Lock that door!
Posted by Breeze on Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 7:41 pmCategory: Breeze
I’d love opinions on door latches that are out of reach for small children. Mr. Breeze and I have been meaning to install latches of some sort that are out of Tulip’s three-year-old reach. Today we were at a hardware store picking up the stuff for Mr. B to make us a cool composter. While he was selecting the hardware he needed, Tulip, Smiley Face and I strolled over to the key and door knob section to get a new car key.
While I had the door guy’s attention, I asked about the difficulty of installing a latch or lock or whatever on a metal door. Simple, apparently. I asked what sort of fastener he would recommend for the job, and he horrified me by reminding me that putting a lock out of a child’s reach is essentially locking the child in during an emergency.
As someone whose home has burned down (no injuries, it’s all good), the warning stopped me in my tracks. I sort of sputtered that locking her in was sort of the plan then mumbled that I would discuss the matter further with the hubby and hurried away. Now that my gut reaction is past, though, I’m not sure which is worse, risking locking her into a burning house when she would probably need Mr. B or me to get her out anyway or risking that my independent little miss will decide to wander out the front door and into the street when I leave her watching Little Bear and jump in the shower for my amazing 5-minutes-or-less routine.
She has let herself into the back yard once already, so it isn’t an unreasonable fear even if I am a worrier. I was very pregnant and under the misconception that we were in the planning stages of our trip into the back yard. I was struggling to take a potty break and get my shoes tied in less time that I can generally shower and shave only to find that she wasn’t across the room putting on her own shoes as I had thought. All was well, but it was scary, and I’d like to know that she is in the house when I let her run downstairs to play while I’m putting Smiley down for a nap upstairs. As it is, I worry that she’ll decide to explore.
I’m not proposing a latch that I need to be on tiptoe to reach, just something out of the reach of an average-sized three-year-old. I’ll trust her in a year or two, but right now…
So, in your esteemed opinions, is it more of a concern that Tulip will need to escape, make it to the door alone, and not be able to get out or that she will let herself outside alone and ride her tricycle into the street or wander off?
Tags: safety
November 10th, 2007 20:43
I can’t really imagine you leaving her alone in the house long enough for the house burning down to be an issue, so I imagine you or dad would be there to help her out. Knowing the kid, I’d say running into the street is a much bigger concern. Since the backyard’s fenced, you could always leave a kid-friendly latch on that door & make sure she knows that if she ever has to get out that that’s the way to go.