Safety Gate Suggestions

[MarinaVanessa]

I got too excited too quickly . After reading the description, the reviews and the instruction it turns out that the gate is hardware mounted also. The description is a little misleading because it says that it's "tension mounted" but in fact it's hardware mounted. DH did find a pet gate that IS pressure mounted that would fit our opening BUT it's $160 for the initial gate and then extra for the extensions ... WAY too much money.

I did try the shower curtain idea but my extremely ambitious 1yo pulled down both rods within the first 10 minutes of putting it up ::. All other ideas that I've pitched to my DH have been shot down including when I was fed up and would have been happy with simply shoving a board between the wall and fridge ... he didn't like that idea either .

[Crazy8]

I don't think you'll find pressure mount that wide - I've noticed even with wall mounted gates the longer they are the weaker they get in the middle when put straight across an opening. For my large opening I ended up putting one of these (wall mounted) http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/...egoryId=117479 because I could angle the sections to make it sturdier in the middle - it has worked great for at least 3 years now.

For your kitchen area can you maybe just gate the child off in a different area of the house?? Even use something like the above playyard/gate to give him a safe play area while you are cooking? Not sure you'd find what you and DH both want that will keep a curious toddler out, LOL!