My son is a whole lot of fun. When he learns how to do something new, he does it with the amount of enthusiasm only a child can possess. Even if it is something wrong, it is hard to get after him because of how much fun he has doing it. I look him in the eye and say “No” but he will look right back in my eye, smile, and do what he wanted anyway. So, when he learned to crawl, I knew we had to take as many safety precautions as we could right away.
Some of the first things we knew we needed were baby gates. There were a couple of different areas in our house we knew would be “off limits” to him. Of course, the stairs were easy. We used hardware mounted baby gates for the top and bottom. Hardware mounted gates will not pop off if enough pressure is applied like pressure mounted gates will, so it is important to use these around stairwells. But, we also wanted to block off the office, laundry room, and my daughter’s bedroom without having to have her behind closed doors all the time. So, we shopped and found specific gates that would fit each of these rooms. The office is connected to the living room with an opening of about 8 feet, which eliminated most gates since they don’t open that wide. Also, we wanted to be able to remove or hide the gate if we had company over.
We found a gate that would meet all these requirements. It was a hardware mounted, slide out baby gate for stairs, that also swings out from either side on the hinges. Most of the time it is blocking off the office, but when we want it out of the way, we pinch the connector on one side, slide it to the other side, and swing it against the adjacent wall. Since we are in and out of the laundry room, we wanted a gate that was easy to open and close. We decided on another hardware mounted gate that swing opens, pretty much like a door but it is low and allows the kitchen to keep its open and spacious feel. For my daughter’s room, all we needed was an inexpensive pressure mounted baby gate. We didn’t need a gate that was designed for the utmost safety, but really just to keep him out of her personal space. The pressure mounted gate works great and even my five year old can work it herself.
There are plenty of gates out there, so consider what you need before you buy. It will save you in the long run.