Safety

Oh my I would be having kittens knowing my granddaughter was around an open stair case ??She's up them like a rocket with no idea or sense of how to get down at just 10 months old! Thankfully they have gates tops and bottom and we have them on just about every room in our house too, these little people are too precious to be taking unnessecary risks with!
Of course you can't protect them from everything but it's common sense to make sure a baby can't fall down the stairs surely!?

I would not usually get involved with the child's home safety, although I would be ultra careful with the children when they were in my care, as a gran you don't want to return damaged kids.
However when youngest daughter had the last baby they had 2 collies that lived in the house I did comment that young babies and dogs did not mix.
She ignored me completely - no problem it's her baby.

I too would be worried, such hard surfaces to land on. You're dammed if you say anything and dammed if you don't, knowing me I would say something and be put in my place, I am a worrier.

It is not so much the stairs that worry me, as the surfaces they land on should they fall. I have a friend who fell from top to bottom of their stairs and landed on their newly tiled floor, injuring her head, and mental capacities, badly. A house I visit regularly has tiled / wooden/laminate flooring downstairs; one of the children has already fallen down the stairs and cracked her head on the tiles, no apparent lasting damage but worrying. Shoes are strictly forbidden indoors, and I personally am terrified of falling; summer bare feet are all right, but winter socks and tights are dangerous.

tread

I would be concerned about those stairs. We had open read and open sided stairs when ours were little. We put a stair gate at the bottom and plastic fencing round the edge (which we decorated with various things like plants).

I can see why you are concerned. All you can do is to make sure that things are safe at your home.

Please look at stair-gates: the designs and styles today seem to be much better than when a lot of we GNs had our children. You can get ones which can be opened and closed easily by an adult/older child, but not by a toddler. Perhaps you could offer to buy some and even to pay for the installation? (I do understand your fears, joscurry, as I was the same about my own DGC: luckily DS was equally concerned and put the gates in place.) DGC being taught to "manage" the stairs, as DoraMarr suggests, is also very sensible and helpful.

I have found that putting saftey features in place has reduced my anxiety.

Stair gates are in place in my DC homes and our house
(Look after 2 toddlers at one time).

Stair gates can also keep dogs separate from children.

There was a recent thread on MN regarding a small child that had been badly injured from falling down only a few stairs (lost front tooth I think from memory)
Placing stair gates at very top of stairs is not a good idea a we have ours across the landing
instead.

Think of those children who grow up on stilt houses and in other risky environments. Kids adapt to their experiences and if well guided by parents are generally fine. We do reduce risk too much ..children don't learn how to assess their own safety ( age appropriate!)

My daughter lives in a three storey Georgian house with very steep staircases and terrazzo floors. She has a very active eighteen month old who was climbing the stairs at seven months: like you, I was worried she would fall. My daughter and her husband taught the baby to go up and down the stairs safely, and she now manages all stairs confidently. I had safety gates everywhere, but today’s young parents seem to manage risk differently!