transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

I'm very slowly starting to think about the idea of transitioning ds to his own room. I'd like him to still have access to our room when he wakes up to come over. His room is right across the hall from our room. But how do you keep them from wandering the house, either on purpose or semi-sleep walking? A baby gate in the hallway makes me nervous in case of an emergency. What do other people do?

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

Well, we didn't transition to their own room until around age 4 :shifty, so they were past the toddler stage (before that they were in their own bed in our room). And we did have a baby gate blocking the hallway from the rest of the house (already set up for other reasons), but I don't remember if we closed it at night or not (it was one of those pass-through ones, that you could open and close without taking it down, so access in case of emergency was pretty straightforward for the adults). Also, none of mine would have come *anywhere* but straight to me, so it wasn't something I thought about much :shrug3.

I will say that the girls *still* come into our bedroom at night :sigh, but idk if it's because of the late transition, or because dd9 has always had anxiety about sleeping away from us (which contributed to our transitioning late in the first place). Dd7 has been able to stay in her bed all night for over a year, but she shares a room with dd9, who can't, and so if dd7 wakes up and notices she's alone, she'll come into our room, too.

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

I never worried about that. I have four very curious kids who get into all kinds of mischief during the day ;) but when they wake up at night, sleepy and bleary-eyed, they do nothing but come into my room. I have never had a gate or anything. Mine were all between 2 1/2 and 3 when we transitioned them.

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

We didn't worry either. My oldest was easy and sleeping in her room by age 3 or 4. She has never come in our bed after transitioning. My current four year old would love to sleep with us still and comes over sometimes but DH has started taking her back to her bed - too crowded. We are transitioning the 2 yo to a crib so that it's just DH, the 7 week old and I in our king. :phew When the 2 yo cries, DH goes to get him and brings him in.

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

Our 10 year old has been in our room most nights for the past several months. Her newly relocated room right next to ours. For a very young child or an older sleepwalking child who is in danger of falling, I might use a baby gate. In the event of an emergency, I don't think a baby gate would be much of a hazard.

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

The children's bedrooms have always been right at the top of the stairs in our houses. I figured it was more likely for a toddler to stumble in the middle of the night than for an emergency situation to come up. We still use a mounted gate at the top of the steps, as my ten year old is not always steady on his feet due to his disabilities.

Re: transitioning to own room but having access to your room
 

I don't think it's that hard for an adult to step over the gate or remove it in case of an emergency...it only takes a second, and most adults are familiar with them or tall enough to just go over them.

I would probably put one to keep the toddler from exiting the hallway, and one to keep him from wandering as far as the bathroom.