Staircases

At what age were you confident enough that your child can go up and down the stairs by themselves?

Thanks!

Re: Staircases

I know they go up a lot earlier than down...not sure what age though

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Michael climbs up my outside steps by himself but I always stand right behind him.

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Ali can go up and down them by herself

but I guess at what point did you say - ok I don't have to watch her or hold her hand, what have you?

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My kids learned very early on about staircases. We have two in my home now and we have them in our NY and at our parents' houses. It was a necessity for them to learn how to go up and down. I don't have gates either.

DD will be 20 months old and DS is 3.5 years old.

ETA that I stopped standing behind them at around a year old.

Message edited 4/8/2008 2:17:28 PM.

Re: Staircases

Marcie,
Aly is 22 mths and climbs up the stairs by herself no problem. I trust her and dont stand behind her anymore...however, going down is aproblem. she wont go down by herself though anyway, she starts yelling HELP LOL does Ali do the stairs

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Lance is 16 months and goes up and down perfectly. I am always behind him though.

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DS has been good up since 9 months. Down he has a problem because he insists on going down face forward like us.

I've seen a 20 month old in the ER after a tumble down the stairs with serious consequences. So I am not letting DS alone until at least then.

I hope to have DS go up and down by 2 years no supervision. A cousin of ours has had their son good to go since 18 months and I don't think they've watched him since at least 2 years, maybe even earlier.

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bump - any other moms/dads with toddlers and staircases??

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Ds is 19 months and has been crawling up the stairs forever..(does not walk up them yet)...and I still stand behind him!

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I don't trust Ella alone on the stairs yet. She goes up super fast - sometimes too fast. I'm not always behind her but she's gotten pretty good at asking to go "up" rather than just taking off (not always though - and she has made the climb solo).

She's definitely still shaky on the way down, and fortunately she doesn't try that alone.

We actually don't have gates on our staircase, but I plan on installing one at the top of the stairs once she moves into her new room/bed. Since she'll have more freedom to roam at night, I don't want to take any changes.

Message edited 4/8/2008 11:02:06 PM.

Re: Staircases

DD is 23 months and she goes up and down ours all by herself now They're not full flights though, just about 5 steps to the entry landing and about 5 more steps down to the lower level (hi-ranch). She's mastered holding the railing and going down step by step. Going up she still uses her hands to propel herself up.

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She could get up and down for a while, but I didn't start letting her without being next to her until close to her third birthday -- when she finally showed understanding that she could fall and needed to be careful.

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My daughter will be 3 next week and I trust her to go up. I don't trust her to go down. I have no carpeting on my stairs, so that makes me nervous. I still hold her hand to go down but I don't to go up. I watch her but I don't hold her hand or even stand behind her if my husband is waiting at the top.

We did put a gate up when we moved her into her big girl bed, sadly she knows how to open it but it's a morning reminder when she RUNS out of her room to run to ours not the stairs.