Ugh, my bottom of the stair gates have been defeated!

One of my girls is a much better walker, climber, etc. than the other. She's now figured out how to squeeze under the gates we have at the bottom of the stairs. We went with a flexible gate that rolls into itself at the bottom of each staircase, mainly because there's no good place for the gate to swing out to.

So do I just let her play on the stairs? When did you stop keeping them off the staircase when unattended? I don't want the other DD to have open access to the stairs yet, as she's not nearly as stable. I don't really want Lily to have access either, but there's not way to stop her from scooching under that gate.

Just curious when you let them access the stairs unattended. Maybe I'm going to have to go with regular gates and deal with the awkward gate situation for a while. As soon as I do that though, she'll surely figure out how to climb it!

 

Mine can go up but not down yet. We're working on getting down safely, but haven't mastered it yet. Is there any way you could keep the gate but block it somehow for the current time until they get better navigating the stairs?

 

We have a gate at the bottom of the stairs now, but it's just set there. Mine really don't bother the stairs too much and I can hear very easily if one of them tries to get past the gate. That said, with my oldest DD we never had a gate at the bottom of the stairs, she never bothered them. I think she started coming down the stairs by herself at 2.5. It just depends on each child.

 

Mine will go up on their own but won't go down. I still keep a gate at the bottom and we have a door at the top.