roam the house freely?

I have kept my boys confined to the living room for a while now. I was thinking that maybe I should let them start roaming around the house. I havent done much baby proofing because they're wasnt any need for it...so I will have to do that.

One concern I have is that they'll get off in a corner or a different room and one will bite the other or they'll fight over some toy. Joshua has been biting Daniel all over and I can't seem to get him to stop.

Do you keep you babies in one room or are they free to roam around the house?

 

I have kept my boys confined to the living room for a while now. I was thinking that maybe I should let them start roaming around the house. I havent done much baby proofing because they're wasnt any need for it...so I will have to do that.

One concern I have is that they'll get off in a corner or a different room and one will bite the other or they'll fight over some toy. Joshua has been biting Daniel all over and I can't seem to get him to stop.

Do you keep you babies in one room or are they free to roam around the house?

 

Our main floor is one big rectangle that includes kitchen/dining and living room. So I always have visual contact with them. All the cabinets in the kitchen are child proofed. So yes they are free to roam around.

 

at 14 months I let them roam around the house and really worked on child proofing. I also began to teach NO TOUCH, which I used for certain things like the china cabinet and the TV system. I also followed them wherever they went. They are going to steal toys and all that and if you are there with them, then you are going to be able to teach them how to respect each other. The terrible 2s started long before 2 over here at our house...

as far as biting goes, we also had a phase of that around the same age. the best advice I got on that was that usually the one who bites feels like the underdog. so you have examine the other twin's behavior and see what they are doing to provoke the biting. the one who bites gets a teething toy to bite on instead of the person or themselves.

 

Mine do a fair amount of roaming. Our house is pretty small, so they can't get that far away. I do let them out of sight for brief periods (like no more than 5 minutes), though if I can't hear them or otherwise tell what they are doing, I run over to make sure it's not something dangerous.

Also, when I let them roam, I often close the doors to the really dangerous rooms like the bathroom & the office. Our childproofing is not up to snuff, but so far they have not shown much interest in some potentially dangerous things, like the bedside tables and the shower.

We also work on "no touch," although that barely works even when I am standing right there saying it over and over, let alone when they are out of my sight. They simply have no willpower, even if they can remember that something is off limits.

I usually come over to break up fights rather than letting them have it out on their own. At this age they don't have any skills for resolving disputes, and I don't want them to learn that it's just a question of who shoves (or bites) harder. So if they seem to be in a fighting mood, I stay right with them.

But they do really seem to enjoy being allowed to explore a little. Even if I still have to stay there with them, they are easier to manage if they're exploring the bedroom as opposed to doing the same old things in the living room.

 

I let mine roam the house freely. If they are out of sight for too long, I try to keep a watchful eye on them and checkup. As far as fighting over a toy....it's gonna happen. I intervene when I can and with biting, well that's also something that you can't always catch in time, but if you kind of just keep an eye on them, it should be okay.

They are old enough now that they can havbe a little bit of freedom and will probably like it.

 

Mine have always had free reign of the house. Maybe the biting is because they are contained? Maybe having more space will allow them to discover more and find more things to do. We have done minimal childproofing here--only a few cabinets as needed--definately the one with cleaning supplies. I found that my kids only paid attention to an outlet if it HAD an outlet cover, so we never even did that or gate the stairs. We did, at that age, keep all bathroom doors closed.

 

We keep all bedroom and bathroom doors shut. They have access to the kitchen(all doors safety locked), the dining room, the front room and the hall. This way we don't have to have baby gates.

 

I have often wondered this. I don't let mine roam yet but think I will be in the next couple months. The downstairs is fairly easy to baby-proof, we just need to finish.

 

We always let them roam. Locks on the kitchen cabinets & bathroom doors closed.

 

We have a baby gate over the doorway to their bedroom. We also have baby gates blocking off the kitchen and living room. Sometimes we choose to open their bedroom gate and block off the kitchen, so they can roam down the hall and into the living room.

Other times, if I'm in the kitchen, I'll block off the living room and they can play with pots and pans while I'm in the kitchen.

Sometimes we let them have free roam of the house except we shut the doors to our bedroom and the bathrooms and DH's office. BUT when we do this, inevitably something happens....like..

1. 750 DVDs all over the floor after I had just put them in ABC order.

2. Michael climbs up on the sofa and takes a head dive off onto the floor or coffee table.....goose egg ensues.

3. Toys get places ALL over the place and I spend the next hour trying to get all of the toys back in their room or the toybox in the living room.

Bridget

 

Mine have free reign of the house except for our bedroom. We have gone through and baby proofed what we don't want them to get into.

 

We let their roaming area grow gradually. Doning it in stages helped us teach them in a contained area what 'don't touch' means. Then it wasn't as stressful when they got more freedom. They started in the living room only. Then they were allowed into the living room and dining room and their room. Then they got access to the kitchen and then graduated with access to the bathroom when they were potty training. We did baby proof the entertainment center and all the electrical outlets. We also kept a door knob cover on the front door, the bathroom door and still have one on our bedroom door so they can't open it.

 

We have a small house, and the way that it is designed, we can pretty much see everything from our family room. Because of that, they pretty much have free reign of the house. The only room that is off limits is the master bathroom and the office. We are in the process of redecorating our office (putting shelving up out of their reach for storage, new furniture, etc.), and when we are done, they will have access to it.

The kids also have their own rooms, and each room has toys in it. That really helps to give them their own space. I would go insane if I had to keep them together in our family room all day!

 

I think a lot of it depends on the layout/design of your house and also what kind of "stuff" you have. We pretty much keep the girls confined to the family room (which is pretty much just their toys -- my husband and I don't hang out in there unless the girls are awake) and their bedroom. The kitchen is still gated off, as is the living room, master bedroom, bathroom, and the whole 2nd floor (which is just my office and my husband's music studio, so nothing up there for them anyway). For us it works out fine to keep them basically in those 2 rooms as there is really no reason for them to be in the other rooms anyway. They really don't get bored or anything, and since there aren't any toys in the other rooms, they're not all that interested, KWIM?

 

I kept baby gates on the stairs and kitchen until they were over 2.5, keeping them confined to basically three babyproofed rooms. I just didn't feel confident of their safety in other areas when I wasn't right there watching them.

 

I always kept them contained and it was so difficult (constantly scaling baby gates and dealing with fussy babies who wanted more space), so around 14 months I started giving them more freedom. They were so much happier! They now have free roam of our entire house, but I do usually keep the bedroom doors (except for their room which they love to play in) and the bathroom doors closed. We baby proofed the cabinets in the kitchen and they do great with all the space.

 

We have a basement level family room and playroom, that's where they spend most of the day. They have free reign to go between the two rooms. The stairs are gated off. I do let them play in the living/dining room when I am with them, usually before and after meals or when company is here. It isn't 100% babyproofed, but it's good enough for brief periods. I really don't like them in our room or the office, way too much to get into. Bathroom doors also stay shut, and the kitchen is gated off. It's a small kitchen, and the cat food and water is in there. Nothing but trouble when they are in the kitchen! Like a PP, I increased their "roaming" area gradually, and that seemed to work well.

 

We do about 50/50 here. If I'm feeding the babies, they have to stay in the gated playroom--which is where we spend a majority of the time anyway. I do let them out to run around for brief periods. The bedroom and bathroom doors are always locked, kitchen cabinets, and outside doors locked. We are pretty babyproofed here, including slide locks at the top of the outside doors for Matt (he is the one who's always trying to escape). I don't gate my steps,but there is just a short hallway upstairs with the bedroom doors locked. Once in a while, they'll go through a phase of climbing up and down the steps, but they generally leave them alone. They do get into everything though. I know if I can't hear them for more than 60 seconds, they are up to something!!!

Crystal