Do your kids have free roam of the house?

Just wondering how many kids have free roam of the house. We live in a townhouse with 2 sets of huge stairs leading to tile!! EEK! Therefore between the kitchen and living room, is the dining room which we've made into a play room...it's gated mostly while I'm home alone, or Dh...they can play and relax, and watch a video..etc. Then in the evenings, they are released into the LR and playroom, removing the gate. They also spend time upstairs while prepping for bath, after bath etc..I would estimate their time in the playroom is 5ish hours a day. I'm in there with them some, but mostly they play together. I'll go in and play puzzles/read, snuggle, etc. It helps me to keep up with the place, cook, and today pack for a weekend trip. I'm wondering if they spend too much time in there.

 

I did not vote yet. We're attempting to make our spare bedroom into a playroom but since I have a girl/boy. I'm waiting out until they turn '2' in September to see how their sleeping arrangement because sometimes one of us have to go in there at night to calm them down from crying. My daughter tend to cry every now because she can't find her 'pinky monkey' security when she sleep at night. When I do go in there my son is a light sleeper but there are times I am lucky.

They only roam first floor of the house or their bedroom (where I put all of their toys in there) since they are still in their crib. They haven't really able to play upstairs on their own. They prefer to have ME around under their watchful eyes! I keep all existing bedroom door closed, bathroom, laundry room, kitchen off limit, and the den/office area.

D, w/Rianna and Justin

 

I didn't vote, I couldn't answer the 3rd question and it would 'not' accept my vote leaving that one blank.

Maybe you could add another option to the 3rd question 'I voted not confined' ?

ETA: the word not, a big word to forget

 

They have free roam of the main floor, except my office. They have free roam when they are in the basement (where our playroom is) except for the 2 storage areas. But they do not have free reign to use the stairs whenever they want. They actually rarely attempt to use the stairs, unless they know they are coming up from the basement or are going upstairs for bath or bed. At their age, "stay off the stairs" works pretty well.

We did gate them off more when they were smaller, but now they are good, for the most part, about staying out of things they are not supposed to play with.

 

We have a gate that blocks off the family room, 1/2 bath, hallway and kitchen from the rest of the house. E & V spend the majority of their day behind that gate, but someone is always with them except for quick trips upstairs to switch laundry, grab a toy from the bedroom, etc. My girls will yell and moan if we leave them in the family room by themselves. This morning I went up to give my husband a cup of coffee and you'd think I had cut off someone's arm. So even though we have a gate, it's really just for safety. I think the longest I've ever left the girls alone was five minutes.

I take them with me to another part of the house if I need to be somewhere else for any length of time. If I need to shower, they come play in the bathroom with me. If I'm doing gardening outside, they come play on the patio. They'll come play in my room while I fold laundry, or wander around the upstairs (we have a gate at the top of the stairs) when we're getting ready for bath and bed. We also visit the dining room and living room once or twice a day for variety. I don't have any kid toys there, but V & E enjoy climbing the few steps between the rooms, looking out the windows, chasing the cats, and just generally checking out the rest of the house.

 

i have 2 11 month old walking babies.. I would be crazy if i didnt have them confined to a room. They have a living room/dining room. So they have a HUGE play area. I do let them out when i am cooking.. (the LOVE the pots and pans) and after the bath they roam the house nakie.. (I love lil escaping butts running around... lol)

DD1 have full use of the house.. I have taught her how to open the gates, but she is not in danger of shoving something in her mouth or playing with dangerous toys ect.

 

I'm in the middle. My two spend time roaming the house {:lol: sounds like they are nomads} and confined to their playroom. They enjoy both, as far as I can tell. We go from playroom to roaming and back all day long, in hopes that they don't get bored. ardon:

 

Free roam here. I haven't put back out anything that was valuable or dangerous.

 

I live in a row home and we are in the living room most of the day. I have a dinning room then kitchen both seperated by walls so they are not allowed to rome free because my dinning room has a flight of wooden steps down to the basement (they can unlock) and my back kitchen has 2 concrete steps out to my yard. When I go in the kitchen/living room to cook or get snacks they come with me but I don't like that I can't see them when we are in the living room plus I am trying to potty train so I need to see them at all times.

 

At that age we used gates, but the whole house really was a play area (except for our room and the office) when we could not get outside. Our house has two floors so the stairs were blocked until we went up or down together. But when we became "bored" in one area we went to the other area for a change of scenery. But no they did not have free reign to go up and down at their whim. Not until I KNEW they would not fall/slip or push each other down the stairs.

 

[SIZE=10pt]I wish that I was able to give them free roam of the house. We have two huge sets of stairs ~ we have a California Split level. When I bought this house 6 years ago I wasn't planning on having any more kiddos Well...life had other plans :lol:

We have a gate keeping them in the living room (the stairs lead out of the living room to either upstairs or downstairs) This is where we spend the majority of our time. In the morning when they get up I shut all the bedroom/bathroom doors and they explore/walk around upstairs. I have to sit at the top of the stairs though ~ as we can't find a gate that will work with our banister set-up <_<

We also go downstairs a few times each day for a change of scenery and to try to avoid boredom.

Hoping ::fingers crossed:: that the housing market changes in the next year or so ~ we're hoping to buy a new house in the spring of 2010 ~ with much less stairs and a flat yard.

April [/SIZE]

 

If they don't seem to mind it, I think it's fine as long as it's big enough for them to move around freely (which it sounds like it is).

My kids have free roam of the house now (at 2.5+), but it wasn't until they were at least 18 months that we felt like we could let them out of our sight for more than 3 minutes. And even now, I like to know where they are and what they're doing at all times, even if I can't actually see them.

Our house is not very well childproofed, largely because 1) it's really small, and 2) they are in daycare, so we're not home that much. If I were a SAHM and had a large area that could easily be childproofed and gated off, you can bet I would have used it, at least from the crawling stage until almost the age of 2.

Those times that we did confine them (in the superyard) and leave their sight they had fits about it, but the superyard was pretty small, even with the extension. Still, we had to do that a fair amount around the 10-15 month stage, because they could move a lot faster, so it wasn't safe even to dash to the bathroom without them being confined somewhere safe.

 

QUOTE(ehm @ Jul 25 2008, 11:41 AM) [snapback]895903[/snapback]
I didn't vote, I couldn't answer the 3rd question and it would 'not' accept my vote leaving that one blank.

Same here.


Mine have free roam of the house now. We took the gates down about 1.5 months before they turned 2 and honestly I feel they behaved better once the gates came down. They were bored with them up, only being able to go in a few rooms.


We never had gates of any kind with my oldest DD, I just didn't need to with only 1 child.

 

My girls have free roam of our downstairs, excluding our kitchen (gated off). That's where our doggies are and they are seperated. A few of my dogs are iffy around kids so I don't want to take a chance, plus the dog hair, yuck, I can't stand it. <_< Hopefully we will be moving to a new house in 6 months or less and I do plan to let them have free roam of the house.

 

QUOTE(mich17 @ Jul 25 2008, 12:18 PM) [snapback]895972[/snapback]
Free roam here. I haven't put back out anything that was valuable or dangerous.


ditto this. both my upstairs and downstairs are completely childproofed. We don't usually keep the doors to the bathrooms open and they haven't figured out how to open door knobs yet but once they do, we will put door knob covers on them. We just don't feel a need to let them roam the bathroom. Too much potential for big time messes and things going in the toilet. Other than that, they have pretty much never been confined to one room.

 

We still have a gate that closes off the living room from the rest of the house. They aren't closed in except for in the mornings and nights. I put them in the living room with the gate closed in order to get breakfast ready. However, Sarah can open the gate at will, so many times I have to round them back up and tell them, "not yet." Then, once supper is finished I closed the gate again so I can clean the kitchen and it gets closed so I can cook supper.

Like I said, though, Sarah can open the gate at will, so it's really hard to keep them in there for any extended amount of time. They have free roam of the house (which is a small house) throughout the rest of the day. So, they're behavior is not really affected when we put them in there, it's kind of a routine as far as when they are in the LR with the gate closed and they don't fuss too much.

 

You didn't have an option for other on the free or not. We have the bathrooms and laundry room (with catlitter) gated off. Other then this, the girls ahve free roam of the house. They seem to stay busy most of the day and aren't overly fussy most times.

 

I babyproofed the kitchen and den and that's where we spend most of our time when we're home. These rooms are in the back of the house so I close the door to the hallway and gate off the living room. It also means that DH and I can relax in the living room with the big tv and not have to look at all the toys because they are in a different room and out of sight.

I do take them to other rooms with me at times for a change of scenery and so I can get other things done. Mine are just too young yet to let them roam free!

 

I voted but I didn't account for my 6 year old who can go anywhere in the house. Twins usually stay downstairs because they are not allowed upstairs alone. Too many things to get into (like bathroom cabinets etc).

 

Right now the boys are confined to the main level in the house which is the living room/dining room & kitchen. The only reason they are "blocked in" though is because of Mason- we don't want him climbing up the stairs even though he takes them no problem.

While Mason is napping, they have roam of the rest of the house which is just the bathroom & bedrooms

 

Mine definitely love to roam the house but no matter how well I think I have baby proofed, they still manage to find things to get into. Their bedroom is right off of our dining room that we turned into their playroom, so they spend a lot of the day gated in those two rooms. At various times through out the day I let them roam the house but then I have to chase them and keep them out of drawers and keep them from throwing everything in the toilet, they also love hiding things which makes it pretty tough for me when I am looking for something I need . So I feel guilty especially when it's raining and they are confined to their two rooms all day but I guess you got to do what you got to do!

 

For the most part, the boys have free roam except our bedroom and the bathroom. We have a playroom on the other side of the kitchen so they can go in there, the kitchen, the living room/ dining room, or their bedroom. We have a gate that we've used at times to keep them in the playroom and they hate to be confined like that. Sometimes we get tired of following them into rooms to check on them, or they are being extra onery and into things they shouldn't, and we close the doors to the kitchen and hallway, and that doesn't seem to bother them. As long as dh or I are near, they are happy.

 

Mine have always had free roam of the house. The only exception was when they were under 2.5, and I kept bathroom doors and some bedroom doors closed. But once they could open doors, it didn't matter. I never put up a single gate. But since almost all their toys are in the family room, they have always pretty much stayed out of the living room and dining room. I guess since they were never "forbidden" they never really bothered with them. I put things up if they became a problem, which actually, was very little.

 

When they were younger they were gated off from going upstairs...now, its total free roam and my god, by the end of the day you can tell looking at my house! Toys and a mess everywhere! :icon_eek: