You are here

Door Locking Saga

Cover1W's picture

Since I refuse to disengage from the issue with the house doors remaining unlocked...and no one home...

I clearly gave DH an ultimatum of "one more time and I call the locksmith and you will pay for it" if I come home to the front door (or back door) unlocked I have to give him that one time.
He said he'd "talk with her" about it.

So the other day he's on the phone with SD13 and says, "Oh, by the way, you left the front door unlocked again."
SD13 (I could hear the convo since I was next to him...trying not to roll my eyes...), "Oh, yes daddy. Sorry."
DH, "You need to lock that door you know."
SD13, "Yes, I know, I just...didn't have my keys...um...I know where they are..."
DH, "You need your keys, where are they?"
SD13, "In my room...I'll find them..."
Yeah, in her PIT of a room. I know exactly where they are... }:)

Well, I came home the other day (first one home after SD13 leaves) and that front door was locked.
Which immediately made me suspicious.
I go look at the back door. What do you know! It's UNLOCKED.
My suspicion is she can't find her freaking keys AGAIN and DH told her to use the back door.
Well, you know what's going to happen to that back door on Wednesday? That bottom lock will be locked and then you CANNOT get into the house w/out a key and you can't tell it's locked without trying the knob which DH won't do. Unless she remembers the emergency key place (which I'll have to check and it's ok for her to take it from there if she replaces it).

So - Cover may be smarter than the average person...watching this...

(unless DH made her another key which is totally possible)

Comments

Ninji's picture

Why don't you just get a keypad lock? We have one. It was only $120 and DH installed it in less than 10 minutes. They have even cheaper ones.

Why play the game with them and risk your home being robbed and/or someone getting hurt?

Cover1W's picture

50%

WalkOnBy's picture

keypad lock is the way to go.

I share your pain - my skids and kids couldn't lock a damn door if their lives depended upon it.

Cover1W's picture

Yes to all.
The thing is I need to have evidence that it's completely SD13 and not SD11 or DH using that dang back door. DH will defend to the end even if it's clear what the issue is...I know you all know it's more complicated...

And Yes going to key pad locks BUT no way on this earth am I spending one dang minute installing those locks (DH is no way a technical guy...I handle all the house repairs or hire people). I could knock out the locksmith cost but then *I* would have to do install them. NOPE NOT HAPPENING.

Tuff Noogies's picture

cover, cover, cover, does it really matter what family member is leaving the doors unlocked? you and your dh have discussed this several times, and you have made your position VERY clear. it's also VERY clear that you are the ONLY one who cares.

make a quick trip to home depot and get some new locks that look just like what you have now. keep them in the trunk of your car. next time you find the house unlocked, don't say a word - just replace the locks, make sure all the windows are locked, and then go run some errands for a few hours. or all evening. with your phone battery mysteriously going dead - ring, ring, "make it quick, if my phone cuts out it's going" - *click* *powering off*

Cover1W's picture

LOL. OMG.
You are right.

THANK you. I think I'll be getting some locks this weekend...

erinecorren's picture

Have you not consider changing your door, as the panel may also be the issue why the locks broke that easily. In any case you want the reliable and the strong door to use, you can try this one http://caldwells.com/.

Acratopotes's picture

Cover - I agree with the poster saying - change the locks and neither SD nor DH gets a key...
they can all wait till you are at home, this is been going on for years and DH gives a flying duck about security...

time for them all to learn,

I resolved this issue.. arrived at home, front door unlocked by Aergia a couple off years ago.... I removed allot of shit from the house, SO's laptop, her laptop.. some stuff from her room.... some other stuff from SO and I quietly left without locking the door.... drove around the block, stopped again, walked into the house, screamed... SO came running in and I asked.. where's this... that... they both started running like headless chickens, looking for their stuff...
SO got pissed off, asked Aergia why did she not lock the door - theft in Africa is a reality.....

I told SO later that night it's all in my car, I came home door unlocked, both of them in the house, I removed it all without them hearing anything... proved my point cause they always said we do not need to lock the door if we are here..... SO was shocked and giggled and said.. keep the stuff for a week, lessons learned...

The house was never unlocked again

SM12's picture

When we first moved into our home, DH talked about giving OSS a key. I said that was NOT going to happen. He had no reason to be at the house without us being there so there was no need for a key. DH gave him a key anyway and I was livid. OSS ended up losing the key and stopped coming over so he never got a new key.

DH and I then decided to add a key pad to the garage door, which will then lead you into the house. On two occasions DH and I left while OSS was still at the house. Both times OSS left and when we returned the Garage door was left wide open. I just looked at DH and said "If I ever come home to my garage door open or my front door unlocked again, and no kid in sight, I will unleash a hell fury on his ass like you have never seen. I will not have MY things stolen because YOUR kid refuses to give a shit about our home"

It never happened again.

New_to_this's picture

We used to deal with this issue a lot in the past. Both SS and SD would "forget" to lock the door. (They sometimes forgot but mostly were running late to the bus and never bothered to lock the door, sometimes leaving the door both unlocked and open for the entire day!) They would also lose the keys. A lot.

This is what we did to resolve the issues. We took away electronics for at least a month, progressively getting longer the more the door was left unlocked. The idea behind that was that they were risking our house being robbed, so they would lose all their expensive toys like they would if we did get robbed. Losing allowance was also a punishment.

We initially charged the kids the cost to replace the lock when they lost their keys. That resulted in them hiding the fact that they lost their key for days or weeks. So, we had to have a conversation about that too. We recently found a lock that can be replaced for less than $5, so including having new keys made, the total cost is less than $10. That has been helpful for my stress levels, since it pisses me off greatly that we've had to change locks so many times but the cost is low, so the kids are less likely to lie about losing the key.

Ultimately though, it is utterly annoying and frustrating and I can't wait until the skids are out of my home.