Renting 2 story town home w/small kids

[mommy2paris]

HI! We are looking at rental vacation properties for our stay in December. We have 2 small kids - almost 2 & 4 when we travel. We live in a single story home. Most of the townhomes we have looked at are 2 stories...
Does anyone have any experience with this? Did you bring along baby gates to block off the steps? How did it work out for You?
I don't want to spend the whole week worrying that the little one is going to fall down the steps!
TIA.

 

[unionville]

As someone who lives in a 2 story house, I remember the days of the baby gate. But by the time they are 4, the steps really aren't an issue. You could show the 2 year old how to ALWAYS go down the steps on their bottom - bump, bump, bump. That's how our son first learned to navigate the steps. I guess my concern would be if they are known to "wonder" at night then maybe a gate would be needed, otherwise you are probably okay.

 

[dougsmom98]

If you haven't already rented a place, you could rent a condo instead and then it would be all on one floor. If you are renting directly from an owner, some promote kid friendly homes with baby equipment, so they may have baby gates. I agree with the other poster that suggested teaching them how to go down steps with their bums.

 

[momofmickeyfans]

not sure what your budget is, but you may also check out rental homes. We recently rented a 1 story house w/ 4 bdrms and a private pool that was the same rate as the condos and townhomes I had priced and had more bdrms and the private pool. www.sunsplash.com was the company we rented from and had a wonderful/clean/private property 15 min drive to Disney.....worth it for us (2 couples and a total of 4 kids!)

 

[bumbershoot]

We lived in a 2 story townhouse when DS was 2, and we had Stair Boot Camp with him for a weekend. After that he was very good at the stairs. (we did the same thing with getting off the bed at around 6 months when he got really mobile, b/c we had and have a family bed, so he had to know how to get down without just falling)

We thought about gates at the top, but frankly, he's the type of kid who would climb the gate and LAUNCH himself over...so that idea was tabled very quickly.

But if your kids have their own rooms (or just any room other than your room) I do not know how you could keep yourself calm at night wondering what they were up to. I haven't had any practice with that, and I get scared just thinking about it. (thankfully we are now in a 1 story place b/c he's talking about getting his own bed now)

 

[rt2dz]

Well, I live in a two story home. We have baby gates on the stairs until about the time they turn two. After that, they aren’t really necessary. It’s not about having experience, because they aren’t going up and down the stairs on their own when the gates are up. They just start to get the coordination to be able to do it at two. You just show them how to do a few times, either going down one step at a time on their bottom or going down backyards. Kids aren’t stupid, they get it pretty quickly and it’s no big deal.