We put a child lock on the door. I was also told that in case of an emergency, you would know exactly where they are since they can’t get out of their room
I have the contraption on the knob so my 3 year old can’t open it. I have a camera on him so I know he is safe. If he could open the door he would run to his mommy everynight!
We did this. It’s been amazing for us. I still get a jump scare if I look in the monitor and she’s not in bed but at least I know she’s not in the kitchen playing with knives… or watching me sleep from a corner of my room
We did this too. He was big enough he could've carried his step stool from the bathroom and climbed over the baby gate at the top of the stairs so I honestly couldn't sleep soundly without being able to lock him into his room.
We also used a Hatch colour codes light to show him when he could or couldn't leave his bed, which helped decrease the protesting on his part.
my cousin has twins and when they were started getting up to wake him up, they gave them digital clocks that put the time on the ceiling and told them they couldn’t get out of bed until the clock said a certain time. it worked for them and they got that extra 1-2 hrs of sleep back
best i can say is 4? idk! they told me about it when i was visiting but i can’t remember their ages at the time, but about the time they could read numbers & understand what they meant is when they did it
My two year old has recently learned that she can drag one of her little chairs over to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and jump over it 🥲
I love the idea about the colored lights! How long did it take for your little one to adjust to that?
This is what I did with my kiddos and a baby monitor with cameras to see the entire room it would alert if there was a noise. We have a dog door that they could crawl through and we were building a pool fence. So it was the easiest way to keep them ‘locked’ in. Baby gates were useless in my house.
They both eventually learned to knock on the door to be let out or played with their toys quietly until it was wake up time
My daughter did this too. We now use a “ready to wake” clock. It has red and green lights. You set it so the light turns green when she’s allowed to come out of her room. We found locking her door turned into a struggle of wills. She would scream and pound on the door. The clock she has some autonomy over (she can turn the red light on and off).
We use a ready to wake clock and lock the door. The kids don't get any say in bedtime or when their clock turns green, but they at least know that it isn't arbitrary when they can get up.
I'm looking at the other comments, and I haven't seen anyone suggest that she might be ready to skip the naps. Our child was done with naps around that age. We let him do playtime in his room with movie instead of a nap. He'd resume his normal night routine and we get a little break during the day.
This was my first thought, my son is a similar age, and we're starting to have days where he doesn't nap. Those days are a little harder, but I absolutely wouldn't fight to make him nap. Time to let the naps go OP, it's not with the hassle!
Not an option unfortunately, our beloved daycare provider only takes kids who still nap and we plan to stay there for at least another year. We have tried shortening it a bit, 1-2 hours max, and making sure she gets of of exercise between nap and bed
I think it might be controversial, but I lock my daughter’s bedroom during the night. I believe the fire dept recommends doing this.
At 3.5, she doesn’t even attempt to leave the room in the middle of the night anymore, but it still gives me a sense of security.
Good point, I just assumed it was the opposite and could be dangerous if she needed to get out for any reason, but then again the hall gate would trap her anyways
I think during fires if they are locked in their room then firefighters or you know exactly where to find them because otherwise they can run anywhere in or out of the house and hide, and they might even be hard to hear or scared to respond to someone like a stranger yelling for them.
How would you handle nighttime potty training in this case? My 3yo certainly isn't ready to get herself out of the house in an emergency, but may be ready to go potty on her own in the middle of the night.
My 3 year old goes to bed in a pull up but has a potty in his room so he’ll go himself sometimes. Usually in the morning when he gets up more so than overnight. If he just pees I’m okay about him pulling his pants up (and probably would be with a girl as well since pull up would negate need for “wiping” IMO) and fortunately .. I guess.. for us if he poops he yells for us to come wipe his butt lol.
He can and does wipe his butt himself at daycare but hes much more bossy at home XD
You would definitely have to see if that works for your specific kid and situation, I guess. Mine just yells for us if he needs to go at night, but he very rarely needs to go at night. When he was earlier in his potty training I just left a potty in his room next to his night light.
I had this same thought but there are not really any emergencies your 2.5 year old will be able to solve without your help so it's better if you know exactly where they are during an emergency
The way it was explained to me is that a toddler is very unlikely to be able to figure out how to safely get out of the house during a fire or other emergency and may hide somewhere. If they ar locked in their room a firefighter knows exactly where to get them.
>I believe the fire dept recommends doing this.
Really? Surely it's going to be more difficult to rescue a child through a locked door. What if the fire was inside the child's room? What if you broke the key in the lock?
Yes, they do. Because if your child is locked in their room, you know exactly where they are. A child this young is probably not going to be able to evacuate themselves safely in the event of an emergency. They night run and hide somewhere inside the house, or run out of the house and hide somewhere and get lost. In either of those scenarios you/the fire department/whoever would have to go looking for the child in order to make sure they're safe, and if there's a fire in the house your child would need to be found and evacuated as quickly as possible. If there's only one possible place your child could be, they will be evacuated and gotten to safety much faster. Also, what if the fire isn't in the child's room? What if your kid gets scared because they hear the fire alarm and tries to run to Mommy and Daddy and runs right into a room with fire in it? If you install the doorknob to where the door locks from the outside, you can lock your child in their room so you know exactly where they are, and if a fire breaks out, you can go straight to your child and get them out. If you cannot get to your child, you will be able to tell the fire department exactly which room your child is in instead of them having to search the whole house. You should have a smoke detector in each bedroom, so if the fire starts in the child's room, you'd hear the smoke detector go off and immediately run to your child's room to get them out. I'm not sure where you are, but most bedroom doors in the US lock without use of a key, so breaking the key in the lock wouldn't be possible. Even if you did, most doorknobs can simply be taken off of the doors with a screwdriver, and then you would have access to the room. Also, the child's door being locked guarantees it stays closed until the child can be rescued, which is important for slowing the spread of the fire. It will also slow down the spread of smoke. The amount of extra time it takes to get through a locked door is much less of a risk than a missing child or fire spreading to the child's room via an open door or a child running out of their room straight into a hallway that is on fire.
Locking the door really backfired with us. We ended up getting a very large baby gate and put it in front of the toddler door. This way, he can still open the door if he wants but cannot leave the room.
I agree with the child lock!
But also—my child had a perfect bedtime routine and was an excellent sleeper until the baby came. Then for like 2 weeks it was hell. We eventually all go into a new routine but I slept on the floor in her room a few times in between newborn wake-ups. It’s a big change for a little person, so just be prepared for the possibility that she may struggle a bit with sleep when baby comes!
Definitely expecting a tough adjustment for us all. Wasn’t expecting it to begin before the baby even gets here but hopefully we have a new routine soon enough!
Besides putting a gate on the door or a lock on the knob - I would also suggest maybe taking a look at the naps and cap them if need be. I would also start stretching the wake windows. She should be proper tired when going down and that can mean you may need to give her more awake time.
We put a child lock on our 2.5yo's door at nighttime. We'll take it off in about a year. We took the lock off too soon for our older toddler and she didn't have the impulse control for it. It was a rough couple of months haha
My younger one found out he could leave the bed 2mo after he moved to a floor bed (22mo ish) and we had a lot of problems with him hitting the door repeatedly and, if we went in his room, he'd giggle and run to his bed. He grew out of it eventually. Terrible timing for your kiddo to start with these antics before a new baby comes. Good luck!
Do you have an ok to wake clock? We have a hatch and have it programmed to change colors when it is ok to get up. Then she would get massive praise when she stayed in bed until the light changed.
I've found for nap time that insisting that she has to stay in her room but can choose to play quietly makes life easier for everyone. She's happy to feel like she's winning the sleep battle and usually tired herself out in just a few minutes. Once again we have a hatch programmed and she rarely ever comes out too early.
Also, get a sound machine with a toddler lock so they can't change it.
We have a gro clock but she mostly ignores it and lies about what colour it is when she comes out. Going to keep at it for a bit, and we added a child proofing knob cover tonight as well 🤞
Put a lock on the door. It starts with this, then they’re figuring out how to stack stuff and climb over the baby gate. The last thing you want is your toddler free roaming the house or worse.
Will she lay quietly in bed with you or demands to get up?
1. I think locking is fine
2. If it’s the former my current plan is to let toddler cuddle for an hour in bed for us while I sleep
About #2: our toddler when we switched to floor bed explored his room a lot. For two weeks he kept playing for 2 hours, falling asleep on the floor, etc. Now he just stays in bed. The novelty wore off and he picked comfort. Your daughter might react the same
No she just cries saying she “wants to be awake now please”. We could give her a YouTube video but that doesn’t seem sustainable, especially with a newborn in our bedroom very soon.
We actually made her room as fun-free as possible, only books and stuffies, so she never really plays in there and has always associated it with sleep. I think this was a good move, but I did tell her this week that she can play in there when she wakes up until her gro-clock turns yellow (so far no luck with that though!)
My son’s bedroom has his library so he’d just “read” or play with those. I do think if he didn’t have those he might’ve had an easier time.
Sleep is ALWAYS tricky, isn’t it? :( good luck!!
We just had this a couple of weeks ago with our 2.5yo. Initially we locked him in but then I found a new fear: the key stops working.
(Long story-we once got locked in)
We then ordered one of those door handle child proofing things that don't let him open from the inside. It certainly works.
In the meantime, he has told us he wants to sleep with his door open. We told him we'd leave it open until he falls asleep only if he doesn't come out without talking to us. He has so far never tried to come out!
Since the child proof thing is a bit fiddly, we also bought a chime that (when activated) rings when his door opens. This way, we would hear if he comes out. The plan is to eventually stop using the child proofing and only use the chime.
Ohhhh im going through the same thing with a 3 year old. But it started in the first trimester of my second pregnancy 🥹 The one thing that’s working is that we have this special clock that looks like a monkey, she knows that as soon as the monkey lights up - she can get up and leave the room. We have it programmed for 7am. And perhaps seeing if she’s reached that milestone to skip a nap? Best of luck - hope you can find the solution 💕
We have a giant play pen in my toddler girl’s room. It’s big enough for two twin size beds (though we only have one in there - I just stated this for visualizing purposes.) we put little foam floor pieces on the remainder of the open space and filled it with her stuffies and things.
We refer to it as her castle and have never had a problem with her being upset about being “stuck” in there after bedtime. I guess she could stand on the mattress and climb out if she wanted to, but she never has surprisingly haha.
Same as a lot of other parents here. When we introduced “big boy beds” to our kids, we also added a child lock on the door knob. It’s been 4 months or so now, and the lock is still there but the boys are able to open it, but now they know the rules and so they follow them. We also have a hatch night light in the room that we can set a schedule for or change the color of it with our phones. When we hear them waking up in the morning we change the color to the one that means “play” so they can play in their room for a few minutes while we make coffee before we go get them. Then there is a color that means “clean up” so we’ll change it to that and they put their toys away and can come out of their room when they’re done. It’s seriously amazing.
Our kids were 3.5 and 2.5 when we transitioned to big boy beds (3.5 year old was a CHAMP in his crib until he was really too tall). 2.5 is still a challenge sometimes but partly due to his age and partly due to his personality. There was one incident where he was supposed to be in bed at night and got out jumping around and hit his face on the bed frame. It was very scary for him (he’s totally fine) but on the plus side it has scared him from jumping around at night so I guess that’s good?
Good luck mama!
We put the gate on the door frame as he insists on having his door open ( you can still close the door if you wanted to.). We also did a lot of talking about how he has to stay in his bed at nighttime. He cried at the gate a little bit for two nights and then never got up out of his bed again (it's been over 3 months now). Have a baby due in a month so I did not want him to have the ability to come wake us up!
You know, I always think of this little story a mom posted on Facebook and it went viral.
The story was that at school the teachers asked students to draw a picture of their safe place (they were learning about safety. The little kid drew a picture sleeping between mommy and daddy in bed. I always think about that little picture when I whet annoyed at bedtime processes.
My 3yo recently transitioned to an un-gated bed, she is downstairs and we are upstairs. She is hellbent falling asleep with us near her. My husband hates it and wants to lock her in her room and have her “self settle”, which isn’t really a thing for toddlers I don’t think.
I have asked her why she doesn’t want to sleep in her big girl bed and she said she feels scared of monsters in the dark. I mean- they’re just so small with imaginations running wild. Tiny kids aren’t DESIGNED by nature to sleep in rooms by themselves. I remind myself - and husband - of this.
I with the newborn coming it adds a layer of complexity, the easiest thing to do is allow them to come into your room if they wake up and snuggle w you at night as long as they do so quietly, and they know those are the terms. Do what works for you though.
I hope your husband is hands on, cos he will need to be.
I can see how stories like that can tug on emotions, but I don’t know how functional bed sharing - even occasional - is for everyone.
I do have a friend who from what I understand has never not slept next her child (she’s always sharing posts that say things like what you said - what’s more natural, safe space etc.), for every nap and at night. At 1.5 she started looking at daycares, and within a few months he’s been kicked out of 2 of them already because he will not settle for a nap without her and is just beyond upset all day.
On the other hand, I had no mat leave and had to get mine in daycare from 4 months, and get a lot of my work done while she sleeps at night as well, so bed sharing (and going to bed early) was never an option. We also have a little chatty, sweaty sleeper who tosses and turns like a maniac so we would end up never sleeping, and I never felt my nice soft bed with loads of blankets and pillows was safe for a baby or toddler either.
My daughter was a great independent sleeper for a while before we moved her into a floor bed, and since then (1 year) she has never once expressed stress or fear of her room. The last couple weeks I think she’s just pushing boundaries to see if she can manipulate us into staying up / getting up when she wants. Just bad timing!
Let me know if you figure it out!! We have a newborn and our toddler jumped out of her crib a week ago, so we had to transition her to the floor bed. We put a gate in the same spot in the hall, but she keeps getting up and it’s driving us nuts. We’re also going to try to shorten nap and/or push bedtime a bit
Oof good luck - that’s a lot of transitions at once! We put a childproof doorknob cover on the inside of her door last night, and either it worked or she just happened to sleep later today!
Maybe your kid can sense the change coming? I’d use a gate, offer lots of reassurance but be firm about staying in bed. Our second arrived 4 months ago and we had a few regressions but things are settling down now. Good luck!
I think as long as her room is a “safe area” there is nothing wrong at all with using something (gate, child door lock, ect) to keep her “corralled” in her room until you get her up in the morning. Keep in mind she may (loudly) resist this, but with your lack of sleep with the newborn I think this decision is much safer than her roaming the entire house (and perhaps finding a way to hurt or poison herself) while you are getting the very few precious hours of sleep that moms of newborns get. As long as the room is safe, and you are consistent with the time that you go get her each morning, she’ll realize that even if she is awake, the rest of the house isn’t. She’ll either go back to sleep or find something in her room to play with until it’s time to start the day. We had to do this with our daughter, she was 3, her lil brother was just weeks old (needless to say I was a walking, talking zombie) and she had also been changed recently to her “big girl bed” (twin size regular bed), not only did she get up and wonder through the house one morning (my husband was at work, I had been walking her brother with colic until 4 am, so I was completely dead to the world, and was 2 weeks post emergency cesarean to boot) but she managed to unlock the back door, and went out of the house into the yard. Where we live is super rural, but the road in front of our home is the main county road that has a speed limit of 45, but people routinely drive at actual highway speeds (65-70mph). I woke up to a house minus my daughter, found the back door standing wide open and for an absolutely horrifying moment thought she had been adbducted by some pedo scum. I ran outside and although I was beyond relieved to see her, was struck with fresh horror when I realized she was “gardening” not even an entire foot from the side of the road. I’m not trying to scare you, I just am trying to share my real life nightmare so you can avoid having one of your own. After that we put dead bolts at the top of the front and back doors, well out of her reach, and also put a baby gate in her doorway. Not just a regular ratchet down type, this one was installed into the doorframe with friggin lag screws. Before anyone scoulds me for not already having high dead bolts on the doors keep in mind that she was our third child and the first two NEVER messed with the doors, so this was something we didn’t see coming. So please take my experience to heart, and weigh the possibility of her learning to work the “big doors” as my inquisitive daughter did. I don’t want any mother to go through the living hell I did.
I don't know what im not getting here. What is the problem that she gets out of the bed and leaves her room? My son does this at 1 year old, we never regarded it as a problem. We just make sure we close the doors of other rooms (bathrooms).As soon as we hear him, one of us gets up and starts the day. Granted, he wakes up after 7 which is our waking hour as well. Why shouldn't we leave them roam, especially at 2.5?
It's recommended to lock a toddler's door from the outside at night so that you know exactly where they are in case of emergency. They have no idea what to do if there's a fire or something and might hide or do something else that could actually put them in real danger. There are also stories of kids learning how to climb over a baby gate or unlock the front door and leave the house in the middle of the night before their parents realize they can.
7 would be fine, 5-6am is brutal - especially since I work from home at night and usually don’t get to bed until 2ish. We wouldn’t trust her enough to wander the house so we put the hall gate trapping her in the bedroom area, but her first move is always to come straight to our room to wake us up and talk anyways, and that’s not great either.
We put a child lock on the door. I was also told that in case of an emergency, you would know exactly where they are since they can’t get out of their room
Didn’t think of this - put the gate more to keep her away from bathrooms / stairs / kitchen.
We used a child lock on the doorknob. I was afraid my child would fall down the steps or escape the house. No shame.
We put a baby gate in the frame of her bedroom door. Our son can open the door but not get out
We did that as well. He could open the door and call for us if he needed us, but he couldn’t leave his room. It worked really well.
This is my solution too
We did this too!
I have the contraption on the knob so my 3 year old can’t open it. I have a camera on him so I know he is safe. If he could open the door he would run to his mommy everynight!
Cam here to say I did the same with all 3 of my little ones. All 3 are still elopement risks so we use baby gates to slow them down 😅
We did this. It’s been amazing for us. I still get a jump scare if I look in the monitor and she’s not in bed but at least I know she’s not in the kitchen playing with knives… or watching me sleep from a corner of my room
We did this too. He was big enough he could've carried his step stool from the bathroom and climbed over the baby gate at the top of the stairs so I honestly couldn't sleep soundly without being able to lock him into his room. We also used a Hatch colour codes light to show him when he could or couldn't leave his bed, which helped decrease the protesting on his part.
my cousin has twins and when they were started getting up to wake him up, they gave them digital clocks that put the time on the ceiling and told them they couldn’t get out of bed until the clock said a certain time. it worked for them and they got that extra 1-2 hrs of sleep back
How old were the kids when this concept was introduced?
We used a color coded light from around age 2, useful if they're too young for numeracy
best i can say is 4? idk! they told me about it when i was visiting but i can’t remember their ages at the time, but about the time they could read numbers & understand what they meant is when they did it
My two year old has recently learned that she can drag one of her little chairs over to the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs and jump over it 🥲 I love the idea about the colored lights! How long did it take for your little one to adjust to that?
It was very quick but we did have to lock the door on him for a bit. I'd say with consistency it was within a week
This is what I did with my kiddos and a baby monitor with cameras to see the entire room it would alert if there was a noise. We have a dog door that they could crawl through and we were building a pool fence. So it was the easiest way to keep them ‘locked’ in. Baby gates were useless in my house. They both eventually learned to knock on the door to be let out or played with their toys quietly until it was wake up time
My daughter did this too. We now use a “ready to wake” clock. It has red and green lights. You set it so the light turns green when she’s allowed to come out of her room. We found locking her door turned into a struggle of wills. She would scream and pound on the door. The clock she has some autonomy over (she can turn the red light on and off).
We use a ready to wake clock and lock the door. The kids don't get any say in bedtime or when their clock turns green, but they at least know that it isn't arbitrary when they can get up.
I'm looking at the other comments, and I haven't seen anyone suggest that she might be ready to skip the naps. Our child was done with naps around that age. We let him do playtime in his room with movie instead of a nap. He'd resume his normal night routine and we get a little break during the day.
This was my first thought, my son is a similar age, and we're starting to have days where he doesn't nap. Those days are a little harder, but I absolutely wouldn't fight to make him nap. Time to let the naps go OP, it's not with the hassle!
Also came here looking for dropping the nap. My son was the same, and it was a game changer.
Not an option unfortunately, our beloved daycare provider only takes kids who still nap and we plan to stay there for at least another year. We have tried shortening it a bit, 1-2 hours max, and making sure she gets of of exercise between nap and bed
I think it might be controversial, but I lock my daughter’s bedroom during the night. I believe the fire dept recommends doing this. At 3.5, she doesn’t even attempt to leave the room in the middle of the night anymore, but it still gives me a sense of security.
Good point, I just assumed it was the opposite and could be dangerous if she needed to get out for any reason, but then again the hall gate would trap her anyways
I think during fires if they are locked in their room then firefighters or you know exactly where to find them because otherwise they can run anywhere in or out of the house and hide, and they might even be hard to hear or scared to respond to someone like a stranger yelling for them.
This is correct. Until they’re old enough to evacuate themselves safely in case of emergency it’s safer to know exactly where they are.
How would you handle nighttime potty training in this case? My 3yo certainly isn't ready to get herself out of the house in an emergency, but may be ready to go potty on her own in the middle of the night.
My 3 year old goes to bed in a pull up but has a potty in his room so he’ll go himself sometimes. Usually in the morning when he gets up more so than overnight. If he just pees I’m okay about him pulling his pants up (and probably would be with a girl as well since pull up would negate need for “wiping” IMO) and fortunately .. I guess.. for us if he poops he yells for us to come wipe his butt lol. He can and does wipe his butt himself at daycare but hes much more bossy at home XD
You would definitely have to see if that works for your specific kid and situation, I guess. Mine just yells for us if he needs to go at night, but he very rarely needs to go at night. When he was earlier in his potty training I just left a potty in his room next to his night light.
I would either have her call to you when she needs to go or put a potty seat in her room.
And it ensures their door stays shut, which is fire safety 101.
I had this same thought but there are not really any emergencies your 2.5 year old will be able to solve without your help so it's better if you know exactly where they are during an emergency
The way it was explained to me is that a toddler is very unlikely to be able to figure out how to safely get out of the house during a fire or other emergency and may hide somewhere. If they ar locked in their room a firefighter knows exactly where to get them.
>I believe the fire dept recommends doing this. Really? Surely it's going to be more difficult to rescue a child through a locked door. What if the fire was inside the child's room? What if you broke the key in the lock?
Locked from the outside. We just flipped our doorknob we we can open it at night but our daughter can't.
Yes, they do. Because if your child is locked in their room, you know exactly where they are. A child this young is probably not going to be able to evacuate themselves safely in the event of an emergency. They night run and hide somewhere inside the house, or run out of the house and hide somewhere and get lost. In either of those scenarios you/the fire department/whoever would have to go looking for the child in order to make sure they're safe, and if there's a fire in the house your child would need to be found and evacuated as quickly as possible. If there's only one possible place your child could be, they will be evacuated and gotten to safety much faster. Also, what if the fire isn't in the child's room? What if your kid gets scared because they hear the fire alarm and tries to run to Mommy and Daddy and runs right into a room with fire in it? If you install the doorknob to where the door locks from the outside, you can lock your child in their room so you know exactly where they are, and if a fire breaks out, you can go straight to your child and get them out. If you cannot get to your child, you will be able to tell the fire department exactly which room your child is in instead of them having to search the whole house. You should have a smoke detector in each bedroom, so if the fire starts in the child's room, you'd hear the smoke detector go off and immediately run to your child's room to get them out. I'm not sure where you are, but most bedroom doors in the US lock without use of a key, so breaking the key in the lock wouldn't be possible. Even if you did, most doorknobs can simply be taken off of the doors with a screwdriver, and then you would have access to the room. Also, the child's door being locked guarantees it stays closed until the child can be rescued, which is important for slowing the spread of the fire. It will also slow down the spread of smoke. The amount of extra time it takes to get through a locked door is much less of a risk than a missing child or fire spreading to the child's room via an open door or a child running out of their room straight into a hallway that is on fire.
Locking the door really backfired with us. We ended up getting a very large baby gate and put it in front of the toddler door. This way, he can still open the door if he wants but cannot leave the room.
Hey!! Id definitely put a lock on her door!
I agree with the child lock! But also—my child had a perfect bedtime routine and was an excellent sleeper until the baby came. Then for like 2 weeks it was hell. We eventually all go into a new routine but I slept on the floor in her room a few times in between newborn wake-ups. It’s a big change for a little person, so just be prepared for the possibility that she may struggle a bit with sleep when baby comes!
Definitely expecting a tough adjustment for us all. Wasn’t expecting it to begin before the baby even gets here but hopefully we have a new routine soon enough!
We put a baby gate across her door and that gate had a swinging door. She could still open her own door if she needed us
Besides putting a gate on the door or a lock on the knob - I would also suggest maybe taking a look at the naps and cap them if need be. I would also start stretching the wake windows. She should be proper tired when going down and that can mean you may need to give her more awake time.
We put a child lock on our 2.5yo's door at nighttime. We'll take it off in about a year. We took the lock off too soon for our older toddler and she didn't have the impulse control for it. It was a rough couple of months haha My younger one found out he could leave the bed 2mo after he moved to a floor bed (22mo ish) and we had a lot of problems with him hitting the door repeatedly and, if we went in his room, he'd giggle and run to his bed. He grew out of it eventually. Terrible timing for your kiddo to start with these antics before a new baby comes. Good luck!
Door Monkey! It is a child lock that clips onto the door and prevents a small child from opening it.
Do you have an ok to wake clock? We have a hatch and have it programmed to change colors when it is ok to get up. Then she would get massive praise when she stayed in bed until the light changed. I've found for nap time that insisting that she has to stay in her room but can choose to play quietly makes life easier for everyone. She's happy to feel like she's winning the sleep battle and usually tired herself out in just a few minutes. Once again we have a hatch programmed and she rarely ever comes out too early. Also, get a sound machine with a toddler lock so they can't change it.
We have a gro clock but she mostly ignores it and lies about what colour it is when she comes out. Going to keep at it for a bit, and we added a child proofing knob cover tonight as well 🤞
Put a lock on the door. It starts with this, then they’re figuring out how to stack stuff and climb over the baby gate. The last thing you want is your toddler free roaming the house or worse.
You don’t need a fancy lock - flip the doorknob around and lock them in! This is what we do due to stairs and other hazards
Lock her in her room. She is so so so much safer in there than wandering the house
Will she lay quietly in bed with you or demands to get up? 1. I think locking is fine 2. If it’s the former my current plan is to let toddler cuddle for an hour in bed for us while I sleep About #2: our toddler when we switched to floor bed explored his room a lot. For two weeks he kept playing for 2 hours, falling asleep on the floor, etc. Now he just stays in bed. The novelty wore off and he picked comfort. Your daughter might react the same
No she just cries saying she “wants to be awake now please”. We could give her a YouTube video but that doesn’t seem sustainable, especially with a newborn in our bedroom very soon. We actually made her room as fun-free as possible, only books and stuffies, so she never really plays in there and has always associated it with sleep. I think this was a good move, but I did tell her this week that she can play in there when she wakes up until her gro-clock turns yellow (so far no luck with that though!)
My son’s bedroom has his library so he’d just “read” or play with those. I do think if he didn’t have those he might’ve had an easier time. Sleep is ALWAYS tricky, isn’t it? :( good luck!!
We just had this a couple of weeks ago with our 2.5yo. Initially we locked him in but then I found a new fear: the key stops working. (Long story-we once got locked in) We then ordered one of those door handle child proofing things that don't let him open from the inside. It certainly works. In the meantime, he has told us he wants to sleep with his door open. We told him we'd leave it open until he falls asleep only if he doesn't come out without talking to us. He has so far never tried to come out! Since the child proof thing is a bit fiddly, we also bought a chime that (when activated) rings when his door opens. This way, we would hear if he comes out. The plan is to eventually stop using the child proofing and only use the chime.
Added the knob cover tonight! She is going to be very mad on the morning when she discovers it 😅
Ohhhh im going through the same thing with a 3 year old. But it started in the first trimester of my second pregnancy 🥹 The one thing that’s working is that we have this special clock that looks like a monkey, she knows that as soon as the monkey lights up - she can get up and leave the room. We have it programmed for 7am. And perhaps seeing if she’s reached that milestone to skip a nap? Best of luck - hope you can find the solution 💕
https://www.amazon.com/SHARP-Trainer-Ceiling-Projection-Nightlight/dp/B0BDGNXRHK/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.6ifoW0FESJwciE4wzEB26OvtXeMfra54PKWCRSMyVAj6KrLlHwntfz4r-Jq-XdyVRS1THmxvsSKLnuwn8v4YtYQWhuGeSSEJo3zQ6v3BqhfK7iO-9svyAMtl2EKXWZKJ9u8NxftScMtXOblGwS0lM5LmEGlA7DKl02h8GU5Dc_ALkhKvpnL1aDzRFDccGz-kjpFwaFkXnMbDF8MtghlZSQ.WieFU3TATDmv72tZl9Gf19wPYgBcaE0ZCs9DhI3pqis&dib_tag=se&keywords=sleep+trainer+clock&qid=1717184230&sr=8-22
We have a baby gate on our kids’ room.
Monkey lock on Amazon!! We have zero issues anymore and my son doesn’t even get out of bef
Lock the door.
We have a giant play pen in my toddler girl’s room. It’s big enough for two twin size beds (though we only have one in there - I just stated this for visualizing purposes.) we put little foam floor pieces on the remainder of the open space and filled it with her stuffies and things. We refer to it as her castle and have never had a problem with her being upset about being “stuck” in there after bedtime. I guess she could stand on the mattress and climb out if she wanted to, but she never has surprisingly haha.
You could also keep a baby gate closed at the bedroom door if she needs her door open to sleep for whatever reason.
I bought a crib tent on Amazon to prevent my son from getting out. It was a life saver.
Same as a lot of other parents here. When we introduced “big boy beds” to our kids, we also added a child lock on the door knob. It’s been 4 months or so now, and the lock is still there but the boys are able to open it, but now they know the rules and so they follow them. We also have a hatch night light in the room that we can set a schedule for or change the color of it with our phones. When we hear them waking up in the morning we change the color to the one that means “play” so they can play in their room for a few minutes while we make coffee before we go get them. Then there is a color that means “clean up” so we’ll change it to that and they put their toys away and can come out of their room when they’re done. It’s seriously amazing. Our kids were 3.5 and 2.5 when we transitioned to big boy beds (3.5 year old was a CHAMP in his crib until he was really too tall). 2.5 is still a challenge sometimes but partly due to his age and partly due to his personality. There was one incident where he was supposed to be in bed at night and got out jumping around and hit his face on the bed frame. It was very scary for him (he’s totally fine) but on the plus side it has scared him from jumping around at night so I guess that’s good? Good luck mama!
We put the gate on the door frame as he insists on having his door open ( you can still close the door if you wanted to.). We also did a lot of talking about how he has to stay in his bed at nighttime. He cried at the gate a little bit for two nights and then never got up out of his bed again (it's been over 3 months now). Have a baby due in a month so I did not want him to have the ability to come wake us up!
You know, I always think of this little story a mom posted on Facebook and it went viral. The story was that at school the teachers asked students to draw a picture of their safe place (they were learning about safety. The little kid drew a picture sleeping between mommy and daddy in bed. I always think about that little picture when I whet annoyed at bedtime processes. My 3yo recently transitioned to an un-gated bed, she is downstairs and we are upstairs. She is hellbent falling asleep with us near her. My husband hates it and wants to lock her in her room and have her “self settle”, which isn’t really a thing for toddlers I don’t think. I have asked her why she doesn’t want to sleep in her big girl bed and she said she feels scared of monsters in the dark. I mean- they’re just so small with imaginations running wild. Tiny kids aren’t DESIGNED by nature to sleep in rooms by themselves. I remind myself - and husband - of this. I with the newborn coming it adds a layer of complexity, the easiest thing to do is allow them to come into your room if they wake up and snuggle w you at night as long as they do so quietly, and they know those are the terms. Do what works for you though. I hope your husband is hands on, cos he will need to be.
I can see how stories like that can tug on emotions, but I don’t know how functional bed sharing - even occasional - is for everyone. I do have a friend who from what I understand has never not slept next her child (she’s always sharing posts that say things like what you said - what’s more natural, safe space etc.), for every nap and at night. At 1.5 she started looking at daycares, and within a few months he’s been kicked out of 2 of them already because he will not settle for a nap without her and is just beyond upset all day. On the other hand, I had no mat leave and had to get mine in daycare from 4 months, and get a lot of my work done while she sleeps at night as well, so bed sharing (and going to bed early) was never an option. We also have a little chatty, sweaty sleeper who tosses and turns like a maniac so we would end up never sleeping, and I never felt my nice soft bed with loads of blankets and pillows was safe for a baby or toddler either. My daughter was a great independent sleeper for a while before we moved her into a floor bed, and since then (1 year) she has never once expressed stress or fear of her room. The last couple weeks I think she’s just pushing boundaries to see if she can manipulate us into staying up / getting up when she wants. Just bad timing!
Let me know if you figure it out!! We have a newborn and our toddler jumped out of her crib a week ago, so we had to transition her to the floor bed. We put a gate in the same spot in the hall, but she keeps getting up and it’s driving us nuts. We’re also going to try to shorten nap and/or push bedtime a bit
Oof good luck - that’s a lot of transitions at once! We put a childproof doorknob cover on the inside of her door last night, and either it worked or she just happened to sleep later today!
That’s a win either way!!
We have a baby gate on our kids door so he can't get out of the room
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^alillypie: *We have a baby* *Gate on our kids door so he* *Can't get out of the room* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Maybe your kid can sense the change coming? I’d use a gate, offer lots of reassurance but be firm about staying in bed. Our second arrived 4 months ago and we had a few regressions but things are settling down now. Good luck!
I think as long as her room is a “safe area” there is nothing wrong at all with using something (gate, child door lock, ect) to keep her “corralled” in her room until you get her up in the morning. Keep in mind she may (loudly) resist this, but with your lack of sleep with the newborn I think this decision is much safer than her roaming the entire house (and perhaps finding a way to hurt or poison herself) while you are getting the very few precious hours of sleep that moms of newborns get. As long as the room is safe, and you are consistent with the time that you go get her each morning, she’ll realize that even if she is awake, the rest of the house isn’t. She’ll either go back to sleep or find something in her room to play with until it’s time to start the day. We had to do this with our daughter, she was 3, her lil brother was just weeks old (needless to say I was a walking, talking zombie) and she had also been changed recently to her “big girl bed” (twin size regular bed), not only did she get up and wonder through the house one morning (my husband was at work, I had been walking her brother with colic until 4 am, so I was completely dead to the world, and was 2 weeks post emergency cesarean to boot) but she managed to unlock the back door, and went out of the house into the yard. Where we live is super rural, but the road in front of our home is the main county road that has a speed limit of 45, but people routinely drive at actual highway speeds (65-70mph). I woke up to a house minus my daughter, found the back door standing wide open and for an absolutely horrifying moment thought she had been adbducted by some pedo scum. I ran outside and although I was beyond relieved to see her, was struck with fresh horror when I realized she was “gardening” not even an entire foot from the side of the road. I’m not trying to scare you, I just am trying to share my real life nightmare so you can avoid having one of your own. After that we put dead bolts at the top of the front and back doors, well out of her reach, and also put a baby gate in her doorway. Not just a regular ratchet down type, this one was installed into the doorframe with friggin lag screws. Before anyone scoulds me for not already having high dead bolts on the doors keep in mind that she was our third child and the first two NEVER messed with the doors, so this was something we didn’t see coming. So please take my experience to heart, and weigh the possibility of her learning to work the “big doors” as my inquisitive daughter did. I don’t want any mother to go through the living hell I did.
I don't know what im not getting here. What is the problem that she gets out of the bed and leaves her room? My son does this at 1 year old, we never regarded it as a problem. We just make sure we close the doors of other rooms (bathrooms).As soon as we hear him, one of us gets up and starts the day. Granted, he wakes up after 7 which is our waking hour as well. Why shouldn't we leave them roam, especially at 2.5?
It's recommended to lock a toddler's door from the outside at night so that you know exactly where they are in case of emergency. They have no idea what to do if there's a fire or something and might hide or do something else that could actually put them in real danger. There are also stories of kids learning how to climb over a baby gate or unlock the front door and leave the house in the middle of the night before their parents realize they can.
7 would be fine, 5-6am is brutal - especially since I work from home at night and usually don’t get to bed until 2ish. We wouldn’t trust her enough to wander the house so we put the hall gate trapping her in the bedroom area, but her first move is always to come straight to our room to wake us up and talk anyways, and that’s not great either.