Now we have a Houdini at our home! JB who’ll be two in May was given her big girl bed past November. The girl was creating holes in the walls each time banging and sliding her crib around the room, and so we gave up and decided to buy her a twin bed – just like her big sister’s. Her big sister (A.K.A Gabster) had made the transition easily and we were hoping for much the same experience.
JB figured out the very first night that she could get out of her bed and her room and wander around the upstairs of our house. The Gabster alerted us to this when she screamed at 3 a.m. “Get this pest out of my bed”.
Fine, I said to The Hubby, you’re in charge now. Look for a way to keep JB safely contained in between the hours of 10 p.m. and six a.m. Preferably in her bed, but at the least in her own room. Before you advise closing her door, we did. We actually used one particular plastic child-proof doorknob covers. Small magician figured it out in just few days. Fortunately, The Hubby went up to the difficult task and came home with The First Years Hands-Free Gate.
The First Years Hands-Free Gate is sleek, bright and simple to put in. It’s also the fourth different style of gate to come into our home, and so i treated it with a certain amount of skepticism. Others had failed in the past – just what could make this gate special?
Ooooh – no hands! How cool! No more juggling a sleeping child to open up the gate. No maneuvering out of the way as the gate swings open. No need to get The Hubby make four trips to the hardware store in order to get this gate installed and operating.
This gate, The First Years Hands-Free Gate is pressure mounted. Meaning you keep the gate in the doorway where you intend to use it and twist the ends till it is good and stuck! Absolutely no hammer and nails, no power drill – furthermore – zero holes in the wall. In fact, there is a nut that twists to maintain the little pressure pads in place. Lucky for us, included with the gate is the wrench/lock-fit gauge thing-a-ma-bobby that you need to make it all happen. The pressure pads are amazing. They keep the gate’s components from doing any scratches to your walls. Ours (the pressure pads – not the walls) are white and are made of some type of rubber. Potential buyers will need to note that tightening the nuts (there are 4) will demand some upper body power. This gate works best when a passing baby can’t even shake it, so tighten away with the thing-a-ma-bobby.
The First Years Hands-Free Gate will fit in any entrance that is 29″ to 34″ wide. Gleam 5″ extension available that can make this gate fit openings up to 44″ wide. The manufacturer says that consumers might have 1 extension on each side of The First Years Hands-Free Gate and it will still be safe. They don’t recommend going above this number regarding safety factors. Thankfully we didn’t need an extension for JB’s narrow bedroom entrance. Of course, the extension is sold separately and possibly costs a lot so I was fine with not in need of one.
Ok, so you’ve got it in. Now how does it work?? Oh this is so cool. The good news is even though your toddlers watch you opening the gate, they may NOT be able to do it. Why you ask yourself? Well, the First Years Hands-Free Gate is handled by a FOOT PEDAL! You will find there’s grey 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch part of plastic material that the grownup who wants to open the gate steps on with one foot and “poof” the gate will open. The control pedal is on each side of the gate, and so the “opening adult” can operate the gate from other side. This did initially pose a problem for us because we were using it in JB’s doorway and still wanted to be able to shut the door to her room. The control pedal was keeping us from being able to shut the door completely. Repositioning the gate one more inch far from the door helped this concern.
Two cool top features of the First Years Hands-Free Gate involve the fact that the gate swings open in both directions. From a mother with previous gates that are installed and can only swing one direction, count on me, this is mostly a plus. The 2nd is the gate generate a noticeable “click” in order to notify you the gate has secured. I really like this, except at night when I wish to be able to close the gate as silently as I possibly can. Never occurs. And the little stinker swears the “click” woke her up.
The stated click also has to be rated a minus for that noise factor. I’d prefer to be able to lock the enemy within – but not have them find out. One more negative point is that after weeks of securing herself in her bedroom, JB Houdini still doesn’t get it. Both young ladies often close the gate behind them as they enter the room and later complain that they’re “locked in”. Duh – don’t close the gate. I do not really mind, but at the first light when I am trying to get that last five minutes of sleep, hearing “open the gate, open the gate” is totally irritating.
Please bear in mind, much like any gate you might obtain for your house, unless the gate can be MOUNTED to the wall with hardware, Don’t use it at the top of a staircase. Again, the only kind of gate which is acceptable for use at the top of the stairs is a gate that is PERMENENTLY ATTACHED to the wall. This (and all other) pressure mounted gates (ones that require no hardware) aren’t safe to EVER use at the top of the stairs.
You might want to look at First Years Hands-Free Gate and several other great baby safety gates at First Years Hands Free Gate blog.
