Pie Blurb: Stairgate (SG-1)

That's right folks. We have a stair gate. It doesn't transport its users to far off, mystical lands. It doesn't even glow, but it does mean I don't give myself a mini hernia every time Isaac drags himself super-fast towards the top of the stairs in a bid to catch the dog.

Upon measurement, it transpires our staircase is just-too-wide-for-a-regular-without-extenders-stair-gate kind of staircase. This instantly narrows our choice of gates as we (being seasoned stair gate users) wanted the screw-to-the-wall kind and not the trip-over-the-bottom-rung kind. See image to the right which conveniently demonstrates both irksome features. In addition to wide a stair case, we have silly 70s bannisters & ridiculously small skirting boards. Also from the 1970s. I was slightly concerned about fitting any stair gate in our house.

Having had experience of pressure mounted death trip gates (from when Roisin was wee and also from keeping Rinny out of the kitchen at our old house) I think we were justified in our decision to spend more than we had planned on a gate we A) liked the look of, B) worked with our bannister/skirting board and C) can be tidied away easily when not in use.

We decided on the Lascal KiddyGuard which is essentially a sideways roller blind. It's BRILLIANT!* I read many a review & even ordered (and then cancelled) a BabyDan Flexi Fit before hitting the checkout button. (I cancelled the BabyDan because, despite moving house, space is still an issue and there aren't really any walls against which we could leave a conventional gate open). Lots of people complained that the KiddyGuard is noisy & that you can't open/close it one handed. Something about the push-button-in-click-forwards-the-back system confused people & the noise woke up their kids? After reading the instructions & a few practice attempts both Simon & I can competently use this gate. It's doable one handed, but it makes the noise (clicking sound used as safety feature to alert parent to possible child tampering). That doesn't bother me because if I'm trying to do it one handed then I must be holding Isaac who almost certainly won't be asleep!

It was a doddle to install and the bannister/skirting board potential problem didn't even come into it. Granted the supplied rawlplugs were of usual shoddy supplied-with-product standard, but nothing a quick trip to the toolbox couldn't fix, plus I got to use the drill! MORE POWER! Isaac thought it was all very exciting & happily dragged himself around while I fitted it, munching on the occasional carrot & pumpkin rice cake.

It's not in use lots yet as we don't spend much time upstairs with Isaac on the loose so it's open for much of the time. It's pretty inconspicuous I must say. In-fact, it's so discreet that the girls haven't noticed it yet!

So anyhoo, here is our Stairgate SG-1.