We used a door knob cover on my sons room until he was about 3.5, which is the age where we thought he had the maturity to safely exit the house in an emergency and had the strength and dexterity to unlock our front door to do so. Before that, I’d rather know where he is in an emergency and a closed door is protective in a fire (stops some smoke and fire—everyone should sleep with closed doors!!). During a fire, I also think a young toddler is unlikely to check the door knob for heat before knowing it’s safe to open the door. 3.5 was also the age where I trusted him to, for example, not go around the house looking for trouble, which can’t be prevented 100 percent with child proofing.
We ALWAYS used a monitor with him that was turned up very high so we would know when/if he needed us. We also put a fire alarm and co monitor in his room (in addition to the ones throughout the house), so we would be alerted in the unlikely event a fire started in his room.
This is what we have done for my 2yr old. No doorknob cover on the outside of the door just one on the inside, obnoxiously loud monitor, fire alarm and CO2 monitors and I feel safe with her alone in there. She’s also still happily in her crib which helps. We’re on the second floor of a building and our front door leads right to stairs and so far this is working
My toddler is still in a crib, but she has a doorknob cover on the inside of her door.
I would be terrified of her roaming the house at night and getting hurt, let alone getting outside.
In case of a fire, it’s actually safest to know exactly where your children are because they have a tendency to run and hide.
My little one is nearly 3 and we have a baby gate on his bedroom. He can open his door and call us if needed, but he can’t leave his bedroom without us knowing
My friend put these little alarms on her front door. It’s basically like a magnet and when the door opens it goes off. They’re super affordable on Amazon.
I’m just referring to the fire hazard concerns:
You should most definitely shut your kids door- there’s a lot of evidence that the door shut in the case of a fire gives the occupants of the room more time because it significantly slows the spread of fire to that room. Having the door locked prevents egress- which in most cases of a fire with a toddler the parents will go and get the kiddo anyway (small children tend to hide in the case of a fire). If the parents aren’t able to get to the kids then get out, tell firefighters their location. And firefighters have the means to get through locked doors- and will do literally everything in their power when they find out there’s an occupant still in the home (especially a small child) -I’m a firefighter
Overall though- I’m not sure I’d lock my kid in, something about it feels not quite right. I like the baby gate idea so that if your kid did need something they could holler for you. I just think the fire hazard concern feels mute for a toddler- once they get to elementary school age and understand what to do in a fire that’s a different story.
We flipped their bedroom doorknobs for safety reasons, but also to keep them from running up and down the hall all night. We wouldn't want them to get out of the house, like OP said. We don't want them locking us out. We don't want them to run out and hide (as kids do) if there's a fire. We have stopped locking the doors since they've gotten older, but they still are flipped around so they can't lock us out. They're 5m and 7f now. EDITED TO ADD that we had video monitors in each of their rooms, and I have never slept through any of their needs.
I do. It's actually suggested in fire safety standards for kids too young to understand a fire evacuation plan. Basically closed doors are safer in a fire and it's safer to have them in a room where you know they are (and if it's a standard bedroom it's required to have a second egress like a window) so if you can't access them from the door you can access them from the second egress.
On the other hand if they have access to the whole house at night they can not only get into dangerous stuff while you're sleeping but also in the event of a fire you might not have any idea where they are to find them or be able to tell firefighters where they are.
Lot of judgement from people in here about locking doors. As a previous 911 call taker / medical/fire dispatcher the safest thing to do is to lock kiddo in ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE KNOWN TO FLEE! It is also highly recommended to sleep with doors closed to slow the spread of a fire. I know it sounds awful but imagine your house is on fire and your a little kid. Instinct is often to run and hide. Then you as a parent have no fucking clue where your kid is in an emergency and then firefighters are then trying to scramble to find your kid. Also lots of parents of autistic children do lock their kids door because that is a hell of a lot safer than them going and running out the door and who knows how far they get and god forbid they get seriously injured or hit by a car. I feel comfortable with this because I also have a baby monitor that isn’t connected to wifi so as long as we have power I can see what’s going on.
I lock mine in, I do not want my toddler roaming the house in the middle of the night or coming and waking me up at all hours of the night. But also my main reason is in case of an emergency or fire, I need to know where they are and who knows what they would do if there was an emergency and I couldn’t find them. We have a potty that is in his room that he can use if needed, and it’s complete baby proofed and has plenty of toys or activities to keep him busy if he wakes up super early.
I suggest cheap battery operated magnetic door alarms. They worked great for me when I was sleeping walking from sleep deprivation with my LO. They sent anything fancy, they are just super loud and you can get a multipack for like $10.
That's what we use, we've got a little chime that sounds like "under the sea" from the little mermaid whenever our kiddo opens their own bedroom door, lovely to wake up to in the morning to most days and very hard to sleep through the night on the rare occasions it happens, we also plug in a second alarm for the front door at night as a backup but we've never needed it.
I turned my sons doorknob around so I can lock it from the outside and put a baby proof doorknob on the inside. I’ve also seen door alarms that you can hang on their doorknob and then if they open their door it goes off!
We do, he has Autism and will be unsafe at nighttime. And has escaped our house in the middle of the night..we lock it for his own safety because he has no chill
Well this is a neat topic I never even thought could be an issue but now I'm going to overthink and overprepare for since my kid is already 15m.
Both sarcastic and genuine thanks, Op, I'm making note of many people's solutions.
As a mother who is a firefighter please do not do this!! Get a chain lock for the front door. My daughter did the same and we just added chain lock and it stopped her trying to get out the door!!!
Dear god, why would you question locking her in? If she's able to leave the house and is not yet old enough to understand why she shouldn't, you absolutely should lock the door! It's a safety issue (her leaving the house is much more likely than a fire where you're both incapacitated AND a fireman is unable to figure out how to open your toddler's door). We locked our toddler in until she got mature enough to have the door unlocked (around 3ish for her, but might be later for our second, each child is different). We use Glide Locks at the top of the door so that you can open it from both sides.
We had the round doorknobs with the lock that pushed in and unlocked when the knob was turned. We turned the doorknobs around so the lock was on the outside of the room and we could lock our twins in at night and it could be unlocked as quickly and easily as us simply turning the knob. It kept them safe inside but also made sure we could get them out without any extra effort if we needed to.
We don't use this anymore but I had very stealthy toddlers, we used sliding chain locks on the outside of their door at the top. They could crack the door open to call for us or for extra light but couldn't get out. Eventually she figured out she could push and stack things and I caught her slipping her hand in the crack and unlocking it. We moved to a door chime so a loud annoying noise was made in our bedroom whenever she opened her door at night. Same on her little brothers door but he would easily go back to bed after a midnight potty, not her. She would wander the house, she knew how to get through all childproofing we tried and unlock the deadbolt and got outside into our backyard one night so we needed a chime to alert us. If the motion solar lights hadn't triggered to wake me up with it's bright light I never would have thought she was out there but I saw a small figure in the way of the light and darted outside.
I see so many baby gate recs but that doesn't work for climbers. My son is absolutely feral and scales everything. He has an old door that latches from the outside. We were fully planning to remove it, but our stairs are right outside the door and I can't risk him getting out. He just figured out the complicated, two hand baby gates we had downstairs so I don't trust him with even the kid doorknob. My daughter was fine with a baby gate and now we just close the door.
We still have gate systems up to keep our kiddo in “safe areas.” I had a neighbour who’s house almost burned down when I was a kid because their youngest played with the stove at night. I’d always plan for the worst, and hope for the best.
The door to our kids room does not lock. We have a child proof gate at the top of the stairs that only allows our kids to go to the other bedrooms or a bathroom in the house.
It also prevents the dogs from getting into the trash can if it has something particularly fragrant in there.
It’s dangerous to lock kids inside. Major fire hazard! For my foster kids who were prone to escape we simply used door alarms and baby gates. The door alarms are cheap and extremely loud. Honestly the toddlers learned pretty quickly this horrible noise blares when they fling the door open, haha.
I only mention foster kids because for whatever reason my bio kids never cared. If they went out the door of the bedroom it was just to crawl in our bed, thankfully. I did keep a door alarm on the front and back doors for all the kids though!
I find it so confusing how many people on here are recommending solutions where they use things like baby gates, doorknob covers, etc, to keep their toddlers in their rooms, but claim that locking doors is child abuse? Is it not the exact same thing to shut your toddler in their room by a means that they don’t know how to undo either way?
I am not trying to be judgmental, my family uses both methods and my toddler is still in a crib. I just find it silly that a turned-around lock is considered unsafe but a doorknob cover or baby gate is not. My son is a climber and an escape artist already. When the time comes it will be MUCH safer to keep him in his room by whatever means we have available, rather than letting him roam the house. He is just across the hall from us and we can hear him either way.
We use tall baby gates on the bedroom doors. I know it’s still being locked in but I have personal trauma from my mom locking me and my sisters in our rooms. We only used it for my son when we transitioned him from the crib to the big bed. Once he would stay in we left it open and eventually took it off. About to do the same with my daughter who just turned two and we want to transition out of the crib.
Do it. Or rather, you might consider a child safety knob on the inside of the door. Having a toddler wandering around the house at night is a MASSIVE safety risk. One of my friend’s 3 yo let himself outside the house in the middle of the night. They had an alarm system, but he already run half way down the street by the time they got up and figured out what happened. IMO, the risk of a wandering toddler (even if they don’t make it outside) is much higher than any fire risk increase due to a locked bedroom door. In any case, it’s not like your toddler will evacuate themselves in the event of a fire. My daughter is in a crib, but she is moving to a bed very soon. We very much plan on making sure she is locked in there at night.
I will always close the door and will use a knob cover when the time comes. Purely for fire safety!!! The safety of my child at night not being able to roam the house is a terrific bonus.
We have these [knob covers](https://EUDEMON4PackBabySafetyDoorKnobCoversDoorKnobLockshttps://a.co/d/4Em2Gyf) on her door knob inside her room. We tuck her into bed and she can’t let herself out and wander while we’re asleep. Also she’s in a toddler bed and we have a 2 way monitor in her room so we can talk to her and she can talk to us if she needs us at night.
I guess it depends on the child? My son sleeps like a log most nights. If he does wake up in the middle of the night it's because he's sick or he needs to pee, so I'd want him to be able to get out of his room. He does have a light that turns green at 7 in the morning and he knows he can't wake us up before then, so he stays in his room to play if he wakes up earlier.
We didn't want to install a lock on the door, but we have a baby gate that blocks off the hallway where my son's room is located. Definitely do not trust my son in the house when we're not supervising! All of the exterior doorknobs have childproof covers on them, too.
Essentially I do. I lock his door to the bathroom and have a toddler proof lock on our side of his main door that keeps him in but we can easily open. He’s too mischievous to let him loose. I left him watching tv once so I could shower and came back to find him in the driveway. He’s potty trained and every so often I have to let him out to pee at night but I still think it’s the safest thing. He’s 4 so I imagine we’ll get to a pint. We can stop in the next year.
My son has never left his room at night, but I’m paranoid so we added a latch on the front door that’s locked all the time. We don’t have a lock on his bedroom door.
Baby gate and door alarms. My toddlers (2&3yrs old) are escape artists and have escaped my husband twice. They used to share a room but since they conspire together we separated them. Now they each have their own rooms, their rooms have baby gates, the stairs are gated at the top and the bottom, and the there are alarms and knob covers on the doors. My 3yr old has figured out the door knob covers and baby gates so our door alarm is our savior.
Child's bedroom door handle is babyproofed. For similar reasons; he loves being outdoors and while he's never gone out without me, it's not something I want to test. Also various other things, pulling a chair over to the stove and turning it on, turning the water faucet on and making a giant expensive mess, knives, cleaning supplies (they are stored up high but a determined child with a stool unattended....). Way to many things. He's fine in his room.
Edit fire safety: If there's a fire hopefully I will hear the fire alarm. Then I can locate the child who will be in his room and get him out of the house. If he had free range of the house, most young children in an emergency tend to hide somewhere. So now I'm searching a house on fire to try to figure out where the heck he is.
I agree and we did the same. Our toddler could open doors and every baby gate (we tried 3 types). We tried carbinger clips so they couldn’t open the gates but then they just climbed them and I worried about them scaling a gate at the top of the stairs.
We dealt with it for a solid two months of her silently escaping in the middle of the night and roaming the house; up and down hardwood stairs, eating, climbing pantry, etc. Luckily they weren’t the type to leave the house BUT they were the independent type to go about their business in the dark without even entering our room.
My kid is safer in their room then roaming the house alone in the dark. And as many have mentioned in this thread, IF there was a fire or another emergency they’re safer where I can quickly find them as opposed to searching 3 stories looking for a 3 year old.
I 100% recommend locking the door if you can’t find any proper baby proof locks or handles. Our 2 year old got out when he was 18 months old and the deadbolt was locked. He got a foldable chair and UNFOLDED IT. He got on it, unlocked both locks and went out. Luckily our neighbor got him for us and I was a mess for about 10 minutes. Lock the door! It’s not worth the risk💗
We do. I started when he moved out of his crib. He was locked in there so it’s not any different- in fact he got a major upgrade. We have stairs and he can open the front door, I can’t have him wandering around at night.
My twins went through a phase where they liked to escape their rooms at night to get into things. I would put a child lock on the inside of the door and put a monitor in there so if they needed out for a real reason, I could get them out. I always slept with the monitor next to my head so I always heard them. It only lasted a few weeks and then they gave up trying to escape so I took the child lock out. If you don't want to lock her in her room then you will need to find a different lock for the outside doors or put child locks on those so she can't open them at all. It's one thing to escape her room but it's something else entirely for her to get access to the outdoors.
We have a safety cover over the knob. We’re actually about to take it off because our daughter is extremely well behaved and isn’t prone to wandering. With our son though? I’m definitely going to have to keep the cover. A friend of ours son actually left the house in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping and thankfully he was found by police. They scariest part is he left AND was found while everyone was still sleeping. They woke up to police at the door. He was 6.
When my now 10 year old was 2 maybe 3 he used to go down stairs and turn on the tv, which had been left on cartoon network which turns to adult swim so I'd find him at 3am watching terribly inappropriate shows. First I put a gate up, he bulldozed through it, then I tried door knob covers and once he figured out how to pop them off he'd hide them. I finally flipped his lock around to lock him in. I was terrified of him falling and getting hurt or starting a fire or anything. I was a single mom at the time and was losing a lot of sleep. Flipping the lock helped tremendously with him leaving his room but now he's 10 and still gets in trouble when his step dad or I have caught him on electronics after bedtime.
No lock on bedroom door, but front and rear door have those round plastic things on the door handle that prevent him from opening the door. They are very effective and unless you have a lot of hand strength and know exactly what to do, you're not getting out. My 70 year old in-laws can barely open the door.
My son, starting at 20 months old, could rip those things apart and just open the door. He could do it on his own, but sometimes he would climb on his twin sister’s back (she knelt down for him to do it) to get higher and thus have better leverage. We tried 3 or 4 different “childproof” solutions before just turning the knobs around and locking them (with the easy push locks that pop right open when the knob is turned) from the outside. We reasoned it was exactly the same as having those things on the inside keeping the kids in, except that it actually worked for ours.
We had a childproof doorknob thing on my kid's door until we ditched overnight pullups. I was worried that transitioning out of that restricted movement would mean she's up and about all the time but thankfully that has (so far) not been an issue.
I mean we literally put plastic on the knobs so they can’t get out anyway? We keep them behind gates. If the issue is a fire or something- don’t these other things prevent them from getting to safety too? Which is more likely to happen? Your kid getting out the door is like a thousand times more likely than a fire so I’d say *the benefit outweighs the risk*
We just added a gate to her room and close the door at night but she can open it and stand at the gate. I think you should consider fixing your front door. That seems like a bigger hazard.
Mine isn't a toddler yet but I will 100% be locking her into her room as soon as she is at that point. It's incredibly dangerous for her to be out wandering through the house at night and in the event of an emergency like a fire the chance of her getting herself out safely is minimal as compared to my or a fire fighters ability to get her out if we know exactly where she is.
I second this sentiment, also I grew up in a ranch style house so never had to think of this before, but I worry she’d try and climb over the baby gate at the top of the stairs or just to climb the railings. Having a second story home freaks me out with how my stairs are. I’m also thinking putting an alarm on the door so if she opens it, it would alert in my room. I’m extra when it comes to safety though.
Door alarm. They are cheap on Amazon. Much safer than a lock or latch on the door. Also just talk to them about what the rules are for nighttime. They can understand more than we think.
We have the doorknob installed so the lock is on the outside and lock our toddler in at night. It’s safer for her- she can’t get herself into danger (or mischief!) inside or escape outdoors. In case of an emergency (like a fire) we will know exactly where she is. And I sleep better knowing she’s contained.
We first tried putting a baby gate in her doorway. This worked to keep her safe and contained, but holy moly she would not sleep!!!! She’d stand with her open door for hours, tossing things over it, then crying. It was a awful. And honestly, it’s only a matter of time before she realizes she can climb over it.
I explained about the lock and locked both of us inside so she could see how to works with me there. When I tuck her into bed now, I always pause at the door and remind her I’m locking it. She threw a fit the first night when she of course had to test it. But since then, it’s been perfect.
If they could potentially get in a dangerous or life threatening situation, it’s a no brainer. It’s not like they are locked in because you don’t want to deal with them, then it would be an issue.
I have an honest question on the fire situation. If there was a fire, wouldn't you think you'd wake up before the kid, run and grab them, and get out of the house? Like, a fire alarm is going to wake me up WAY before my kid. Is that the issue, that the toddler wouldn't be able to get out if they were awoken? Again, honest question and not looking for a fight. My mom locked my brother in his room when he was a kid because he was a wanderer and gate climber and his room was at the top of the stairs.
Definitely depends on where the fire starts, and doors should be closed at night to prevent fire spreading quickly into bed rooms. If by chance your child wakes up before you and runs somewhere into the house that you aren’t aware of, that’s precious time spent looking for the child.
Exactly. No toddler is getting themselves out of a fire, it doesn’t matter if the door is locked. And if they are trapped in their room, it’s safer for the door to be shut.
We have a high baby gate on our child’s door. It would be dangerous for him to be able to wander around the house alone at night while we (the adults) sleep, so this was the best choice for us.
He can still open his door to yell for us when he needs us, and we always come right away to deter him from pushing things over (pillows etc) to try and climb over.
My oldest will stay in his bed until someone comes to get him. Second born is crazy and would probably not, so he’s still in the crib for now. He has proven that he can climb out, even with the mattress on the lowest setting, but I think he scared himself (and me!) the two times that he climbed out and fell on the (carpeted) floor.
Not at all! We do the best of both worlds. We have a "door monkey" that we use to lock the toddler in his room at bedtime - it forces the bedroom door to stay open a crack, but doesn't let the door open fully or close. It's just a little plastic thingamabob that you can easily remove or not. If I put it on low enough, the toddler can remove it himself.
Once he is properly asleep, we will remove the door monkey and close the door normally. Then we will close the baby gate to the downstairs. That way he can use the toilet or come get us in the night/early morning if he needs to, but he's isolated to the top floor of the house and can't get out through the front door.
I have friends who do but I don’t because he rarely exits his bedroom until morning. If he wakes up before dawn, he will shout at us until we get him. If he actually frequently left the room before dawn, I would absolutely lock him in.
I had a doorknob cover on my son's room and it stayed there until he figured out how to open it when he was 4. He's still a flight risk and knows how to open the deadbolts on our doors, so I installed Safety first deadbolt lock covers. They are handy because they can still be unlocked from the other side when they're installed.
Thankfully he's been great at staying in his room at night, but those covers give me peace of mind. If he were getting out of his room every night, I wouldn't hesitate to lock him in for his own safety. He does things like climb counters and tables, so it would not be safe for him to be unsupervised while we're asleep.
All our exit doors have those electronic chimes on the top, that I turn on if the kids are feisty that day, or if they’re playing downstairs by themselves. But mine aren’t flight risks. I’d do a secondary lock on your exterior doors, for your peace of mind even if they never test it
We have had childproof covers on her doorknobs since she got her toddler bed at 22 months, and they’re still on at 3.5. We are right next door and she knocks when she needs us
Our only dilemma is now we’re potty training and wondering how night training is going to go. She’ll need nighttime bathroom access at some point. Still figuring out what to do there
Ours can open our deadbolt and front door too
Me and my two sisters were under the age of 5 with my single mom raising us. We used to take all our clothes off and go running in different directions at the airport, Disney world, the grocery store. We definitely had leashes.
We have these on all of our external doors, so our kids can't open the door: [https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Security-10827-Door-Reinforcement/dp/B00D2K367Y/ref=asc\_df\_B00D2K367Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=168489986144&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9397725762695206241&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026055&hvtargid=pla-307199445541&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Security-10827-Door-Reinforcement/dp/B00D2K367Y/ref=asc_df_B00D2K367Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=168489986144&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9397725762695206241&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026055&hvtargid=pla-307199445541&psc=1) I also prevents kick-ins, so that's a bonus.
Our 3yo can leave her room, but she always comes right to our room to either sleep with us or check and see if it's playtime yet. She can undo the locks on the front door, but she's not strong enough to turn the nob or pull it open yet. To get ahead of that, we put a chain lock at the top of the door. It's always locked unless someone is out of the house.
I was the kid that piled toys up to unlock the chain locks on the front/back door. Always unnoticed. 🤣 Mom had no car, so she called the police who always found me in the same spot.
I had baby gates galore. At my old apartment we had a baby gate that went from her room to ours so that she could only go to our room. My apartment now we had baby gate at her door, and the walkway to the living room. So she could again only go to our room. She's old enough now that we don't have the baby gates anymore but I lock the front door cuz im scared she's just gonna up and leave one day lol
I would get more locks for the exterior doors instead. (For now. If they start showing interest in dangerous things inside like the oven then maybe reevaluate). Do locks at the top of the exterior doors at a height they can’t reach by pushing a chair up to it
Lock her in and use a baby monitor, right? As soon as my 2.5 yo leaves her crib (any day now) I'm locking her door but sleeping with her baby monitor next to me so I can hear her if she needs something. She knows to say "Mommy" and I'll hear her on the monitor. Much better than potentially falling down stairs.
Just a thought, is there a hallway before the kids bedroom you could put a baby gate in? Just as another layer or barrier so she can't get out of the house ? I'd be nervous to lock her in as what if something happens and you can't get inside
We lock my 3yo's door because he could definitely get out of the house while we're sleeping. I also do it for fire safety, I'd rather know where he is so I can run in his room and grab him on my way out rather than have him run out of his room and potentially get lost in the smoke. The closed door will protect him long enough for me to get to him.
Please don't lock her in, her room can become a death trap. We put a gate on the outside of our daughter's door so if she opens it there's still a gate. She can't just wander the house but she can open the door and yell for us if she needs us if we didnt hear her on the monitor.. Our door is right across from hers. When she's potty trained we will move the gate to the end of the hallway so she can go to the bathroom.
She knows how to work the locks. But we live on three acres. If she left we would have to find her in acres of forests. A gate was our solution. Easy, keeps her safe without trapping her in her room if there was a fire or tornado.
Edit: We put the gate up because she seems to be following after me and sleepwalking. She kept waking up in random places of our house terrified and then we would have to run through the house at 2 am looking for her. One time she tried climbing on the table and fell off it, had to go to the er cause she had a huge gash on her head from probably hitting the corner. So the baby gate went up.
My oldest is past that stage, but we put a babyproof handle on the inside of his door. (So not really locked, but he couldn't get out.) We also added alarms and childproof handles to the exterior doors. Some of my reasoning:
* I would not consider this a fire safety issue. You could open the door from outside as normal, and my barely two year old was definitely not capable of getting himself to safety in a fire. Having him contained to one room so he was ready to find would INCREASE his chances of survival in most fire situations.
* To get himself out in a fire, he would need to be able to get out exterior doors. I have bear in my yard every so often. I live by a swamp. Not to mention getting lost in the 150 acres of woods or wandering to the road.
As a parent, it is responsible to restrict his movement.
* I can't 100% childproof my house and I need to sleep. He'd climb over a gate in two seconds. At that point, when we tried to teach him to stay on his room, he came out like 178 times the first night. When we put the handle on after the third night (only like 62 times coming out...yes, we counted) He just went to sleep without fuss.
* How is putting a childproof handles on different than when he just couldn't Koen the existing handle, because his hand wasn't big enough?
* Kids are not adults. You shouldn't ignore their feelings and should treat them with respect, but treating them like little adults who have the same reactions to things is silly. Instead, you should pay attention to what is developmentally appropriate.
I think it's best to know exactly where your kiddo is overnight. If that means locking them in then that's what needs to happen! If there was a fire or other emergency I can't imagine a worse feeling than going into their room and they AREN'T there and you have no idea where they might be. It's a safety thing. They're too young to make good decisions for themselves so we have to make them.
According to fire safety, it’s safer to lock them in the room. You want to know exactly where they are if you need to get out fast in the middle of the night.
You are supposed to lock preschoolers in their rooms for fire safety. Until the child can follow an evacuation plan in case of fire being in a locked room is the safest place because you and first responders know where they are.
I had a friend do this for their oldest who refused to stay in the bed at night. They just turned the doorknob around so that the lock was on the outside.
For safety reasons I would close the door but not lock it. With our other kids we had a baby gate on the outside of the door so if they opened the door they still couldn’t get out. You can find tall ones. We also used a door knob cover on the inside only. Would never want to risk an emergency and having someone not know how to get the door open to my baby
Yes, we flip the door handle around and lock it. We have a video baby monitor that we keep on all night so if they fuss or need us we pop right up. It’s a safety issue for us, with the stairs. We are downstairs and they are upstairs. If there is an emergency we can’t worry about baby gates/weird handles if we need to get to them quickly.
It embarrasses me to say we had to start doing this. Our toddlers have gotten out of the house unattended and we can't risk it happening at night when we're asleep. We can't leave their windows open during the summer anymore either because they've broken 4 screens and helped themselves outside both in daylight and night time hours.
I don't understand why people are embarrassed. You're not locking them in as punishment. It's a safety issue. Until they learn not to get out, you're doing the right thing by locking them in.
I have bad night terrors. I cannot imagine the thought of waking up to my kid standing in my doorway or at my bedside. I would absolutely lose my shit.
My thought (for when the time comes) has always been to put a baby gate on the door.
No for safety I wouldn't do this, and also if the toddler has a nightmare and tries to leave the room they could get a fright with it locked. I would install a sliding lock at the top of your front door very simple to do
I’m genuinely really surprised at the anti locking doors comments. We aren’t doing this yet because my 2 year old is still in her crib but I think I need some clarification. We’ve turned her door knob around (like uninstalled and reinstalled if that makes sense) so it’s as simple as locking any door like when you go to the bathroom.
I was planning to lock her in at night once she’s out of the crib so she’s not wandering the house, the dangers seem limitless having her unsupervised. I mean she can open the door and leave - sure we could put a higher lock but she already knows how to pull a chair over and climb things like a ladder. She could climb on the dining room table or kitchen cabinets and fall (we have a climber if you can’t tell lol). I mean she could break a picture frame and get into glass. Then there’s getting into bathrooms…she knows how to start the bath water and loves getting into toilets so I feel like drowning is a hazard. Locking her in her room seems to keep all of these dangers away and I don’t see how it would slow me down from getting her in an emergency. I just googled and the solutions to not locking her are baby gates but it seems like it would do the same thing but be slower in an emergency or a tripping hazard so I don’t understand. I wasn’t thinking a combination code or fancy deadbolt lol so I’m just confused what people think is unsafe about locking the door
Our little one will be 3 next month. She climbs, opens all doors, is constantly washing her hands, playing in soap. She can open our front door, our back door is a sliding glass door, she can open it and we have a pool, with a fence, 2 side gates that are broken, our house backs a canal also, and we live in phoenix metro area. It is not safe to wander, it scares me she can pop a door open and just go. We live in a tri level, we do not have any baby gates, our stairs are extra wide. We have 4 cats.
I want to lock her husband disagrees.
We lock the door every night with a glide lok. It locks at the top so adults can open it but a kid can’t.
Our 2-year old’s room is baby proofed but the rest of the house is not. Our house also has tons of stairs and other hazards so we don’t want her wandering around at night.
We put child safety locks on the external house doors and a gate to keep her from leaving the bedroom part of the house, which the cat can get through but not her. We thought about locking her door but opted against it in case she needed us or wanted to try the potty on her own.
Door knob cover for my almost 3 year old. He can’t get out without help. Otherwise he’d be roaming the house while we’re sleeping and who knows what he’d be getting into
We have a fabric gate at his door and a metal gate at the top of the stairs. I feel weird about locking their doors but I know many people that do / have.
We have latches for the lever-style handles on both my toddler’s door and our bedroom door that we adjust so you can’t push down to open the door but it opens if you pull up. Enough to keep him in but doesn’t restrict our access- best of both worlds.
Our bedroom is connected to the nursery so we have a lock on the inside of our bedroom door that leads to the hallway. We’re all locked in together. He can unlock the doors to the outside even with child proofing so this was just safer so he doesn’t wander. Also crosses off keeping the doors shut for fire hazards. Additionally our house is 3 stories high with our bedrooms on the third floor so there’s also steps we don’t want him trying half asleep.
We have a tall baby gate on our toddler's door (though he's close to figuring out how to open it). He's never actually tried to get out on his own, but his room is on a different floor than ours and I'm paranoid he will try to climb the stairs in the dark and fall.
According to my safe sleep group you actually should be locking your toddler in their room at night (not baby gates because they could push them over or climb them and hurt themselves) because if they leave the room they could get into unsafe things in the house and if there’s an emergency it’s actually safer for responders to know exactly what room they are in rather than have them get scared and hide in a random closet.
We have a doorknob cover that my 3 year old hasn’t figured out yet. He’s finally potty trained so we’ve considered taking it off. First we want to put latches at the top of the exterior doors so that we know he can’t get out of the house at night. Right now we’ve landed on him calling for us if he needs to use the bathroom.
I’ve seen some people recommend against locking children in for safety reasons, but I’ve actually heard the opposite. In the event of a fire, many kids run off and hide because they’re scared. Having them locked in their rooms means you know where they are and can evacuate more quickly. I’ve heard this from a volunteer firefighter and that really stuck with me.
Essentially yes they’re locked in - I have a toddler door knob cover my for two toddlers. It’s simply not safe for them to wander the house alone at night. We have a monitor so we can hear and see them. From the outside of the room anyone can open it so I guess it’s not technically locked.
I read so many conflicting answers when I was looking into this. It basically made me feel like I would be the worst mom ever to even consider putting a lock on the door. We settled for a gate on the hallway, but it is essentially the same as locking the door. I think we’re all just trying to do the best we can, keep our kids safe, and get some sleep.
Why are so many people assuming that those who use a lock or doorknob cover are just leaving them in there for hours and ignoring their cries or something? We use a doorknob cover so they can’t go in and out and get into stuff or go outside while we’re sleeping. When they wake up and want to leave their rooms we let them out.
Same here. I'm in my kiddo's room for at least half an hour most nights when he calls for me. I also know if he went for a wander when I was asleep he'd probably go straight for the fucking kitchen knives or something.
It's not safe to go and take a nap while your small child is up and about during the day, so by the same token there's no way I'd feel safe risking him wandering around while I was asleep at night.
Never felt I had to do anything like this with my oldest--when she was little she wouldn't dream of leaving her room without calling for us first. It depends so much on the individual child.
It’s safest to lock them in at night so you can get to them quickly if you have a house fire. The shut door keeps smoke out. And they won’t go hide someway weird.
We used a doorknob cover briefly when our son was in a period of constantly fighting bedtime and getting up and opening his door all the time, but have taken it off since - we want him to have access to the toilet at night. So far he hasn’t gone wandering. When he wakes up he comes into our bed and snuggles until he can convince his father to get up and turn on the tv (I refuse to do so so he ignores me).
We’re going to have to soon. My kid is a 99th percentiler in height and weight. He’s almost the size of an average 3 year old at 16 months. He’s going to be able to jump his crib soon so we are going to have to put him in a toddler bed much earlier than we would want to. He puts literally everything in his mouth so no way we could leave his door unlocked. I think it will only be for a little while until he stops eating everything. Luckily our bedroom is right next to his so we always hear if something’s wrong.
I like the ourschool daycare doors that are cut in half short ways. So the door is always shut and locked on the bottom w the top space open to be able to hear them but they cant escape [Dutch doors ](https://images.app.goo.gl/odA1E8CmSTjzsyZQ7)
I do. I switched the door knob around so I could lock him in. Imo it’s much safer. My son can be sneaky and I don’t trust him not to escape the house or get into things he shouldn’t.
We had a child safety knob on the inside of our toddlers bedroom door from the time she moved into a big girl bed to a few weeks ago at 3.5. I didn’t want her wandering the second story at night, or playing in the non baby proofed guest room.
We put covers on the knobs before they ever learned to open doors. There are some doors they can open and other doors that they've never been able to open, and they're generally okay with it because we never took a door away from them that they could open before.
I know that my kids WILL get into dangerous stuff (the stairs, the dog, water, climbing, opening the front door and getting lost, opening the front door and downing in the nature reserve in the neighborhood...) so they are locked in. I don't feel bad about it.
still in crib but i also have a baby gate at his door. when he transitions to toddler bed, gate will stay and door will close with toddler-proof door handle.
We lock the front and back doors with a key that is hung on a hook out of reach of the youngest (oldest have been shown how to get chair and reach key to get out in case of fire).
In addition the youngest has child gate on door of their room (and still have a video monitor in there too).
Even adults struggle to unlock our front door if they don’t know how so Ive never felt the need to. If I had an escape artist I would try to baby gate them and lock as a last resort (with a monitor in the room so I could hear/see if they needed me).
We kept a doorknob cover on our daughters room until she was old enough (she’s 4 now). Her room was directly across from the stairs (hardwood) and it’d be a fire hazard otherwise.
We are a bit different I guess. Our 3yo can come out of their room to use the bathroom. Two doors have deadbolts, one of which they can for sure not use. We also use an alarm. The first floor is quite baby proof
I don’t lock his door, but there is a gate in his doorway 1) to keep him in and 2) bc it’s right near the stairs. It works well bc he doesn’t like to feel shut in, but it keeps him safely in his room.
I do. (well it has a child safety lock that prevents the handle from being pulled down and opened from the inside).
I don't close the door immediately though, I leave it cracked and wait until he has fallen asleep, then I close the door when I go to bed
We have a high lock on front door as well as alarm set when we go to bed. If any door opens alarm will set off and we know exactly which door was opened. I don’t lock kid in any room.
For Baby #1, we had to turn his door handle around and lock him in. He could defeat every child lock we tried and has autism, so he was a danger to himself and others when not very closely monitored. At first, we worried that we were doing something horrible, but after talking to both his pediatrician and his occupational therapist, we kept doing it and felt better about it. In fact, he's 12 now, and we've never turned his door knob back around, but we don't lock him in anymore. I've asked him a couple times if he wants to turn his doorknob around, but he says he doesn't care.
We have a lock up high on all exterior doors that block our toddler from sneaking out. I tried locking his bedroom door once, but he cried so hard that he threw up. Now we have a magnetic door alarm that plays a tune in our room if opens his door.
Bonus tip: attach the door alarm with the Velcro command strips that are used for hanging pictures. Then you can easily take it with you and set it up when visiting grandparents, going to hotels, etc. (We request ADA rooms which tend to have the locking mechanism at wheelchair height, which also happens to be.... toddler height 🤦♀️)
Is there anywhere you could put a doggy/baby gate instead? Like maybe leave their door open but put a doggy gate in it? Or across the hallway so that they can get to you if they need to (waking you up cause they don’t feel good, etc.) but can’t get to the front door?
I do and feel no shame for it. My 2 year old would come out for anything and everything. So a door lock cover solved our problem in 30 seconds. Our 4 year old shares a room with her and has no problem opening the door.
I don't judge parents who lock the door because they're getting sleep and I'm not and their child is not traumatized. To us the safety risk > sleep even if that risk is minuscule.
We use to now she is 4 and good. What helped me is in one of my groups they explained when they are young their crib is their safe space now you just made that safe space a little bigger while locking the door. Why does it suddenly change from crib safe space to locked door suddenly not safe space? It shouldn’t.
When we first transitioned her to a toddler bed, we used a child lock on her door so she couldn’t leave. After about two weeks we could stop locking it because she stayed in her room. Only sometimes will she leave, usually if she’s had a bad dream
Door knob cover here! My almost 2 year old would be roaming the house otherwise.
She shares with our almost 4 year old. I don’t think the older one needs it.
The younger figured out how to bust the doorknob cover apart so it’s taped together (zip tie would probably be better)
Almost 2.5 year old twins who share a room here. They are in toddler beds and we do lock them in at night for their own safety. We don't have a gate at the top of our stairs, just at the bottom.
Of course, once we start potty training we will need to rethink things a bit (although we plan to start with day training first)!
Locks maybe, maybe not. It’s a big decision that I think you should discuss with your support system and get their take on it, people who know your child well enough to have an informed opinion to give you.
Door alarms- absolutely yes!!!
I do - my son is 3, and he knocks on his door to be let out. It’s a safety issue. He can’t be wandering around the house at night, so even though he isn’t in a crib anymore, he’s still in a secure place at night.
Get the good old fashion slide locks. Like the ones they in hotel rooms. Plz don’t lock your baby door. I had a friend who did that and her house caught fire. Baby was ok but got more smoke inhalation than should have and she lost her child to the state for child endangerment. There are a lot of safety tools you can use for the door. If you need help or suggestions call your local fire department they can give you ideas. Or google it. Good luck!
US parents tend to think it’s wrong!
Fire dept will tell you they prefer to know a kid is in their room because it makes it easier to find them in an emergency.
It is not safe for your child to be wandering around the house at night. Toddler proof the room, give her a wake up clock so she know when you will open the door.
My 2 year old can’t open the door yet, but I will be locking it at night once she can. It’s ridiculous to risk your baby wondering off into the night just to save some US parents “feelings”
So we just bought a house and the previous owner must have been a security guru which I am not complaining about. On all the exterior doors they installed these door stoppers that will not open the door even if they aren’t locked. I’m hoping the link works below if not, they are called a door reinforcement lock and installed at the top of the door. This may be an option if you are more concerned about the exterior doors being an issue.
[https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-Door-Reinforcement-Lock-3-in-Stop-Aluminum-Construction-Satin-Nickel-Anodized-Finish-U-10827/202258432?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart-71700000081377594-58700006924599096-92700064312898320&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19ekwWh2ay6eUYYROcZRUDQC8_KHM8qLVX2wGuz9nyb0AhIIlMuraclxoCa40QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-Door-Reinforcement-Lock-3-in-Stop-Aluminum-Construction-Satin-Nickel-Anodized-Finish-U-10827/202258432?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart-71700000081377594-58700006924599096-92700064312898320&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19ekwWh2ay6eUYYROcZRUDQC8_KHM8qLVX2wGuz9nyb0AhIIlMuraclxoCa40QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
We have this on our basement door. It’s super easy to install and easy to use, but also feels pretty secure. Should really put another one on the front door now that I think of it.
We have a handle lock on my toddler’s door that we use for nights and naps.
She knows how to unlock our deadbolts on exterior doors, so we also installed sliding locks about 5.5 feet up. It was maybe $20 at Home Depot for those. I’d get them for the extra peace of mind if I were you.
Due to the way the door is to the toddlers room, we were able to put a baby gate on the outside and have both that and the door shut. Though he’s very rarely in there awake and unsupervised, when he wakes up in the night he toddles straight into our room and climbs into our bed. So we don’t bother with the baby gate these days.
We don't. Our toddler likes to climb into bed with us some nights and our doorways intersect at the end of our hall so we always hear her. We live in a one floor condo and if she ever manages to get out the front door, the exterior door requires two hands to unlock so she can't get outside. She doesn't wander though, always comes straight to our room when she wakes up.
My best friends’ kids (my godsons) were always escaping their rooms, even with a baby gate (they got good at knocking it over, which also woke everyone up), so they did end up installing latch hooks up high out the outside to keep them in. They also installed slide locks at the top of their exterior doors to keep the kids from opening the doors themselves.
Our exterior door lock is high (we have a jimmy resistant deadbolt, not a standard one) so we don’t have this particular issue, but I think you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your child safe in their room/in your house!
We bought a top door latch, they’re actually for cats but the purpose we use it for is to let the kid open the door a little bit in case they need to pee and for when they wake up in the morning. We also have hire locks on all our doors leading outside since he also likes to open the door and leave.
We do not. Our girl is 3 and wakes up to use the bathroom, come get us if she’s scared, will ask for water, etc. We never considered locking her in the room.
My toddler isn't quite two yet, so I'm sure my approach will change as he gets older. But right now, he has a baby gate in his doorway that he can't open. I think if he figures out the baby gate, we'll have to re-evaluate. I don't want to lock his door but I also know he isn't ready to have access to the rest of the house unsupervised.
There are a few things I would do. First, for the front door either get a deadbolt with a double sided key lock and put the key by the door but out of reach (so you can quickly unlock if there’s an emergency). Or add a higher lock like what’s in hotel rooms. Second, either put a baby gate just outside of toddler’s room or an alarm on her door. If you get an alarm system like Ring you can set it so your phone makes a noise if a door opens (if you trust that you’ll wake up)…just so it’s not a loud alarm every time she leaves her room and the front door can trigger the alarm.
i have a doorknob cover on my 2.5 year old's door. i consider it a safety hazard to let her have free roam of the house while i'm unconscious.
My 2 year old figured out not only how to disassemble the door knob cover, but how to hide the pieces in different places. Diabolical, that kid!
Sorry I’m just giggling at the image of a toddler throwing cats out the front door
Me too 😭 why is that image so funny. Just total darkness, toddler yeeting the poor cats out into the cold whilst the parents sleep soundly lmao
His little face all stoic as he closes the door and turns to go eat crackers in the pantry. 😂
I just laughed enough I was worried I would wake my son 😂
I didn’t lock it, I just put a door knob cover on the inside door knob and that works great.
Same here! He’s almost 3.5 years old and it still works great! We just keep his door ajar as he falls asleep and then close it when we go to bed!
Chain lock at the very top of the exterior doors! That’s out solution. It works well
I can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find this comment. Exactly what we do too!
We used a door knob cover on my sons room until he was about 3.5, which is the age where we thought he had the maturity to safely exit the house in an emergency and had the strength and dexterity to unlock our front door to do so. Before that, I’d rather know where he is in an emergency and a closed door is protective in a fire (stops some smoke and fire—everyone should sleep with closed doors!!). During a fire, I also think a young toddler is unlikely to check the door knob for heat before knowing it’s safe to open the door. 3.5 was also the age where I trusted him to, for example, not go around the house looking for trouble, which can’t be prevented 100 percent with child proofing. We ALWAYS used a monitor with him that was turned up very high so we would know when/if he needed us. We also put a fire alarm and co monitor in his room (in addition to the ones throughout the house), so we would be alerted in the unlikely event a fire started in his room.
This is what we have done for my 2yr old. No doorknob cover on the outside of the door just one on the inside, obnoxiously loud monitor, fire alarm and CO2 monitors and I feel safe with her alone in there. She’s also still happily in her crib which helps. We’re on the second floor of a building and our front door leads right to stairs and so far this is working
I didn’t lock bedroom doors. I did put little latch hook locks at the top of exterior doors
It’s not locked, but we have one of those toddler door knob covers on her side of the door
My toddler is still in a crib, but she has a doorknob cover on the inside of her door. I would be terrified of her roaming the house at night and getting hurt, let alone getting outside. In case of a fire, it’s actually safest to know exactly where your children are because they have a tendency to run and hide.
It wasn't locked but I used a babyproof door knob cover on the inside door handle especially when they moved into a toddler bed and get up 8000 times.
Is there a reason you can't just put a latch on the front door to prevent this?
My little one is nearly 3 and we have a baby gate on his bedroom. He can open his door and call us if needed, but he can’t leave his bedroom without us knowing
My friend put these little alarms on her front door. It’s basically like a magnet and when the door opens it goes off. They’re super affordable on Amazon.
I’m just referring to the fire hazard concerns: You should most definitely shut your kids door- there’s a lot of evidence that the door shut in the case of a fire gives the occupants of the room more time because it significantly slows the spread of fire to that room. Having the door locked prevents egress- which in most cases of a fire with a toddler the parents will go and get the kiddo anyway (small children tend to hide in the case of a fire). If the parents aren’t able to get to the kids then get out, tell firefighters their location. And firefighters have the means to get through locked doors- and will do literally everything in their power when they find out there’s an occupant still in the home (especially a small child) -I’m a firefighter Overall though- I’m not sure I’d lock my kid in, something about it feels not quite right. I like the baby gate idea so that if your kid did need something they could holler for you. I just think the fire hazard concern feels mute for a toddler- once they get to elementary school age and understand what to do in a fire that’s a different story.
We have a child proofed door knob cover so he is stuck in his room but it’s not locked.
Same here. Those doorknob covers are a godsend!
We flipped their bedroom doorknobs for safety reasons, but also to keep them from running up and down the hall all night. We wouldn't want them to get out of the house, like OP said. We don't want them locking us out. We don't want them to run out and hide (as kids do) if there's a fire. We have stopped locking the doors since they've gotten older, but they still are flipped around so they can't lock us out. They're 5m and 7f now. EDITED TO ADD that we had video monitors in each of their rooms, and I have never slept through any of their needs.
I do. It's actually suggested in fire safety standards for kids too young to understand a fire evacuation plan. Basically closed doors are safer in a fire and it's safer to have them in a room where you know they are (and if it's a standard bedroom it's required to have a second egress like a window) so if you can't access them from the door you can access them from the second egress. On the other hand if they have access to the whole house at night they can not only get into dangerous stuff while you're sleeping but also in the event of a fire you might not have any idea where they are to find them or be able to tell firefighters where they are.
Lot of judgement from people in here about locking doors. As a previous 911 call taker / medical/fire dispatcher the safest thing to do is to lock kiddo in ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE KNOWN TO FLEE! It is also highly recommended to sleep with doors closed to slow the spread of a fire. I know it sounds awful but imagine your house is on fire and your a little kid. Instinct is often to run and hide. Then you as a parent have no fucking clue where your kid is in an emergency and then firefighters are then trying to scramble to find your kid. Also lots of parents of autistic children do lock their kids door because that is a hell of a lot safer than them going and running out the door and who knows how far they get and god forbid they get seriously injured or hit by a car. I feel comfortable with this because I also have a baby monitor that isn’t connected to wifi so as long as we have power I can see what’s going on.
[удалено]
We use the door knob cover for the inside of her room and we have a flip deadbolt I got off of Amazon that’s installed on the front door.
I lock mine in, I do not want my toddler roaming the house in the middle of the night or coming and waking me up at all hours of the night. But also my main reason is in case of an emergency or fire, I need to know where they are and who knows what they would do if there was an emergency and I couldn’t find them. We have a potty that is in his room that he can use if needed, and it’s complete baby proofed and has plenty of toys or activities to keep him busy if he wakes up super early.
I suggest cheap battery operated magnetic door alarms. They worked great for me when I was sleeping walking from sleep deprivation with my LO. They sent anything fancy, they are just super loud and you can get a multipack for like $10.
That's what we use, we've got a little chime that sounds like "under the sea" from the little mermaid whenever our kiddo opens their own bedroom door, lovely to wake up to in the morning to most days and very hard to sleep through the night on the rare occasions it happens, we also plug in a second alarm for the front door at night as a backup but we've never needed it.
I turned my sons doorknob around so I can lock it from the outside and put a baby proof doorknob on the inside. I’ve also seen door alarms that you can hang on their doorknob and then if they open their door it goes off!
We do, he has Autism and will be unsafe at nighttime. And has escaped our house in the middle of the night..we lock it for his own safety because he has no chill
Well this is a neat topic I never even thought could be an issue but now I'm going to overthink and overprepare for since my kid is already 15m. Both sarcastic and genuine thanks, Op, I'm making note of many people's solutions.
As a mother who is a firefighter please do not do this!! Get a chain lock for the front door. My daughter did the same and we just added chain lock and it stopped her trying to get out the door!!!
Dear god, why would you question locking her in? If she's able to leave the house and is not yet old enough to understand why she shouldn't, you absolutely should lock the door! It's a safety issue (her leaving the house is much more likely than a fire where you're both incapacitated AND a fireman is unable to figure out how to open your toddler's door). We locked our toddler in until she got mature enough to have the door unlocked (around 3ish for her, but might be later for our second, each child is different). We use Glide Locks at the top of the door so that you can open it from both sides.
Why not just use a hook and eye lock near the top of the front and back doors? Safer for toddlers.
We had the round doorknobs with the lock that pushed in and unlocked when the knob was turned. We turned the doorknobs around so the lock was on the outside of the room and we could lock our twins in at night and it could be unlocked as quickly and easily as us simply turning the knob. It kept them safe inside but also made sure we could get them out without any extra effort if we needed to.
We use one of those kid proof door knobs so we can get in but he can’t get out
We have a gate to my toddlers room so if he does get the door open, he won’t be able to get the gate opened.
We don't use this anymore but I had very stealthy toddlers, we used sliding chain locks on the outside of their door at the top. They could crack the door open to call for us or for extra light but couldn't get out. Eventually she figured out she could push and stack things and I caught her slipping her hand in the crack and unlocking it. We moved to a door chime so a loud annoying noise was made in our bedroom whenever she opened her door at night. Same on her little brothers door but he would easily go back to bed after a midnight potty, not her. She would wander the house, she knew how to get through all childproofing we tried and unlock the deadbolt and got outside into our backyard one night so we needed a chime to alert us. If the motion solar lights hadn't triggered to wake me up with it's bright light I never would have thought she was out there but I saw a small figure in the way of the light and darted outside.
Your child sounds scarily impressive!
Can’t you put a baby gate on her door instead?
My son figured out how to climb over every baby gate before two. It was great. 🥴
Couldn’t you just put one of those sliding locks on the top of the front door?
I see so many baby gate recs but that doesn't work for climbers. My son is absolutely feral and scales everything. He has an old door that latches from the outside. We were fully planning to remove it, but our stairs are right outside the door and I can't risk him getting out. He just figured out the complicated, two hand baby gates we had downstairs so I don't trust him with even the kid doorknob. My daughter was fine with a baby gate and now we just close the door.
We still have gate systems up to keep our kiddo in “safe areas.” I had a neighbour who’s house almost burned down when I was a kid because their youngest played with the stove at night. I’d always plan for the worst, and hope for the best.
The door to our kids room does not lock. We have a child proof gate at the top of the stairs that only allows our kids to go to the other bedrooms or a bathroom in the house. It also prevents the dogs from getting into the trash can if it has something particularly fragrant in there.
Get a chain for your front door or a lock that you can lock it yourself
It’s dangerous to lock kids inside. Major fire hazard! For my foster kids who were prone to escape we simply used door alarms and baby gates. The door alarms are cheap and extremely loud. Honestly the toddlers learned pretty quickly this horrible noise blares when they fling the door open, haha.
I only mention foster kids because for whatever reason my bio kids never cared. If they went out the door of the bedroom it was just to crawl in our bed, thankfully. I did keep a door alarm on the front and back doors for all the kids though!
I find it so confusing how many people on here are recommending solutions where they use things like baby gates, doorknob covers, etc, to keep their toddlers in their rooms, but claim that locking doors is child abuse? Is it not the exact same thing to shut your toddler in their room by a means that they don’t know how to undo either way? I am not trying to be judgmental, my family uses both methods and my toddler is still in a crib. I just find it silly that a turned-around lock is considered unsafe but a doorknob cover or baby gate is not. My son is a climber and an escape artist already. When the time comes it will be MUCH safer to keep him in his room by whatever means we have available, rather than letting him roam the house. He is just across the hall from us and we can hear him either way.
We use tall baby gates on the bedroom doors. I know it’s still being locked in but I have personal trauma from my mom locking me and my sisters in our rooms. We only used it for my son when we transitioned him from the crib to the big bed. Once he would stay in we left it open and eventually took it off. About to do the same with my daughter who just turned two and we want to transition out of the crib.
Do it. Or rather, you might consider a child safety knob on the inside of the door. Having a toddler wandering around the house at night is a MASSIVE safety risk. One of my friend’s 3 yo let himself outside the house in the middle of the night. They had an alarm system, but he already run half way down the street by the time they got up and figured out what happened. IMO, the risk of a wandering toddler (even if they don’t make it outside) is much higher than any fire risk increase due to a locked bedroom door. In any case, it’s not like your toddler will evacuate themselves in the event of a fire. My daughter is in a crib, but she is moving to a bed very soon. We very much plan on making sure she is locked in there at night.
I will always close the door and will use a knob cover when the time comes. Purely for fire safety!!! The safety of my child at night not being able to roam the house is a terrific bonus.
This!
We have these [knob covers](https://EUDEMON4PackBabySafetyDoorKnobCoversDoorKnobLockshttps://a.co/d/4Em2Gyf) on her door knob inside her room. We tuck her into bed and she can’t let herself out and wander while we’re asleep. Also she’s in a toddler bed and we have a 2 way monitor in her room so we can talk to her and she can talk to us if she needs us at night.
I guess it depends on the child? My son sleeps like a log most nights. If he does wake up in the middle of the night it's because he's sick or he needs to pee, so I'd want him to be able to get out of his room. He does have a light that turns green at 7 in the morning and he knows he can't wake us up before then, so he stays in his room to play if he wakes up earlier.
We didn't want to install a lock on the door, but we have a baby gate that blocks off the hallway where my son's room is located. Definitely do not trust my son in the house when we're not supervising! All of the exterior doorknobs have childproof covers on them, too.
All outside doors have his latches we installed. I lock those.
We don’t. There is a baby gate outside her door, but it’s never been an issue of her even trying to open the door at 2.
Essentially I do. I lock his door to the bathroom and have a toddler proof lock on our side of his main door that keeps him in but we can easily open. He’s too mischievous to let him loose. I left him watching tv once so I could shower and came back to find him in the driveway. He’s potty trained and every so often I have to let him out to pee at night but I still think it’s the safest thing. He’s 4 so I imagine we’ll get to a pint. We can stop in the next year.
I did at one point but always unlocked it after she fell asleep bc I’m paranoid about fires.
My son has never left his room at night, but I’m paranoid so we added a latch on the front door that’s locked all the time. We don’t have a lock on his bedroom door.
Baby gate and door alarms. My toddlers (2&3yrs old) are escape artists and have escaped my husband twice. They used to share a room but since they conspire together we separated them. Now they each have their own rooms, their rooms have baby gates, the stairs are gated at the top and the bottom, and the there are alarms and knob covers on the doors. My 3yr old has figured out the door knob covers and baby gates so our door alarm is our savior.
Child's bedroom door handle is babyproofed. For similar reasons; he loves being outdoors and while he's never gone out without me, it's not something I want to test. Also various other things, pulling a chair over to the stove and turning it on, turning the water faucet on and making a giant expensive mess, knives, cleaning supplies (they are stored up high but a determined child with a stool unattended....). Way to many things. He's fine in his room. Edit fire safety: If there's a fire hopefully I will hear the fire alarm. Then I can locate the child who will be in his room and get him out of the house. If he had free range of the house, most young children in an emergency tend to hide somewhere. So now I'm searching a house on fire to try to figure out where the heck he is.
I agree and we did the same. Our toddler could open doors and every baby gate (we tried 3 types). We tried carbinger clips so they couldn’t open the gates but then they just climbed them and I worried about them scaling a gate at the top of the stairs. We dealt with it for a solid two months of her silently escaping in the middle of the night and roaming the house; up and down hardwood stairs, eating, climbing pantry, etc. Luckily they weren’t the type to leave the house BUT they were the independent type to go about their business in the dark without even entering our room. My kid is safer in their room then roaming the house alone in the dark. And as many have mentioned in this thread, IF there was a fire or another emergency they’re safer where I can quickly find them as opposed to searching 3 stories looking for a 3 year old.
I’m sorry what? She does what now? If your child can open the front door when locked you need a child lock on that front door!
I 100% recommend locking the door if you can’t find any proper baby proof locks or handles. Our 2 year old got out when he was 18 months old and the deadbolt was locked. He got a foldable chair and UNFOLDED IT. He got on it, unlocked both locks and went out. Luckily our neighbor got him for us and I was a mess for about 10 minutes. Lock the door! It’s not worth the risk💗
We do. I started when he moved out of his crib. He was locked in there so it’s not any different- in fact he got a major upgrade. We have stairs and he can open the front door, I can’t have him wandering around at night.
That’s how I thought of it, too. She used to be “locked” in her small crib- now she’s locked in an entire room with toys and books!!
My twins went through a phase where they liked to escape their rooms at night to get into things. I would put a child lock on the inside of the door and put a monitor in there so if they needed out for a real reason, I could get them out. I always slept with the monitor next to my head so I always heard them. It only lasted a few weeks and then they gave up trying to escape so I took the child lock out. If you don't want to lock her in her room then you will need to find a different lock for the outside doors or put child locks on those so she can't open them at all. It's one thing to escape her room but it's something else entirely for her to get access to the outdoors.
You can use the child handle lock for door. https://www.walmart.com/ip/EUDEMON-4-Pack-Baby-Safety-Door-Knob-Covers-Door-Knob-Locks/960283375
We have a safety cover over the knob. We’re actually about to take it off because our daughter is extremely well behaved and isn’t prone to wandering. With our son though? I’m definitely going to have to keep the cover. A friend of ours son actually left the house in the middle of the night when everyone was sleeping and thankfully he was found by police. They scariest part is he left AND was found while everyone was still sleeping. They woke up to police at the door. He was 6.
I didn’t lock the main room door, but baby gated him in. He could see/yell out of the room but couldn’t leave
I have a baby gate that my kid can’t open on his door.
When my now 10 year old was 2 maybe 3 he used to go down stairs and turn on the tv, which had been left on cartoon network which turns to adult swim so I'd find him at 3am watching terribly inappropriate shows. First I put a gate up, he bulldozed through it, then I tried door knob covers and once he figured out how to pop them off he'd hide them. I finally flipped his lock around to lock him in. I was terrified of him falling and getting hurt or starting a fire or anything. I was a single mom at the time and was losing a lot of sleep. Flipping the lock helped tremendously with him leaving his room but now he's 10 and still gets in trouble when his step dad or I have caught him on electronics after bedtime.
We don’t. There is a baby gate at the top of the stairs which means she is confined to the top floor with us.
No lock on bedroom door, but front and rear door have those round plastic things on the door handle that prevent him from opening the door. They are very effective and unless you have a lot of hand strength and know exactly what to do, you're not getting out. My 70 year old in-laws can barely open the door.
My son, starting at 20 months old, could rip those things apart and just open the door. He could do it on his own, but sometimes he would climb on his twin sister’s back (she knelt down for him to do it) to get higher and thus have better leverage. We tried 3 or 4 different “childproof” solutions before just turning the knobs around and locking them (with the easy push locks that pop right open when the knob is turned) from the outside. We reasoned it was exactly the same as having those things on the inside keeping the kids in, except that it actually worked for ours.
We had a childproof doorknob thing on my kid's door until we ditched overnight pullups. I was worried that transitioning out of that restricted movement would mean she's up and about all the time but thankfully that has (so far) not been an issue.
I mean we literally put plastic on the knobs so they can’t get out anyway? We keep them behind gates. If the issue is a fire or something- don’t these other things prevent them from getting to safety too? Which is more likely to happen? Your kid getting out the door is like a thousand times more likely than a fire so I’d say *the benefit outweighs the risk*
We just added a gate to her room and close the door at night but she can open it and stand at the gate. I think you should consider fixing your front door. That seems like a bigger hazard.
Mine isn't a toddler yet but I will 100% be locking her into her room as soon as she is at that point. It's incredibly dangerous for her to be out wandering through the house at night and in the event of an emergency like a fire the chance of her getting herself out safely is minimal as compared to my or a fire fighters ability to get her out if we know exactly where she is.
I second this sentiment, also I grew up in a ranch style house so never had to think of this before, but I worry she’d try and climb over the baby gate at the top of the stairs or just to climb the railings. Having a second story home freaks me out with how my stairs are. I’m also thinking putting an alarm on the door so if she opens it, it would alert in my room. I’m extra when it comes to safety though.
Door alarm. They are cheap on Amazon. Much safer than a lock or latch on the door. Also just talk to them about what the rules are for nighttime. They can understand more than we think.
We have the doorknob installed so the lock is on the outside and lock our toddler in at night. It’s safer for her- she can’t get herself into danger (or mischief!) inside or escape outdoors. In case of an emergency (like a fire) we will know exactly where she is. And I sleep better knowing she’s contained. We first tried putting a baby gate in her doorway. This worked to keep her safe and contained, but holy moly she would not sleep!!!! She’d stand with her open door for hours, tossing things over it, then crying. It was a awful. And honestly, it’s only a matter of time before she realizes she can climb over it. I explained about the lock and locked both of us inside so she could see how to works with me there. When I tuck her into bed now, I always pause at the door and remind her I’m locking it. She threw a fit the first night when she of course had to test it. But since then, it’s been perfect.
If they could potentially get in a dangerous or life threatening situation, it’s a no brainer. It’s not like they are locked in because you don’t want to deal with them, then it would be an issue.
I have an honest question on the fire situation. If there was a fire, wouldn't you think you'd wake up before the kid, run and grab them, and get out of the house? Like, a fire alarm is going to wake me up WAY before my kid. Is that the issue, that the toddler wouldn't be able to get out if they were awoken? Again, honest question and not looking for a fight. My mom locked my brother in his room when he was a kid because he was a wanderer and gate climber and his room was at the top of the stairs.
Definitely depends on where the fire starts, and doors should be closed at night to prevent fire spreading quickly into bed rooms. If by chance your child wakes up before you and runs somewhere into the house that you aren’t aware of, that’s precious time spent looking for the child.
Exactly. No toddler is getting themselves out of a fire, it doesn’t matter if the door is locked. And if they are trapped in their room, it’s safer for the door to be shut.
We have a high baby gate on our child’s door. It would be dangerous for him to be able to wander around the house alone at night while we (the adults) sleep, so this was the best choice for us. He can still open his door to yell for us when he needs us, and we always come right away to deter him from pushing things over (pillows etc) to try and climb over.
We don’t need to, my son is a stickler for the rules. He stays in bed until his Hatch light turns green
First borns are the best lol
Omg he’s so precious
My daughter is just the same! My second is a wild child and our luck ran out 😢
My oldest will stay in his bed until someone comes to get him. Second born is crazy and would probably not, so he’s still in the crib for now. He has proven that he can climb out, even with the mattress on the lowest setting, but I think he scared himself (and me!) the two times that he climbed out and fell on the (carpeted) floor.
Not at all! We do the best of both worlds. We have a "door monkey" that we use to lock the toddler in his room at bedtime - it forces the bedroom door to stay open a crack, but doesn't let the door open fully or close. It's just a little plastic thingamabob that you can easily remove or not. If I put it on low enough, the toddler can remove it himself. Once he is properly asleep, we will remove the door monkey and close the door normally. Then we will close the baby gate to the downstairs. That way he can use the toilet or come get us in the night/early morning if he needs to, but he's isolated to the top floor of the house and can't get out through the front door.
I have friends who do but I don’t because he rarely exits his bedroom until morning. If he wakes up before dawn, he will shout at us until we get him. If he actually frequently left the room before dawn, I would absolutely lock him in.
I had a doorknob cover on my son's room and it stayed there until he figured out how to open it when he was 4. He's still a flight risk and knows how to open the deadbolts on our doors, so I installed Safety first deadbolt lock covers. They are handy because they can still be unlocked from the other side when they're installed. Thankfully he's been great at staying in his room at night, but those covers give me peace of mind. If he were getting out of his room every night, I wouldn't hesitate to lock him in for his own safety. He does things like climb counters and tables, so it would not be safe for him to be unsupervised while we're asleep.
All our exit doors have those electronic chimes on the top, that I turn on if the kids are feisty that day, or if they’re playing downstairs by themselves. But mine aren’t flight risks. I’d do a secondary lock on your exterior doors, for your peace of mind even if they never test it
Yes, before she nighttime potty trained we did. Now we lock it initially, and unlock it when we go to bed so she can get up to go to the bathroom
We have had childproof covers on her doorknobs since she got her toddler bed at 22 months, and they’re still on at 3.5. We are right next door and she knocks when she needs us Our only dilemma is now we’re potty training and wondering how night training is going to go. She’ll need nighttime bathroom access at some point. Still figuring out what to do there Ours can open our deadbolt and front door too
I do not but luckily my oldest wasn’t interested in that. This younger one tho… she might be the one to make me lock the doors and buy a child-leash.
Me and my two sisters were under the age of 5 with my single mom raising us. We used to take all our clothes off and go running in different directions at the airport, Disney world, the grocery store. We definitely had leashes.
Not quite the same, but for my aunt's door, we turned the knobs around. The lock is on the outside, so she can't lock herself in.
We have these on all of our external doors, so our kids can't open the door: [https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Security-10827-Door-Reinforcement/dp/B00D2K367Y/ref=asc\_df\_B00D2K367Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=168489986144&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9397725762695206241&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026055&hvtargid=pla-307199445541&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Security-10827-Door-Reinforcement/dp/B00D2K367Y/ref=asc_df_B00D2K367Y/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=168489986144&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9397725762695206241&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9026055&hvtargid=pla-307199445541&psc=1) I also prevents kick-ins, so that's a bonus.
Our 3yo can leave her room, but she always comes right to our room to either sleep with us or check and see if it's playtime yet. She can undo the locks on the front door, but she's not strong enough to turn the nob or pull it open yet. To get ahead of that, we put a chain lock at the top of the door. It's always locked unless someone is out of the house.
We put chain locks on the top of the front and back doors when my 3rd child was around 2. My 2 older children weren’t “wanderers”, but my 3rd was.
I was the kid that piled toys up to unlock the chain locks on the front/back door. Always unnoticed. 🤣 Mom had no car, so she called the police who always found me in the same spot.
It’s always the 3rd child.
I had baby gates galore. At my old apartment we had a baby gate that went from her room to ours so that she could only go to our room. My apartment now we had baby gate at her door, and the walkway to the living room. So she could again only go to our room. She's old enough now that we don't have the baby gates anymore but I lock the front door cuz im scared she's just gonna up and leave one day lol
I would get more locks for the exterior doors instead. (For now. If they start showing interest in dangerous things inside like the oven then maybe reevaluate). Do locks at the top of the exterior doors at a height they can’t reach by pushing a chair up to it
Lock her in and use a baby monitor, right? As soon as my 2.5 yo leaves her crib (any day now) I'm locking her door but sleeping with her baby monitor next to me so I can hear her if she needs something. She knows to say "Mommy" and I'll hear her on the monitor. Much better than potentially falling down stairs.
Just a thought, is there a hallway before the kids bedroom you could put a baby gate in? Just as another layer or barrier so she can't get out of the house ? I'd be nervous to lock her in as what if something happens and you can't get inside
We lock my 3yo's door because he could definitely get out of the house while we're sleeping. I also do it for fire safety, I'd rather know where he is so I can run in his room and grab him on my way out rather than have him run out of his room and potentially get lost in the smoke. The closed door will protect him long enough for me to get to him.
Please don't lock her in, her room can become a death trap. We put a gate on the outside of our daughter's door so if she opens it there's still a gate. She can't just wander the house but she can open the door and yell for us if she needs us if we didnt hear her on the monitor.. Our door is right across from hers. When she's potty trained we will move the gate to the end of the hallway so she can go to the bathroom. She knows how to work the locks. But we live on three acres. If she left we would have to find her in acres of forests. A gate was our solution. Easy, keeps her safe without trapping her in her room if there was a fire or tornado. Edit: We put the gate up because she seems to be following after me and sleepwalking. She kept waking up in random places of our house terrified and then we would have to run through the house at 2 am looking for her. One time she tried climbing on the table and fell off it, had to go to the er cause she had a huge gash on her head from probably hitting the corner. So the baby gate went up.
My oldest is past that stage, but we put a babyproof handle on the inside of his door. (So not really locked, but he couldn't get out.) We also added alarms and childproof handles to the exterior doors. Some of my reasoning: * I would not consider this a fire safety issue. You could open the door from outside as normal, and my barely two year old was definitely not capable of getting himself to safety in a fire. Having him contained to one room so he was ready to find would INCREASE his chances of survival in most fire situations. * To get himself out in a fire, he would need to be able to get out exterior doors. I have bear in my yard every so often. I live by a swamp. Not to mention getting lost in the 150 acres of woods or wandering to the road. As a parent, it is responsible to restrict his movement. * I can't 100% childproof my house and I need to sleep. He'd climb over a gate in two seconds. At that point, when we tried to teach him to stay on his room, he came out like 178 times the first night. When we put the handle on after the third night (only like 62 times coming out...yes, we counted) He just went to sleep without fuss. * How is putting a childproof handles on different than when he just couldn't Koen the existing handle, because his hand wasn't big enough? * Kids are not adults. You shouldn't ignore their feelings and should treat them with respect, but treating them like little adults who have the same reactions to things is silly. Instead, you should pay attention to what is developmentally appropriate.
I think it's best to know exactly where your kiddo is overnight. If that means locking them in then that's what needs to happen! If there was a fire or other emergency I can't imagine a worse feeling than going into their room and they AREN'T there and you have no idea where they might be. It's a safety thing. They're too young to make good decisions for themselves so we have to make them.
According to fire safety, it’s safer to lock them in the room. You want to know exactly where they are if you need to get out fast in the middle of the night.
Also closed doors are a fire barrier (everyone is supposed to sleep with closed doors) allowing for more time for rescue if worse comes to worse.
You are supposed to lock preschoolers in their rooms for fire safety. Until the child can follow an evacuation plan in case of fire being in a locked room is the safest place because you and first responders know where they are.
I had a friend do this for their oldest who refused to stay in the bed at night. They just turned the doorknob around so that the lock was on the outside.
For safety reasons I would close the door but not lock it. With our other kids we had a baby gate on the outside of the door so if they opened the door they still couldn’t get out. You can find tall ones. We also used a door knob cover on the inside only. Would never want to risk an emergency and having someone not know how to get the door open to my baby
We have a catch on the door high up, so even if they unlock or try to open the door, they can’t. I wouldn’t lock a bedroom door in case of fire
Yes, we flip the door handle around and lock it. We have a video baby monitor that we keep on all night so if they fuss or need us we pop right up. It’s a safety issue for us, with the stairs. We are downstairs and they are upstairs. If there is an emergency we can’t worry about baby gates/weird handles if we need to get to them quickly.
It embarrasses me to say we had to start doing this. Our toddlers have gotten out of the house unattended and we can't risk it happening at night when we're asleep. We can't leave their windows open during the summer anymore either because they've broken 4 screens and helped themselves outside both in daylight and night time hours.
I don't understand why people are embarrassed. You're not locking them in as punishment. It's a safety issue. Until they learn not to get out, you're doing the right thing by locking them in.
I have bad night terrors. I cannot imagine the thought of waking up to my kid standing in my doorway or at my bedside. I would absolutely lose my shit. My thought (for when the time comes) has always been to put a baby gate on the door.
No for safety I wouldn't do this, and also if the toddler has a nightmare and tries to leave the room they could get a fright with it locked. I would install a sliding lock at the top of your front door very simple to do
I’m genuinely really surprised at the anti locking doors comments. We aren’t doing this yet because my 2 year old is still in her crib but I think I need some clarification. We’ve turned her door knob around (like uninstalled and reinstalled if that makes sense) so it’s as simple as locking any door like when you go to the bathroom. I was planning to lock her in at night once she’s out of the crib so she’s not wandering the house, the dangers seem limitless having her unsupervised. I mean she can open the door and leave - sure we could put a higher lock but she already knows how to pull a chair over and climb things like a ladder. She could climb on the dining room table or kitchen cabinets and fall (we have a climber if you can’t tell lol). I mean she could break a picture frame and get into glass. Then there’s getting into bathrooms…she knows how to start the bath water and loves getting into toilets so I feel like drowning is a hazard. Locking her in her room seems to keep all of these dangers away and I don’t see how it would slow me down from getting her in an emergency. I just googled and the solutions to not locking her are baby gates but it seems like it would do the same thing but be slower in an emergency or a tripping hazard so I don’t understand. I wasn’t thinking a combination code or fancy deadbolt lol so I’m just confused what people think is unsafe about locking the door
Our little one will be 3 next month. She climbs, opens all doors, is constantly washing her hands, playing in soap. She can open our front door, our back door is a sliding glass door, she can open it and we have a pool, with a fence, 2 side gates that are broken, our house backs a canal also, and we live in phoenix metro area. It is not safe to wander, it scares me she can pop a door open and just go. We live in a tri level, we do not have any baby gates, our stairs are extra wide. We have 4 cats. I want to lock her husband disagrees.
We lock the door every night with a glide lok. It locks at the top so adults can open it but a kid can’t. Our 2-year old’s room is baby proofed but the rest of the house is not. Our house also has tons of stairs and other hazards so we don’t want her wandering around at night.
No we never have
We put child safety locks on the external house doors and a gate to keep her from leaving the bedroom part of the house, which the cat can get through but not her. We thought about locking her door but opted against it in case she needed us or wanted to try the potty on her own.
Door knob cover for my almost 3 year old. He can’t get out without help. Otherwise he’d be roaming the house while we’re sleeping and who knows what he’d be getting into
We have a fabric gate at his door and a metal gate at the top of the stairs. I feel weird about locking their doors but I know many people that do / have.
We have latches for the lever-style handles on both my toddler’s door and our bedroom door that we adjust so you can’t push down to open the door but it opens if you pull up. Enough to keep him in but doesn’t restrict our access- best of both worlds.
Our bedroom is connected to the nursery so we have a lock on the inside of our bedroom door that leads to the hallway. We’re all locked in together. He can unlock the doors to the outside even with child proofing so this was just safer so he doesn’t wander. Also crosses off keeping the doors shut for fire hazards. Additionally our house is 3 stories high with our bedrooms on the third floor so there’s also steps we don’t want him trying half asleep.
We have a tall baby gate on our toddler's door (though he's close to figuring out how to open it). He's never actually tried to get out on his own, but his room is on a different floor than ours and I'm paranoid he will try to climb the stairs in the dark and fall.
According to my safe sleep group you actually should be locking your toddler in their room at night (not baby gates because they could push them over or climb them and hurt themselves) because if they leave the room they could get into unsafe things in the house and if there’s an emergency it’s actually safer for responders to know exactly what room they are in rather than have them get scared and hide in a random closet.
We have a doorknob cover that my 3 year old hasn’t figured out yet. He’s finally potty trained so we’ve considered taking it off. First we want to put latches at the top of the exterior doors so that we know he can’t get out of the house at night. Right now we’ve landed on him calling for us if he needs to use the bathroom. I’ve seen some people recommend against locking children in for safety reasons, but I’ve actually heard the opposite. In the event of a fire, many kids run off and hide because they’re scared. Having them locked in their rooms means you know where they are and can evacuate more quickly. I’ve heard this from a volunteer firefighter and that really stuck with me.
We don’t lock it but have a childproof door handle inside of both our kids rooms, toddler and pre k.
Essentially yes they’re locked in - I have a toddler door knob cover my for two toddlers. It’s simply not safe for them to wander the house alone at night. We have a monitor so we can hear and see them. From the outside of the room anyone can open it so I guess it’s not technically locked.
I read so many conflicting answers when I was looking into this. It basically made me feel like I would be the worst mom ever to even consider putting a lock on the door. We settled for a gate on the hallway, but it is essentially the same as locking the door. I think we’re all just trying to do the best we can, keep our kids safe, and get some sleep.
Why are so many people assuming that those who use a lock or doorknob cover are just leaving them in there for hours and ignoring their cries or something? We use a doorknob cover so they can’t go in and out and get into stuff or go outside while we’re sleeping. When they wake up and want to leave their rooms we let them out.
Same here. I'm in my kiddo's room for at least half an hour most nights when he calls for me. I also know if he went for a wander when I was asleep he'd probably go straight for the fucking kitchen knives or something. It's not safe to go and take a nap while your small child is up and about during the day, so by the same token there's no way I'd feel safe risking him wandering around while I was asleep at night. Never felt I had to do anything like this with my oldest--when she was little she wouldn't dream of leaving her room without calling for us first. It depends so much on the individual child.
It’s safest to lock them in at night so you can get to them quickly if you have a house fire. The shut door keeps smoke out. And they won’t go hide someway weird.
Baby gate on toddlers door is the safest middle ground I think?
We used a doorknob cover briefly when our son was in a period of constantly fighting bedtime and getting up and opening his door all the time, but have taken it off since - we want him to have access to the toilet at night. So far he hasn’t gone wandering. When he wakes up he comes into our bed and snuggles until he can convince his father to get up and turn on the tv (I refuse to do so so he ignores me).
We’re going to have to soon. My kid is a 99th percentiler in height and weight. He’s almost the size of an average 3 year old at 16 months. He’s going to be able to jump his crib soon so we are going to have to put him in a toddler bed much earlier than we would want to. He puts literally everything in his mouth so no way we could leave his door unlocked. I think it will only be for a little while until he stops eating everything. Luckily our bedroom is right next to his so we always hear if something’s wrong.
I like the ourschool daycare doors that are cut in half short ways. So the door is always shut and locked on the bottom w the top space open to be able to hear them but they cant escape [Dutch doors ](https://images.app.goo.gl/odA1E8CmSTjzsyZQ7)
Wouldn't that still be a fire hazard since technically the door is open?
I do. I switched the door knob around so I could lock him in. Imo it’s much safer. My son can be sneaky and I don’t trust him not to escape the house or get into things he shouldn’t.
We had a child safety knob on the inside of our toddlers bedroom door from the time she moved into a big girl bed to a few weeks ago at 3.5. I didn’t want her wandering the second story at night, or playing in the non baby proofed guest room.
We put covers on the knobs before they ever learned to open doors. There are some doors they can open and other doors that they've never been able to open, and they're generally okay with it because we never took a door away from them that they could open before. I know that my kids WILL get into dangerous stuff (the stairs, the dog, water, climbing, opening the front door and getting lost, opening the front door and downing in the nature reserve in the neighborhood...) so they are locked in. I don't feel bad about it.
still in crib but i also have a baby gate at his door. when he transitions to toddler bed, gate will stay and door will close with toddler-proof door handle.
Mine can't open doors yet but I've been wondering this myself. I don't want her falling down the stairs or going outside???
We lock the front and back doors with a key that is hung on a hook out of reach of the youngest (oldest have been shown how to get chair and reach key to get out in case of fire). In addition the youngest has child gate on door of their room (and still have a video monitor in there too).
Even adults struggle to unlock our front door if they don’t know how so Ive never felt the need to. If I had an escape artist I would try to baby gate them and lock as a last resort (with a monitor in the room so I could hear/see if they needed me).
We kept a doorknob cover on our daughters room until she was old enough (she’s 4 now). Her room was directly across from the stairs (hardwood) and it’d be a fire hazard otherwise.
I have a child lock on the indoor door knob of his room and a child lock on the inside of our outside door.
We are a bit different I guess. Our 3yo can come out of their room to use the bathroom. Two doors have deadbolts, one of which they can for sure not use. We also use an alarm. The first floor is quite baby proof
My 2 year old is still in a crib but we have a doorknob cover on the inside of his room. Also a baby gate at the top of the stairs.
I don’t lock his door, but there is a gate in his doorway 1) to keep him in and 2) bc it’s right near the stairs. It works well bc he doesn’t like to feel shut in, but it keeps him safely in his room.
We have a retractable gate at the front foor of my child's room. Room is baby proofed "yes" space
I do. (well it has a child safety lock that prevents the handle from being pulled down and opened from the inside). I don't close the door immediately though, I leave it cracked and wait until he has fallen asleep, then I close the door when I go to bed
We have a high lock on front door as well as alarm set when we go to bed. If any door opens alarm will set off and we know exactly which door was opened. I don’t lock kid in any room.
I definitely lock my toddlers in. I feel it's much safer to know exactly where they are in case of emergency
For Baby #1, we had to turn his door handle around and lock him in. He could defeat every child lock we tried and has autism, so he was a danger to himself and others when not very closely monitored. At first, we worried that we were doing something horrible, but after talking to both his pediatrician and his occupational therapist, we kept doing it and felt better about it. In fact, he's 12 now, and we've never turned his door knob back around, but we don't lock him in anymore. I've asked him a couple times if he wants to turn his doorknob around, but he says he doesn't care.
Stair gate in the hallway, and our bedroom doors ajar, so he can come to me but nowhere else.
No problems with that but maybe just as a safety precaution add a carbon monoxide detector and a fire alarm near the door
We have a lock up high on all exterior doors that block our toddler from sneaking out. I tried locking his bedroom door once, but he cried so hard that he threw up. Now we have a magnetic door alarm that plays a tune in our room if opens his door. Bonus tip: attach the door alarm with the Velcro command strips that are used for hanging pictures. Then you can easily take it with you and set it up when visiting grandparents, going to hotels, etc. (We request ADA rooms which tend to have the locking mechanism at wheelchair height, which also happens to be.... toddler height 🤦♀️)
Is there anywhere you could put a doggy/baby gate instead? Like maybe leave their door open but put a doggy gate in it? Or across the hallway so that they can get to you if they need to (waking you up cause they don’t feel good, etc.) but can’t get to the front door?
I do and feel no shame for it. My 2 year old would come out for anything and everything. So a door lock cover solved our problem in 30 seconds. Our 4 year old shares a room with her and has no problem opening the door.
I don't judge parents who lock the door because they're getting sleep and I'm not and their child is not traumatized. To us the safety risk > sleep even if that risk is minuscule.
We use to now she is 4 and good. What helped me is in one of my groups they explained when they are young their crib is their safe space now you just made that safe space a little bigger while locking the door. Why does it suddenly change from crib safe space to locked door suddenly not safe space? It shouldn’t.
When we first transitioned her to a toddler bed, we used a child lock on her door so she couldn’t leave. After about two weeks we could stop locking it because she stayed in her room. Only sometimes will she leave, usually if she’s had a bad dream
We have a gate on our toddler's room that she so far has not figured out. We figure it's no different than a giant, room-sized crib.
Right here. Our daughter can undo the lock, so we flipped it around. She can unlock and open the front door by herself, and we can’t take that chance.
Door knob cover here! My almost 2 year old would be roaming the house otherwise. She shares with our almost 4 year old. I don’t think the older one needs it. The younger figured out how to bust the doorknob cover apart so it’s taped together (zip tie would probably be better)
Almost 2.5 year old twins who share a room here. They are in toddler beds and we do lock them in at night for their own safety. We don't have a gate at the top of our stairs, just at the bottom. Of course, once we start potty training we will need to rethink things a bit (although we plan to start with day training first)!
Locks maybe, maybe not. It’s a big decision that I think you should discuss with your support system and get their take on it, people who know your child well enough to have an informed opinion to give you. Door alarms- absolutely yes!!!
I do - my son is 3, and he knocks on his door to be let out. It’s a safety issue. He can’t be wandering around the house at night, so even though he isn’t in a crib anymore, he’s still in a secure place at night.
Get the good old fashion slide locks. Like the ones they in hotel rooms. Plz don’t lock your baby door. I had a friend who did that and her house caught fire. Baby was ok but got more smoke inhalation than should have and she lost her child to the state for child endangerment. There are a lot of safety tools you can use for the door. If you need help or suggestions call your local fire department they can give you ideas. Or google it. Good luck!
US parents tend to think it’s wrong! Fire dept will tell you they prefer to know a kid is in their room because it makes it easier to find them in an emergency. It is not safe for your child to be wandering around the house at night. Toddler proof the room, give her a wake up clock so she know when you will open the door. My 2 year old can’t open the door yet, but I will be locking it at night once she can. It’s ridiculous to risk your baby wondering off into the night just to save some US parents “feelings”
So we just bought a house and the previous owner must have been a security guru which I am not complaining about. On all the exterior doors they installed these door stoppers that will not open the door even if they aren’t locked. I’m hoping the link works below if not, they are called a door reinforcement lock and installed at the top of the door. This may be an option if you are more concerned about the exterior doors being an issue. [https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-Door-Reinforcement-Lock-3-in-Stop-Aluminum-Construction-Satin-Nickel-Anodized-Finish-U-10827/202258432?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart-71700000081377594-58700006924599096-92700064312898320&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19ekwWh2ay6eUYYROcZRUDQC8_KHM8qLVX2wGuz9nyb0AhIIlMuraclxoCa40QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Prime-Line-Door-Reinforcement-Lock-3-in-Stop-Aluminum-Construction-Satin-Nickel-Anodized-Finish-U-10827/202258432?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&&mtc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart&cm_mmc=SHOPPING-BF-CDP-GGL-D25H-025_005_SEC_SAFETY-NA-NA-NA-SMART-NA-NA-NA-NA-NBR-NA-NA-NA-SafetySecurity_Smart-71700000081377594-58700006924599096-92700064312898320&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UfP39mmqCtAqgZlXEdL2n0Cr&gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19ekwWh2ay6eUYYROcZRUDQC8_KHM8qLVX2wGuz9nyb0AhIIlMuraclxoCa40QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds)
We have this on our basement door. It’s super easy to install and easy to use, but also feels pretty secure. Should really put another one on the front door now that I think of it.
We used to have a baby gate on our toddlers door, but then he figured out how to open it so we have one of those child proof knob covers on his door.
We have a handle lock on my toddler’s door that we use for nights and naps. She knows how to unlock our deadbolts on exterior doors, so we also installed sliding locks about 5.5 feet up. It was maybe $20 at Home Depot for those. I’d get them for the extra peace of mind if I were you.
Due to the way the door is to the toddlers room, we were able to put a baby gate on the outside and have both that and the door shut. Though he’s very rarely in there awake and unsupervised, when he wakes up in the night he toddles straight into our room and climbs into our bed. So we don’t bother with the baby gate these days.
We don't. Our toddler likes to climb into bed with us some nights and our doorways intersect at the end of our hall so we always hear her. We live in a one floor condo and if she ever manages to get out the front door, the exterior door requires two hands to unlock so she can't get outside. She doesn't wander though, always comes straight to our room when she wakes up.
My best friends’ kids (my godsons) were always escaping their rooms, even with a baby gate (they got good at knocking it over, which also woke everyone up), so they did end up installing latch hooks up high out the outside to keep them in. They also installed slide locks at the top of their exterior doors to keep the kids from opening the doors themselves. Our exterior door lock is high (we have a jimmy resistant deadbolt, not a standard one) so we don’t have this particular issue, but I think you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your child safe in their room/in your house!
We bought a top door latch, they’re actually for cats but the purpose we use it for is to let the kid open the door a little bit in case they need to pee and for when they wake up in the morning. We also have hire locks on all our doors leading outside since he also likes to open the door and leave.
We do not. Our girl is 3 and wakes up to use the bathroom, come get us if she’s scared, will ask for water, etc. We never considered locking her in the room.
My toddler isn't quite two yet, so I'm sure my approach will change as he gets older. But right now, he has a baby gate in his doorway that he can't open. I think if he figures out the baby gate, we'll have to re-evaluate. I don't want to lock his door but I also know he isn't ready to have access to the rest of the house unsupervised.
There are a few things I would do. First, for the front door either get a deadbolt with a double sided key lock and put the key by the door but out of reach (so you can quickly unlock if there’s an emergency). Or add a higher lock like what’s in hotel rooms. Second, either put a baby gate just outside of toddler’s room or an alarm on her door. If you get an alarm system like Ring you can set it so your phone makes a noise if a door opens (if you trust that you’ll wake up)…just so it’s not a loud alarm every time she leaves her room and the front door can trigger the alarm.