My daughter's bedroom door is almost touching mine at a 90-degree angle. But while we sleep with our door closed, she's always preferred hers open.
And I was OK with that until the gate broke.
The gate at the top of the stairs, that is — the biggest pain in the butt when my husband or I woke for a middle of the night craving, but the number one sanity saver.
We put the gate up when she started crawling as a means to keep her from falling down the stairs should we be upstairs with her.
But as she got older and learned to crawl out of her crib and was quickly moved into a toddler bed, it was also a means to keep her upstairs should she wake while we were sleeping.
Over the years, it's been tough on my husband and me. There's still a giant spackled hole that I need to get around to painting from the time my husband tried stepping over the gate in the middle of the night and instead went tumbling down the stairs.
Apparently 3 a.m. is not a good time to determine if you're still as nimble as you were in your teens.
But now the gate is broken — despite its good ratings and its high price, something happened along the way (maybe all those 3 a.m. acrobatics), and it's slated for the dump. She's just turned 5, and I'm still not sure if I can let things go.
Other moms report they keep the door closed because they can hear it open in the middle of the night (the squeakier, the better), but my daughter's night fears have made that one a toughie.
When were your kids old enough to sleep with the door open or gate-free?
Image via Amazon
