Childproof door

[blondemoment123]

DS has started locking the door from the inside. I’ve had to take the whole knob off to get it open.

I’m going to try that rubber band hack, but any other tips?

[statgirl]

This is a horrible phase. We kept keys everywhere (knitting needles for those with the hole and Lego brick pullers for those with the line). My youngest actually locked himself in my parents’ “safe” room and they couldn’t find the key. Luckily, they hadn’t hardened the wall, so my husband broke the sheet rock and got in. The next week, kiddo locked my in-laws out of their house.

We had conversations every day about not locking doors without mommy or daddy. Eventually, it sunk in. Then—we worked on unlocking and had conversations about that. He is a well-adjusted 6 yo now. He only locks his brother out of their shared room when he is really mad

[VillainV]

Replace with a non-locking doorknob. It’s not very difficult to do.

[lemoncupcake]

Aug 9, 2021 20:20:34 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Replace with a non-locking doorknob. It’s not very difficult to do.

Ditto - it's the cheapest, easiest and safest option. You can save the existing knob for when she's older.

[blondemoment123]

Looks like I’m running to the hardware store tomorrow.

But he did apologize a few times unprompted so at least I think he knows it was wrong.

[mainelyfoolish]

Aug 9, 2021 20:55:03 GMT -5 blondemoment123 said:

Looks like I’m running to the hardware store tomorrow.

But he did apologize a few times unprompted so at least I think he knows it was wrong.

If you have a closet door that doesn’t lock, swap the knobs. Just make sure you put the locking mechanism pointing into the room/hall and not inside the closet, or you may end up with a kid locked in a closet!

[dcn]

For interior doors I just taped over the lock with packing tape.

[ellipses84]

We just always kept a key, screwdriver, etc. to pop the lock nearby. Once the kids were old enough to understand, we told them not to lock it, but also taught them how to unlock it (through the door, “no, turn it the other way!”). You could also put a pinch guard up high which will keep the door from being fully closed.

[ohgillian]

Yikes statgirl!

[icedcoffee]

With DS1 we had the twist locks and they were so old I couldn’t pick them to get in so we had to do a knob removal to rescue him. I got those kid proof knob covers and that was enough to stop him from locking the doors.

With DS2 we replaced all the doorknobs with the easy to pick push locks so we just have a key on the top of the trim of each door and just let ourselves back in.

These are the knob covers we used with DS1. They were also handy when we moved him to a big boy bed to “lock him in”. We travelled with them too!

Door Knob Safety Cover for Kids, Child Proof Door Knob Covers, Baby Safety Door knob Handle Cover Lockable Design (4 Pack). www.amazon.com/dp/B07DN895WP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_EXPR045RXS888F5F08BK?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[icedcoffee]

Warning about playing around with flipping door knobs and such. Once we removed DS1s to let us in it never worked the same again. It was old and we eventually just replaced all of them, but it just never worked right again. So…careful with that if you choose to do that. Those parts do eventually wear out and moving them around seems to upset them.

[af1212]

I would just buy new knobs as others have suggested. They have them on Amazon with overnight delivery of that helps.

I have never once lived in a house with locking doors. So I can’t imagine why someone would ever need them and would have no problem getting rid of them permanently.

[shauni27]

ha, we had to deal with this last year; we had switched the knobs so we could lock S in at bedtime (and unlock when we went to bed) but he reached through, locked the door with both of us in the room and locked us in. I had to climb out the window, lol.

[macmars45]

Aug 10, 2021 7:51:56 GMT -5 af1212 said:

I have never once lived in a house with locking doors. So I can’t imagine why someone would ever need them and would have no problem getting rid of them permanently.

As a tween/teen my parents' locked bedroom door saved me multiple times from walking in on them during sex.

I have no problem getting rid of DS' lock on his bedroom door but it'll be a cold day in hell before I get rid of the lock on my own bedroom door.

[corgimom]

Aug 10, 2021 9:24:28 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

ha, we had to deal with this last year; we had switched the knobs so we could lock S in at bedtime (and unlock when we went to bed) but he reached through, locked the door with both of us in the room and locked us in. I had to climb out the window, lol.

We flipped the handle with DD1 because she went through a phase where she would not. stay. in bed. Thankfully that seems to have passed but now I'm worried she's going to lock us out!

When we told my parents we had done that my (step)mom shared a story of how she did that with my little (step)sister... and locked herself in with her. And they lived alone together in pre-cell phone days. She slept in her room and woke up early and yelled out the window to flag down their neighbor who was leaving for work. He called her son to come by with the spare house key and rescue them LOL

[mainelyfoolish]

Aug 10, 2021 9:24:28 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

ha, we had to deal with this last year; we had switched the knobs so we could lock S in at bedtime (and unlock when we went to bed) but he reached through, locked the door with both of us in the room and locked us in. I had to climb out the window, lol.

We had the door knob on my older child’s room like that at age 5. Then one day, when I was carrying the 1 year old and had gone into 5 year old’s room, the 5 year old locked the door from the outside, entered the room and shut the door, locking us all in. As I was freaking out about being locked in a second storey room with no phone and DH at work for another few hours, the 5 year old told me I could just unlock the door with my “super strength.” 😂  Eventually I removed a picture from the wall and used the nail from the picture hanger to pop open the lock. This incident is what caused me to switch the bedroom locking knob with the closet non-locking knob!

[shauni27]

Aug 10, 2021 11:37:49 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

Aug 10, 2021 9:24:28 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

ha, we had to deal with this last year; we had switched the knobs so we could lock S in at bedtime (and unlock when we went to bed) but he reached through, locked the door with both of us in the room and locked us in. I had to climb out the window, lol.

We had the door knob on my older child’s room like that at age 5. Then one day, when I was carrying the 1 year old and had gone into 5 year old’s room, the 5 year old locked the door from the outside, entered the room and shut the door, locking us all in. As I was freaking out about being locked in a second storey room with no phone and DH at work for another few hours, the 5 year old told me I could just unlock the door with my “super strength.” 😂  Eventually I removed a picture from the wall and used the nail from the picture hanger to pop open the lock. This incident is what caused me to switch the bedroom locking knob with the closet non-locking knob!

we put one of the keys in a hiding spot in his room from that day forward, lol.

[shauni27]

Aug 10, 2021 10:42:56 GMT -5 macmars45 said:

Aug 10, 2021 7:51:56 GMT -5 af1212 said:

I have never once lived in a house with locking doors. So I can’t imagine why someone would ever need them and would have no problem getting rid of them permanently.

As a tween/teen my parents' locked bedroom door saved me multiple times from walking in on them during sex.

I have no problem getting rid of DS' lock on his bedroom door but it'll be a cold day in hell before I get rid of the lock on my own bedroom door.

ewwwwwwwww, haha.

I lock my bedroom and bathroom door when I need JUST FIVE MINUTES without a kid at my feet.

[blondemoment123]

Aug 9, 2021 21:25:44 GMT -5 mainelyfoolish said:

Aug 9, 2021 20:55:03 GMT -5 blondemoment123 said:

Looks like I’m running to the hardware store tomorrow.

But he did apologize a few times unprompted so at least I think he knows it was wrong.

If you have a closet door that doesn’t lock, swap the knobs. Just make sure you put the locking mechanism pointing into the room/hall and not inside the closet, or you may end up with a kid locked in a closet!

Duh. I can just do this.
I have some closets with no locks.

[blondemoment123]

And I just remembered that I would lock myself in my grandmas bathroom for “fun” when I was a kid so someone would have to get me out.

Full circle I guess lol.