Hey MOOKs

[monkeybabe]

When did your kid master stairs? Since we plan to keep Zoe in our bed forever (she's not allowed to grow up), I'm wondering how long I'll be carrying her up and down the stairs. They're pretty steep, so I see doing it for a while yet.

[charlielove]

Around a year old Claire would slide down stairs on her belly, but I was close by supervising for sure. She would also walk up stairs at that age while I held her hand or she held the railing.

[monkeybabe]

It stresses me out just thinking about it. She's so tiny and there are so many of them. They're attic stairs, so they aren't the greatest, ya know?

[charlielove]

Oh yeah it is scary! Especially if they are steep. Might just be easier to carry her for quite some time.

[thedahliharpa]

We don't have any and ALL of our relatives here have 1 story homes so it was scary going places w/ steps for a long time.

[kkfeb04]

Katelyn climbs up stairs currently. I watch her very closely. She isn't allowed to go down yet. Kalvin climbed them around 11 about the same time he started crawling (he was a butt scooter and always went to the stairs). He's just now to the point that I let him do them without my supervision (well at least that I'm comfortable letting him). He mastered them right around his birthday with walking up them. I think I started letting him climb down around 14 months on his belly.

[Deleted]

It all depends how much practise they get at stairs! Some kids who don't have stairs around, aren't confident for years. Others learn really fast. We had stairs with DS1 so he was going up and backing down really well by this age already. He started walking down them as soon as he could walk.

However in our current house we don't have stairs, so DS2 doesn't know he has to back down (when we go to other peoples' houses) I will have to teach him at some point.

I bet Zoe will do great, just keep practising. It's a very important skill for them, imo. DS1 has friends who are 3 who were still unsure about our spiral staircase (in our old place)

Edit: granted, that spiral staircase was a BITCH! lol

[cat19]

I don't remember... :^)

[devonpow]

Henry was obsessed with stairs, and we have a LOT in our house ( 2 flights just to get to our front door - we live on a big ass hill). He was able to walk up and down while holding a railing or someone's hand at around 15/16 months (he started walking at 11 months). I remember this being fairly early amongst his friends....they were mostly doing the butt method for going down, etc. Henry never did that 

[muppetinma]

Andrew can get up them just fine already. We're working on going down stairs now. But, we live in a townhouse, so stairs are an inevitability. We're being proactive and spending time learning how to do them. I'd rather him know as soon as possible how to tackle them. It makes me feel safer, if he were to ever get near them unattended. (DH has a bad habit of forgetting to close the gate sometimes)

[laurack]

The other day I turned around for a moment in the kitchen then turned back and she was gone! I realized I had left the basement door ajar and I freaked out and ran over waiting for the screams. She was going down the stairs backwards, carefully! WTF!

Luckily those stairs are like 2 stairs, then the door, then the rest of the stairs so she's not have fallen AS far. I keep telling myself.

I would not be comfortable with her near our actual stairs. But I've been trying to teach her to get off the bed/couch backwards and now a lot of the time she does turn around.

So if you work with her on it a lot she'll probably get it relatively soon?

[laurack]

oh and she has no problem climbing up stairs now. But our stairs are wood so I hover very closely. I mean, mostly I just carry her as it's much easier and faster!

[fusion]

Jameson was going up and down by 10 months, and I stopped supervising around 18 months. Anna is no where near even going up yet (thankfully).

[Deleted]

I would say close to 2 J could do them alone with me close-by. She had ear issues that affected her balance so I was a helicopter with her.

[dixeedeluxe]

Jan 29, 2013 1:00:57 GMT -5 thedahliharpa said:

We don't have any and ALL of our relatives here have 1 story homes so it was scary going places w/ steps for a long time.

Us too.  I feel like DH and I were only comfortable with her doing them TOTALLY by herself (with no spotter) around age 2.  I also thought we were extra cautious since she had a leg fracture early on. 

[jfh]

I'm not a MOOK, but Kai started going up stairs around Thanksgiving and he's very confident with them now. But only up! He has NO idea that he should go down backwards. He just tries to nosedive.

laurack I'm so impressed that she was going down backwards, and carefully!!