The Door

For a long time now we have struggled getting our kids to stay in their room when it is time for bed. We have threatened time after time that if they don't stay in their room that we would have to lock them in. The threat never even scared them and after a while we got a little desperate. Finally on one of those nights when Tate was being his usual self and testing us to the extreme, Matt finally pulled out a rope and tied Tate's door to another door holding it shut. It was quite the knot and Matt and I were finally able to go down stairs to get some time to ourselves. 30 min. later Tate yells "I got out"!

...So much for that Idea.

After that night we realized the rope wasn't going to keep Tate in his room. We had to go to the next level. Tate told us we would never be able to keep him in his room and so Matt switched Tate's door knob with another Door knob which couldn't be opened without a key. Not only, could it not be opened without a key, but we no longer had the key and we turned it around so it would be locked from the outside of the room rather than the inside....

Before I go on, I must mention that many of you are probably wanting to turn us in for child abuse or something. First off I never said that this was the best solution, it is just after a while we had to make are threats turn into reality so that Tater would realize how serious we were. I also do not claim to being the best mom. I realize I am far from being that...

Back to the story...

Now the lock was officially on and we told Tate we wouldn't lock his door unless he didn't stay in his room and go to bed. Tate's reply, "I can still get out"! Of course we asked him if that was a threat and of course Tate challenged us by continuing to go out of his room for the next while. That was it, Door LOCKED!

Back downstairs Matt and I were basically beaming with our success. We could finally relax! This time within 10 minutes Tate was above the stairs yelling "I got OUT" and was basically running around beaming with his own success. We were both chocked and when we went up to Tate's room we learned he had snuck a pair of kid scissors in his room and somehow managed to get the door opened with scissors that obviously weren't even close to the shape of the missing key.

From then on we had to make sure Tate wasn't hiding scissors or anything else that could open his locked door. Eventually Tate learned that we won and we no longer had to lock his door. However, during this struggle we soon found our ideas weren't all that great after all. Infact we quickly saw how pay back was in the making.

The first time we learned this I was down stairs when I suddenly heard Matt yelling to get him out. I ran up stairs to see what the problem was and the kids had locked Matt and themselves inside the room. Addie got a thrill out of this and soon saw it more as a game. Several times Tate would get locked in his room and we would see Addie quickly run away leaving him in his room screaming to let him out.

Each time this happened it seemed someone was always around to let the individuals locked in the room out. However that kind of luck doesn't last long. On this one particular night I had the kids choose a story and we all laid in Tate's bed to read it. Matt was gone and so it was just the kids and I. While reading the story Addie got up and begin wondering around the room. The next thing she did was close the door and start laughing. "I locked us in" laughed Addie. I ran to the door and of course we were locked in. I checked around Tate's room for anything that could open the door... NOTHING! I knew Matt wasn't going to be home until late and so I started sweating at wondering what we would do. Luckily I then realized my phone was in my pocket. I dialed a neighbors number and explained to him that we were locked in Tate's room. We were then saved by our neighbor who kindly came into our house and let us out of Tate's room. VERY EMBARRASSING!

This was not the only time this happened. Another day Addie kept playing with the door and locking everyone in. The day continued to not be her best and she was sent to her room. In her room she had a child proof door lock and that way she couldn't come out. I had promised Tate earlier that day that we would hang up his U of U football poster on his door so both of us went in there and I closed the door so that I could hang the poster up. As soon as I was done I went to open the door. Addie had locked it and never shut it. Tate and I were locked in the room. I yelled for Addie to let us out and it then dawned on me that she too was locked in her room. I checked my pockets and I did not have my cell phone. I wondered how long we would be in the room for.

My only option was to find someone who was outside to come in and help us. Four houses down was one of my close friends who just so happened to be getting in her car. I began yelling out Tate's bedroom window. It took a few tries but finally my friend noticed me yelling from afar. At first she just waved, but then realized I was yelling for her to come over. She came to our house and from the second floor window I asked her to run inside and let us out.

So that is the story about the door. Surprisingly we never got to switching it back and since we moved. I can only imagine what the new owner of the home is going to think when they move in and see the lock on the outside of Tates door. I am sure our neighbors will have some great stories to share with them.