It happened again.
Miriam got locked in her bedroom during her naptime. Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until after she had woken up. I had been working on a project in the kitchen with Rachel when I heard Miriam fuss so I walked back to the bedroom and tried to open her door. It wouldn't budge.
"Noooooo!" I wailed.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
"The door is locked. Again." I said.
"Well, it wasn't me," Rachel quickly pointed out. She then provided her alibi: "I was out here the whole time."
"If it wasn't you then who was it?" I asked.
"I don't know. Maybe it was Miriam."
"Miriam is stuck in her crib."
"Oh. Well...ummm...I just like to turn things. And I try to remember which way is locked and which way is unlocked when I stop playing but it's hard to remember."
"How about just not playing with the locks?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Mommy?"
"What?"
"You can unlock the door! I know you can!"
"Thanks for your support."
Miriam's tension was mounting from behind the closed door. She's been incredibly clingy today and the fact that she could hear Mommy but that Mommy wasn't rushing in to get her was disturbing to her, I think.
I quickly gathered my tools and set to work. Unfortunately, that lock is really hard to pick. All the other doors with locks are easy. The bathroom? A cinch. The office? Piece of cake. The babies' room? Not so much.
While I was wiggling a screwdriver inside the knob, trying to find the latch, Auntie Sarah drove up, and it was a good thing she did, too, because had she arrived a minute or two later she would have found the very sorry scene of me chopping the bedroom door to pieces with an axe.*
I was going a little crazy.
She was just stopping by on her way to work but kindly helped me fiddle with the lock for a few minutes, to no avail.
I chatted with Andrew and he suggested just taking the doorknob off. Brilliant.
So I unscrewed the doorknob and then it took Sarah and me a couple more minutes to figure out how to dissemble the darn thing.
But we finally did it! I got to my baby and the door is still in one piece.
Once Miriam was comforted operation switch-lock-to-the-other-side-of-the-door commenced.
Now if you ever visit our house and notice that there's a lock on the wrong side of the door you will know that it isn't so that we can lock our kids in their room—it's so that we can keep our kids from being locked in their room.
*I don't even know if we have an axe.
Miriam got locked in her bedroom during her naptime. Unfortunately, I didn't discover it until after she had woken up. I had been working on a project in the kitchen with Rachel when I heard Miriam fuss so I walked back to the bedroom and tried to open her door. It wouldn't budge.
"Noooooo!" I wailed.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked.
"The door is locked. Again." I said.
"Well, it wasn't me," Rachel quickly pointed out. She then provided her alibi: "I was out here the whole time."
"If it wasn't you then who was it?" I asked.
"I don't know. Maybe it was Miriam."
"Miriam is stuck in her crib."
"Oh. Well...ummm...I just like to turn things. And I try to remember which way is locked and which way is unlocked when I stop playing but it's hard to remember."
"How about just not playing with the locks?"
"Fine."
"Fine."
"Mommy?"
"What?"
"You can unlock the door! I know you can!"
"Thanks for your support."
Miriam's tension was mounting from behind the closed door. She's been incredibly clingy today and the fact that she could hear Mommy but that Mommy wasn't rushing in to get her was disturbing to her, I think.
I quickly gathered my tools and set to work. Unfortunately, that lock is really hard to pick. All the other doors with locks are easy. The bathroom? A cinch. The office? Piece of cake. The babies' room? Not so much.
While I was wiggling a screwdriver inside the knob, trying to find the latch, Auntie Sarah drove up, and it was a good thing she did, too, because had she arrived a minute or two later she would have found the very sorry scene of me chopping the bedroom door to pieces with an axe.*
I was going a little crazy.
She was just stopping by on her way to work but kindly helped me fiddle with the lock for a few minutes, to no avail.
I chatted with Andrew and he suggested just taking the doorknob off. Brilliant.
So I unscrewed the doorknob and then it took Sarah and me a couple more minutes to figure out how to dissemble the darn thing.
But we finally did it! I got to my baby and the door is still in one piece.
Once Miriam was comforted operation switch-lock-to-the-other-side-of-the-door commenced.
Now if you ever visit our house and notice that there's a lock on the wrong side of the door you will know that it isn't so that we can lock our kids in their room—it's so that we can keep our kids from being locked in their room.
*I don't even know if we have an axe.
I would also agree that it's okay to have the lock on the outside in order to lock your kids in... under certain circumstances. Like when they won't stay in their room even though it's 10pm and they've been up for 15 hours straight. Or if you're wrapping Christmas or birthday presents and they just won't go away... or they just sleep walk and tend to find the stairs when doing so. It just happens that having the lock on the outside helps in a lot of situations. The only down side: don't get stuck in the room with the door locked! (I had to come home early from a RS activity once when Karen had accidentally locked him, herself, and baby Rachel in their bedroom at bed time.)
ReplyDeleteI taped the latch on Tommy's bedroom door. He likes to shut the doors but doesn't know how to turn the knob. One tiny piece of masking tape and I'm free from the "rescue me from in here!" scream. :D
ReplyDelete