Safe, relatively inconspicuous and easy-to-use gate

I absolutely love this gate. A girlfriend of mine has it, and after seeing it in action just one time at her house, I had to get it for our house.

First of all, this is a hardware-mounted gate. That means you will have to drill holes into your wall to secure this gate, but that's the case with any top-of-the-stairs gate. This gate comes with a brilliant template. You just tape the template (a strip of paper) to your wall, and it shows you exactly where to drill the screws. You do not have to measure anything! That was quite a reassurance to me, because inevitably, I measure something incorrectly somewhere, and I wind up having to drill more holes than necessary to correct my mistake. The template works for each side of the gate that you have to mount, and is easy enough to fold up and store in case you expect to have to uninstall the gate and reinstall it later, or move it from house to house.

The gate itself is made with two solid panels of clear plastic. The panels slide apart until they fit the width of the door/stair-top opening you're trying to block. The awesome thing about the two solid clear plastic panels is that your little one cannot climb them. There is no place to get a foothold! Also, if your little one is like mine, a clear panel of plastic is a lot less interesting (and therefore, a lot easier to ignore) than a gate with a lot of bars or holes or some other feature. This is especially smart considering this is designed to be used at the top of the stairs. Even though I trust this gate completely, I don't want my son horsing around near this gate, just in case. And because this one is relatively boring, he leaves it alone.

(Bonus: The clear plastic means this gate is pretty unobtrusive in the looks department. Yes, of course you can plainly see that you have a gate in the house, but it's not as "gatey" looking as a lot of other options, so it kind of blends in with your decor.)

The gate swings open when you use a switch in the handle. This is great for when adults want to pass through -- no need to do the dangerous "gate hurdle," especially near stairs! The switch in the handle is pretty easy to operate, left- or right-handed. You push the switch to release the latch, then pull the handle up, and open the gate. There are actually two switches in the handle, so you can operate whichever one is positioned optimally for your hand. While it's easy for an adult to operate, the two or three movements you have to do (which come automatically to grown-ups) are just too much for children to figure out. Even "big kids" (i.e. preschoolers) won't be able to outsmart this handle. To latch the gate securely again, you just push the handle back down. This is one of the only negatives I have found with this gate: Pushing the handle down to re-latch the gate can be noisy, especially if you have a light sleeper taking a nap nearby. You can work around this by engaging the switch as you push the handle down, which lets the gate latch with a softer noise. As cons go, this is just a very minor inconvenience.

I spent about $50 on this gate, and had to order it from a specialty website. It works so wonderfully and looks nice enough in our home that it was worth the effort and the price to me. (In fact, I would have paid more and worked even harder to find it -- I like it that much!) This particular gate does seem to be hard to find in the discount and baby stores, but it's definitely worth seeking out.

Installation, as I mentioned earlier, was a breeze. I did it all by myself -- no second pair of hands needed! -- and it took me about 40 minutes.

One more thing: Be careful to distinguish between The First Years (the maker of this terrific gate) and Safety 1st. I do own Safety 1st products and they are not a bad deal, but the Safety 1st gate that looks like this one gets lots of bad reviews and doesn't have as many "perks" as this one (no template, only one switch on the handle, cloudier plastic). I can't vouch for the safety and efficacy of the Safety 1st gate, but I will say I'm very glad I made the effort to get this gate by The First Years.

Of course, no gate is a substitute for keeping a good eye on your little ones, but everyone knows that children can take off in a flash. Having a sturdy gate in especially dangerous spots is important -- and this one is a great choice!