottoman/toy box in the family room...it really helps with the playing at bedtime.
Congrats on your new house and good luck!
Does he climb? You could put a tall gate at his bedroom door to keep him in at nap and night.
Put a gate and the top and bottom of stairs and a latch or lock on the door to the basement (assuming there is a door).
Ahh the joys. I still worry about the stairs in my home and my youngest is 6. First things first a pressure gate is fine at the bottom, and you can install a gate at the top that screws into the walls, pressure gates are a no no at the top of the stairs for obvious reasons. If your hallway allows you can install the gate someplace outside his room yet away from the top of the stairs so he has some ability to roam but not as much, in my first home with stairs I was able to place a gate so my son could only go from his room to mine. As for the climbing on things if you are referring to furniture in say his room, find the studs in the walls and get some L brackets and secure all dressers, shelves ect. to the walls so things won't tip. A regular baby monitor will allow you to hear him if he is up just as well as you did in your apartment, but a video monitor is a great idea if you can afford it. other than that just know that he will be fine, he's old enough to handle steps, make sure you have a night light for all of you while traveling the halls, carpet steps if you can and place secure non slip rugs at the bottoms of flights just in case if there is hard wood or other flooring, and unless it's a finished basement where you plan on him spending time just make it off limits till he's older. enjoy the space, really at his age it will soon just be nice to not have him underfoot all the time and you won't worry so much.
We live in a two-story home (also with a basement that is off-limits to our daughter) and I also suggest a baby monitor. We keep one in my daughter's room so we can hear what she's doing. We had purchased a two-way intercom system (not too expensive from Radio Shack) thinking she would be able to talk back and forth, but it ended up being a little too complicated for her (she would push the button to talk, but forget to hold it in and we couldn't hear what she was saying). So, we put back the baby monitor and use the two-way as a way to talk with her. It has helped us be able to remind her to go to the bathroom or settle down for sleep (she likes to lay in bed to "read" a book before settling down completely). It has also helped at naptime when we've been able to tell she's playing instead of sleeping. :) It's an easy way to talk with her while using the baby monitor to determine if we need to go upstairs.
Remember, too, that this is the age when our little ones will really test their boundaries. Your son may keep getting out of bed just to see how much he can get away with. :) Once he knows the rules at your new home, perhaps he'll settle into the routine you want. Oh! A suggestion I've read before about helping your child stay in bed is to give him cards or something similar as "passes" to get out of bed. Once the last one is used, he has to stay in for the night. Just another thought.
Stairs..every parents worst nightmare! At least it was mine. We moved from an apt to a two story house when my daughter was 15 months and I was PETRIFIED of the stairs. I was certain she would fall the second we let her climb on them. As it turned out, I was wrong. I spent quite a bit of time showing her how to go up them on her hands and knees and down them on her butt. She is 2 now and has graduated to walking up the steps while holding on to the wall, but still goes down on her butt. We've had a few minor spills, but nothing serious. Your son is old enough to walk up and down the steps, so he'll be fine.
As far as keeping and eye on him, you could get a video monitor and put it in his room. You'd be able to see him that way.
Congrats on the new house! :)
i have a nursery monitor in my children's rooms, so i can listen to what they are doing. I have one with two channels so I can switch from one bedroom to the other.
You can pick them up at yard sales for next to nothing.
I also take the reciever to my room when I go to bed so i will hear if something is going on in the house. It amplifies the sounds so if there were a break in or something I should be able to hear it.
Hi A.. Congratulations on your new house. It's such an exciting time for you and your family! I have to agree with the other responses. We have a 2 story with a basement, and we keep a child proof door lock on the basement door so that our kids can't open the door to go down there without a parent. And our basement is where the main playroom is. If your son knows how to open those locks, there are simple locks that you can screw in at the top of the door and door frame that he won't be able to reach. As for the stairs, since we have a 1 year old, we have a pressure gate at the bottom of the stairs. Our 2.5 year old manages up and down the stairs fine, but our 1 year old can't go down yet. We keep monitors in both their rooms so we can listen when it's nap and bedtime. Our stairs won't allow a gate at the top without a gap exposing a hole over the top stair, so we have a pressure gate in our 2.5 year old's door. (She climbed over once, but after us telling her not to again, she has stayed in her room). When she's fully potty-trained, we'll put a gate just past the bathroom, so she can freely get there, without having access to the stairs. Good luck with everything. I'm sure everything will work out just fine!
