Just Curious, Do You Leave the Door to Your Child's Room Open, Closed, or Gated?

I always shut all of the bedroom doors. Everyone seems to sleep much better that way and I don't have a problem hearing my kids when they need me.

My son is 2 1/2 and has always been a terrible sleeper. We started out keeping the door closed because we have 3 cats and 2 dogs. I was concerned that the cats would get in his crib (even though I don't believe in the "stealing baby's breath" thing) and I didnt want them in there running amok like they do in the rest of the house in the middle of the night and waking him up. Plus I have always kept that the "clean room" with no pet hair in it. The animals have free reign in the rest of the house, but his room is fairly pet hair free. Plus with a very small house, I didn't want the noise waking him up, you can already hear all the noises in the house with the door closed. I have a baby gate on the door as an added deterent for the pets. Now that we are potty training and he can open his own door, I will just leave the bathroom door open when we get to that point. I have baby monitors that I still use and don't plan to quit anytime soon with those.

Both of our kids have the doors open. Our daughter could sleep through anything, and our son always gets up in the middle of the night to come into our room. If we had it closed, he would completely freak out, instead of calmly coming down the hall and going back to sleep quickly.

We keep a fan running in both kids rooms (up high enough that neither can get ti it - and they know not to go near them) to block out noise.

To me, the fire theory is counter-intuitive. Smoke, not fire, is the main reason for death in a house fire. The smoke will get under the door regardless if it's open or closed. Also a closed door could make it more difficult to get to your child. Can anyone explain the rationale for the other side of the argument?

In the end, do what is most comfortable to you and best for your kids!
Good luck!

My son is now 3 and in a big boy bed, but even before, I leave the door cracked open about 6 inches. I dont have stairs to worry about, but that way he learns to fall asleep with a little noise/light and he sleeps well in any situation.

Right now I keep the doors mostly closed, cracked so I can hear if they need something. When they first trasition to the toddler bed I keep the door closed with a door knob cover on the inside of the door so they don't open the door during the night and wander.

My son has always closed his door, can't remember if I started that when he was a baby or if he started that when he got alittle older but from the time he was atleast 3 his door was always closed. My girls, i leave the door open. My middle child (6) is still slightly afraid of the dark so doesn't like the door closed because I can't use night light- my youngest likes to sleep in pitch black. Also the bathroom light is left on because... as weird as this is... if my girls can see into the lighted bathroom they will get up go potty, etc and back to bed on their own. However if the light is off, door shut anything else, the oldest cries until I come help her, the youngest who is 4 will walk out of the dark bedroom, into the dark hallway, down the dark stairs, into my dark bedroom for me to go with her to turn on the bathroom light. Not sure why but that is the way it is. I have never used a gate on the kids room. During nap time the door is shut, bedtime at night it is left open.
Hope this helps :)

I've always left their door and ours open. That way I can hear them. It just always made me feel better. Also that way I knew they could get to me or I to them, if they need me. (sick, nightmares, ect..) Just my thoughts

My kids doors are always open. They like them that way. They both can sleep through noise. They also both have fans for white noise.

My son has always liked his door to be closed completely so our dog doesn't bother him through the night! :-)

I used to close their door for same reasons, but once they started using potty at night, I leave hall light on so son can see & not make an awful mess. I now crack their doors, but by morning they are wide open.

My daughters and our bedroom door are open, so she can come in at night. We have the hallway gated off, so ours is the only room that she can get to.

Most of the time she wakes up after I am up. but for those times that she doesn't I love that she comes to snuggle in our bed and I don't have to get up to get her.

We close the door with a safety knob on the inside so he can't get out. This is mostly for noise, but I also don't want him wandering the house at night by himself. We still use a baby moniter at night so I can hear when he wakes up. He's 2.5 years old.

where my kid sleep is always open

We do a combo. At night I close the door so it blocks the noise for them and my two year old always comes trotting downstairs if I don't. Once we're ready for bed we check on them (two year old and ten month old share a room) and then we put a gate up so we can hear them better in the morning.

My 6 year old's door is open in the winter to keep his room warmer and closed every other time. My 9 month olds door is cracked open , as is our bedroom door so we can hear her.

We have a very small house so everything is very close and the only way for her to get to sleep at a decent time and we can stay up later then 8pm is close our daughter's door. I would love to leave her door open a crack but she is a very light sleeper so it remains closed.

With stairs, using the bathroom, layout of the house and so on everything will play in differently for everyone so do what feels right for your family.

We close their doors. We think it blocks the noise.

My kids have always slept with their doors closed for the very reason you stated...fire protection and reduced noise.

Good luck,
K.

To those questioning the fire safety argument, google "fire safety bedroom door closed" there are many sources explaining this. It slows the progression of fire and smoke into the room. Obviously an open door allows more smoke from outside the room to get in more quickly than a closed door does. It provides some more time for a person to escape before becoming overwhelmed by the smoke.

I have always shut the kids' doors for the fire protection reason as well as noise reduction. If I felt like I needed to "hear" what was going on, I would stick the baby monitor in that child's particular room. I leave the hallway light on in case someone needs to get up.

Good luck :)

Our two boys share a room and we keep their door closed so they don't hear the noise from the rest of the house. Also, our oldest is very set on his preferences, and he really likes the door to be closed. Also, it seems to be less scary for him when he wakes up at night. If the door is open, he tends to get nervous and scared. If the door stays closed, he goes back to sleep very well.

We've always had the bedroom door closed so he can sleep in the dark without distraction. I could always hear him anyway if in the front of the house, and the baby monitor was always on and in my bedroom. When he moved to his toddler bed at 18 months old, we would close the door, turn off all the lights, and put the safety gate up so he wouldn't wander while I'm still sleeping "just in case". We had gone through the safety checklist in his room and made sure it was good, but I didn't want to find him flushing flashlights down the toilet or whatever. Once he was daytime potty trained and doing well with that, and we started working on nightime potty training, we still kept his light off and the door closed, but we took the safety gate off and leave the bathroom light on. That way he can open his door and get to the bathroom if he needs to go in the middle of the night.