Child safety locks, eggs, and a busy bee...

When we moved into this house in April, we had to get a different type of child safety lock for our doors- since they are the lever type, not the knob type. This is what we found...


Not only are these white plastic locks a pain to install (you have to remove every door knob, install the safety mechanism, and then reinstall the door knob), but they are also an eye sore. Of course, they wouldn't look quite as bad if these doors were white!


Notice the mechanism under the handle. You push this button in and slide it to the right, like the picture below. This plastic piece locks into place and prevents you from moving the lever downward. This works great to keep little ones out of rooms that mean trouble. However, if you happen to be on the other side of the door when it's locked into place, you're stuck. So, this has been a problem in our laundry room, for instance. That room is a passageway from the garage to the kitchen. So, if I lock N & J out of the laundry room (mainly because that's also where the pantry is located), Jas can't come in from the garage. Make sense?
I knew it would happen one day, I just didn't wake up thinking it would be today. My boys figured out how to lock this mechanism- the one they decided to lock? My bedroom! Where was I? Inside the bedroom! I was frantic! I tried unscrewing the doorknob with nail clippers and a quarter and quickly realized that wasn't going to work.


I called my good friend, Lorilu, and she was going to come to the rescue. Of course, I told her she may have to dismantle the doorknob between my laundry room and kitchen, if I happened to have the child safety lock in place. But nevertheless, help was on the way!


In the meantime, Noah came back upstairs (I loved hearing the pitter patter of little feet coming my way) to inform me that "Jonah makin a mess, Mom." So, I tried talking him through opening the child safety lock. He struggled and kept saying, "I can't do it, Mom." But, he prevailed, and I was finally free! By that time, Jonah was standing there with Noah- with a carton of eggs he had hauled upstairs. When I opened the door, there was already one cracked egg on the carpet and I got to see Jonah proudly smash two more against each other... ARGH! What a mess! So, off to the store we went (after an initial clean-up) to buy carpet cleaner. After returning home and scrubbing the spots, I realized my bedroom door was locked! This time, I was locked out of the room! I didn't even know it was possible to be locked in a room, and then locked out of the same room within two hours.


So, I began trying everything I could think of- a coat hanger, a toothpick, a prayer, a little pound of the fist on the door, and finally, a breakdown into tears. (Did I mention that hubby is out of town?) My boys thought it was hilarious to see me this way, "dat funny, mommy."


After calling a couple of friends (who weren't home), I headed to the neighbor's house. They happen to have the same type of door knobs. We did a test run on some of their doors and couldn't get anything open (of course, we had someone on the other side of the door this time). They suggested trying a credit card. I came home, gave it a try- and it failed. Mainly because I couldn't get the right angle due to the monstrous child safety mechanism!


My sweet neighbor came over to check on me- and the success of my predicament. I told her the credit card didn't work.. and then she suggested the unthinkable... call a locksmith! I can honestly say that I was so worked up that it never even crossed my mind that there are people out there who unlock doors as a profession. Of course, I've used one before to get into a locked car, but it didn't occur to me to call them for a residential need. How silly am I?

So, A Busy Bee Lock and Key to the rescue! Within an hour, there was a nice locksmith at my house, who quickly opened my bedroom door- whew! I paid him the $45 charge, and now I'll probably never close that bedroom door again!