Child-proof a brownstone stoop railing?
Hello – I just wanted to ask a question to the group. We live in the parlor floor of a brownstone. There are eight steps leading up to the front door. And down below, over to one side and about eight feet down is the entrance to the cellar. So this stoop, and it seems…
Hello – I just wanted to ask a question to the group.
We live in the parlor floor of a brownstone. There are eight steps leading up
to the front
door. And down below, over to one side and about eight feet down is the
entrance to the
cellar.
So this stoop, and it seems to be fairly typical setup on other brownstones, has
a very low
railing, about a foot off side of the step. It seems to attract the attention
of our youngest
daughter, the rambunctious two year old. The railing comes up to her belly and
she loves
to play and try to swing o it. I’m terrified that she will do a somersault over
onto the steps
below.
I was wondering if anyone has this same setup and if so, what they’ve done with
this.
We are very clear with our kids that it is not ok to play, but the little one
just can’t stop. I’m
thinking of putting up a higher railing but I’m not sure how to do this. Maybe
attaching
some wood railing, or something or other.
If anyone else has faced a similar “child-proof” scenario, i’d love to hear
about it.
Thanks in advance,
thanks
-richard (father of two in the slope)
rgreensp@yahoo.com
“this stoop, and it seems to be fairly typical setup on other brownstones, has
a very low
railing, about a foot off side of the step.”
Richard doesn’t write very well, but I think he’s saying the railing is located 1 ft in from the side of the step rather than it is 1 ft high. I assumed that it had a horizontal bar low enough for the child to swing on, but another railing higher for adult hand.
Whatever, guy has got to pick up his kid. Nobody suggested he hire a full time helper. Just that he pick her up until she learns to behave in the situation, just as I’m sure he does when crossing the street.
First, my point is that the OP has not asked the rest of the world to modify its behavior — he asked advice on how to make the only entry way to his apartment safe to go up and down. I’m not in a landmarked area, but I have seen plenty of beautiful brownstones with railings and/or walls on the stairs to the parlor floor that are higher than 1 foot tall. In fact, I can’t recall walking up any parlor floor steps with such a low railing, and I repeat, I don’t understand how any adult does so in winter when the stairs are covered with snow and ice. You have nothing to hold on to during that period after the first snow fall and the shoveling, de-icing of the stairs (which I’ve done many times, and is no fun). Are you telling me that landmarks demands a railing no higher than 1 foot on the outside stairs to the parlor floor? Or perhaps you all have supers who wake up at 5am to make the stairs safe for you to walk down.
But I guess anyone who can’t afford to move to a new apartment without an unsafe entryway has no right to have kids, unless they can afford a full time helper who pops out to hold the kid each time you leave and return to the house. Having a normal sized railing on high stairs hardly seems to be asking alot, but apparently, OP, you should be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting there might be a solution to your problem beyond having a very short leash at the bottom of your stairs where you can carry your child and attach her while you lock the door behind you. I also didn’t see anything about the OP’s building being landmarked, unless every house in Park Slope is landmarked.
“did you ever try to hold on to a kid while trying to lock a door behind you, or carry a stroller down the stairs, or carry groceries and the kid up the stairs? How can you unlock the door to get into the house? You guys sound so entitled.”
2:46, You don’t know what the word entitled means. Entitled is believing you have a right to have children and then expecting the rest of the world to modify their behavior and property because it’s hard for you to care for them. You have them, their care and safety is YOUR responsibility.
When my brother wouldn’t listen, my mother put him on a leash. Th op says he’s been very clear with her that it is not ok to play and she does anyway. 2 year olds don’t always listen yet and can’t be expected to. Their brains don’t get it yet. It is the parents’ responsibility to pick them up and carry them. It may take several trips with the groceries, coordinating the 2 parents to be there at the same time, asking the older siblings to carry something, or paying delivery fees. If you can’t organize or afford these options, then you are not ENTITLED to have a kid you cannot properly care for.
Even if OP was not in a landmarked area, replacing the railing seems to be a solution that is (1) expensive, (2) likely ugly, and (3) likely won’t fit in with the nearby brownstone-type buildings with similar style railings, or with their building’s design. The problem is rather temporary – the kid will outgrow it and learn to be careful in a few years – by 5, say, given my experience with active kids.
And 2:36 – keeping hold of a child is the same as trying to cross a street with them with groceries, other kids to watch, etc. It just has to be done.
That said, I have walked up brownstone stairs with the low walls and low railings – many have them – and, even as an adult, I find some of them to not feel so safe. I like having something at hand-height to balance against if I want to. But I wouldn’t change them – they are a design that works with the total original building – I just didn’t move into them.
Tell that to Landmarks, 2:46.
The whole reason this discussion about discipline even started was because the concensus was the OP CAN’T alter or replace the railing. It’s not an option. And if he can’t replace the railing and he doesn’t want to move then quite obviously the only option left is to get the kid not to play on the railings.
Read from the beginning. That helps.
Hey everyone, give the OP a break — he didn’t way the kid wanted to play there. Anyone who has a rambunctious 2-yr old can appreciate that, unless you literally put a leash on them, if you have to walk up a dangerous set of stairs to get in and out of a home, it’s a problem. You can child proof access to a hot stove, but did you ever try to hold on to a kid while trying to lock a door behind you, or carry a stroller down the stairs, or carry groceries and the kid up the stairs? How can you unlock the door to get into the house? You guys sound so entitled.
OP: I’ve never heard of a stoop with a wall that’s only 1 foot tall — that’s ridiculous. We have the same set-up and the wall is at least 2 1/2 feet tall or more. Something I have seen is a low cement barrier, with wrought iron bars railing on top of it. It’s probably expensive, but very beautiful.
I still don’t understand how you have 8 steps without a proper railing. Frankly, that sound incredibly dangerous for anyone in the winter, when snow and ice make stairs slippery and you want to hold on to something as you walk down the stairs.
I hope the rest of you have something better to do this 4th of July than act like silly old ninnies scolding the OP. Good luck OP.
It does seem to me, as one who spends a lot of time around a very active preschooler, that while many things can be made safe for kids, there are other things that can’t, and that they have to be taught to deal with – like an above poster said, like traffic and hot stoves.
My sense when reading about your problem was that you need to take her hand – always – when going up and down the stairs – like you likely do when crossing the street with her -until she is old enough to understand the danger and not climb on the railing. This should pose no problem – any more than crossing a street does.
If it is a problem because your kids use the stoop as a playspace, and you want her to be able to play there and be safe – well, it clearly isn’t a safe place for her to play at this point, and the answer is to either be there with her at every step she takes there, to catch her when she climbs, or keep her from playing there at all. Her use of the stoop should be onlyto get in and out of your apartment, and while holding hands with an adult.
It may be hard to keep her inside if your other kids (and possibly you) tend to play there, but it is really the only (and obvious) solution. It isn’t a safe place for an active (or any) two-year-old to play. It wasn’t designed for that. And any retrofitting to make it so would be expensive, ugly, and unapproved by the landmarks folks. She will grow out of it. In the meantime, walk to a playground or a park and play there instead.
True, 12:01. This epitomizes something that bugs me — how these days all the world is a playground for kids. There used to be such thing as at least one formal grownup room in the house where the kids’ toys were not covering every inch. No more. There used to be public places like restaurants where kids’ behavior was supposed to be different than their behavior at home. No more.
Parents need to remember 10 years from now they’ll be trying to tell kids not to do drugs. Having boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and having the authority to draw those lines, that all starts now or it never starts at all. The approach to discipline in past generations of parents wasn’t to be mean. It wasn’t some Mommy Dearest trip. There was actually a reason!
Oh, for the days of public park monkey bars! Where responsible parents–just as concerned as you–let their kids hang, and spin AND fall because it was better for their kids than pointing out danger at every turn. (And where every bump and ding was not perceived as grounds for potential conflict and litigation.) Surely you can find a park or gym where climbing is OKAY! and your daughter can climb to her heart’s content. Do you not seek similar alternatives in your own adult life when someone tells you no?