Basically, this vlog has nothing to do with the rest of this post, but what’s a Friday without a coffee date, right? I just couldn’t do without. It’s been a busy, busy, busy week around here, but it’s been a very productive week as well. My house is the cleanest it’s been in a long time, I got meet my bloggy BFF Kenzie for the first time in real life, and Alea and I made it to story time and out for a walk with friends despite the heat. And did I mention she locked us out of our bedroom? I’ll tell you the full story below:
If you follow me on Instagram, then you know that we had quite the evening Wednesday. Alea decided it would be
I was in the kitchen cleaning up a bit when I heard Alea shut the door to my bedroom and say, “There, now mommy and daddy can sleep on the mattress on my floor.” (She has a captains bed and a paranoid mother.) I didn’t think anything of it and called her over to tell her about our upcoming plans to go to Target to get groceries. I had her find her shoes and get a sippy cup for the ride and then walked over to my room to grab something. Not so fast… the door was LOCKED. She really did want me to sleep on her floor that night! I muttered about 72 profane words under my breath and then began to brainstorm. What’s a girl to do without a man home to help? Call her dad of course. I dialed my dad’s number, those 10 numbers I’ve had memorized since he first entered the cellular world. He couldn’t help but chuckle as I vetoed every one of his ideas:
1. Have you tried a bobby pin? –No dad it’s a key lock.
2. Can you unscrew the door knob—Nope, no screws, dad.
3. How about the hinges? Why don’t you take the hinges off the door?—Hinges are on the opposite side of the door… of course.
4. There’s a little hole under the knob, try putting a bobby pin in there. –It’s aligned weird and the bobby pin won’t go in.
5. Have you tried a credit card? – Doesn’t work. The rounded part of the door thingy faces the wrong way and even so, the trim of the door frame is in the way.
6. Can you get in through the window? – Our screens are on the inside of the window frame and I’m 97% sure our window is locked.
And his final words of daddy wisdom, “Well, good luck with that kid! Let me know what Cory figures out when he gets home!” I’m glad someone (besides Alea) thought this was funny. Basically there was no other option than to call Cory and see what he thought about this fiasco that our sneaky little three-year-old caused.
“Oh no problem. I’ll pry the door frame off and use a putty knife to get in. Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix it when I get home.”
So off we went to Target. I’m just thankful that my purse, wallet, and keys were all outside of my bedroom. Hallelujah for that, because if I wasn’t able to go to Target we would have had some serious problems!
(I apologize in advance for using words like “thingy” and “thing-a-ma-bob” in the next few sentences. I’m not an expert in door and door knob anatomy, as I’ve never had to become one… until now.) Fast forward to later that evening. Cory ramming a putty knife in between the door trying to pry the door thingy—you know that goes into the door frame? Yeah, no luck. I held a flashlight (in between taking photos for this blog post and Instagram) and tried my best to be of some sort of assistance. After that didn’t work? Crowbar. I found the “big daddy” crowbar, as Cory refers to it, amongst some cobwebs in Cory’s tool box. He then began to pry the door frame off the door, pulled back on the crowbar and slammed it right where the little thing-a-ma-bob goes into the door frame. And BAM! He turned the door knob and pushed open the door. I could have sworn I heard the hallelujah chorus playing. I was truly afraid that we would be sleeping on the couch or in the dusty guest bedroom downstairs. All I wanted was my nice comfy bed! Needless to say, I was one happy gal! We decided that it would be best to just leave the door knob off for the time being until we can get a new one. I don’t even trust reversing it, because I can totally see Alea locking me in and giggling her little heart out on the other side of the door.
Alea was just as excited as I was about getting the door unlocked when she came into my room to wake me up. “Mommy, daddy fixed the door knob! And look! It not even on anymore!” Two seconds later I heard her swing the door closed and the little thingy “click”. Who needs coffee in the morning when you realize that your daughter didn’t lock you out of your bedroom this time, but rather locked you in. [insert expletives muttered under breath here] The first thing I grabbed to try and open it was a Swiss Army knife. No luck. I tried and tried to pry the little thingy over and pull the door at the same time… to no avail. My next thought was to get Alea to unlock the front door so I could climb outside through my window. I popped the screen off, but she said she couldn’t get it unlocked.
Crap! Now what was I going to do?
[Face palm] The door knob was sitting on the bookshelf right next to the door. Insert door knob, turn door knob and then kick yourself in the butt for being such an idiot! Keep in mind this was pre-coffee and I was exhausted from too little sleep.
My advice to you if you ever get locked out of your bedroom with an impossible-to-break-into-doorknob? You can research how to pick a lock all you’d like, but I’d recommend a crowbar and replacing that god-awful door knob. And don’t forget to tell your child to never ever ever ever touch a door ever again in their life. Put the fear of God into them if you have to. I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t carry around that door knob with me for the duration of the morning for fear that she would either lock herself in or lock me in… again.
Please tell me this has happened to you? If not, lie and make me feel better. I never knew so much drama could come from a darn door knob.
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Bah ha ha ha love it! The lock is on the outside of the door to the girls’ room (I flipped the door knob to my advantage) and one day while I was out running errands I got a call from Rudy because one of the girls turned the lock before going into the room and locked all of them inside the bedroom!
I pretty much laughed my head off at Rudy for being a dumbass and by the time I got home they were all asleep on the bottom bunk. I guess they all got bored with Daddy’s presence in their room!
Oh! And you weren’t the only one with locked-out-of-things problems this week, ha ha ha!
HILARIOUS! I’m sure it wasn’t at the time but I’m glad you can laugh about it now. My toddler hasn’t locked me out yet but my dog has. He’s an escape artist and tries to open door knobs with is mouth (he’s a 130lb akita). He’s managed to turn the little locking mechanism on our door between the garage and mud room (aka dog kennel) on numberous occasions. Thankfully I’ve always had an alternate route into the house!
The kids would sometimes think it’s funny to close the bathroom door after going potty, and lock it, so we always kept one or two of those generic keys up on top of a picture frame on the wall, or hung up somewhere that the kids couldn’t see or reach. If you get another locking door handle, find a secret spot to hide the key – especially if it takes an “actual” key…that’s what we’ll be doing when we put one on our bedroom door here at our new house 🙂 The kids always think it’s so funny to lock locks…and they have the mischievous laugh to go with it!
p.s. I’m a fellow Minnesotan; lived in Isanti (loved it!!!) but moved about a half hour or so south to be closer to family. Hope you are enjoying this ‘cool’ windy morning as much as we are…after such a HOT week 🙂
Ahhh yes getting locked out of a room. Happened to us literally the first week we moved into our apartment!
xoxo
Petchie
http://psblogbook.blogspot.com/
This has happened to me more times than I can count. Sadly, I was almost always responsible. First with my bedroom door that had a key lock. I locked myself out, and of course the hinges and screws were on the inside. The men of the house decided to kick my door down, and it’s only just recently been replaced. The other two times were a bit different. Drawers on the opposite side of the door got opened just enough so I couldn’t get the door opened. These situations always seemed to happen when I was alone or late at night while everyone was asleep and of course I had nothing with me to help get the door open. I also couldn’t get anything that would be helpful through the narrow opening. Let me tell you, when you’re trapped in a bathroom in the middle of the night or your closet is jammed shut, you become quite resourceful. I ended up jamming a screwdriver through the door opening and into the side of my bathroom drawer (I was more concerned with not being trapped than the look of the drawer) and pushed it closed little by little. For my closet, I remembered the same technique but used one of the metal pieces from a hanging file folder. Moral of the story, key locks are bad if you don’t keep a spare somewhere outside of the room, and always keep any drawers next to doors completely closed in case someone decides to open them even just a tiny bit.
One time when I was younger, I was mad at my parents and the only room with a lock on it was the bathroom. So I run in there and slam it soo hard that I break the lock and can’t get out! They had to haul me out of the window, but not till after I calmed down. Here’s hoping that this is your only locked door experience!
My great dane likes to lock doors without us realizing it. She’s locked herself into the bedroom, the bathroom, the car, and locked us out of the house because we didn’t realize she had locked the door before we shut it. Now we always make sure to have a wire hanger in every room so we can access the little holes in the knobs, an extra car key on our person or the little fob thing, and we ALWAYS check the knob before shutting the door and if we’re leaving her on the inside of the house while we step outside we always take house keys.
hallelujah! i was following this on insta and was so relieved you got in!
I once tried to change my door knob myself, I closed the door to see if it worked and locked myself in my apartment. There was no way I was getting out due to the door knob not working at all. I had to have a maintenance man climb through my window to fix it.
Hope that helps 🙂
Ahh that’s crazy and hilarious all at the same time. My then 2 year old locked me out of the house (I was still in my night clothes) the first week we moved into our new house. Yeah what a way to meet the neighbors for the first time, ha!
It is so humid in Iowa too. The heat would be much more bearable without it! Glad you got back into your room! I can’t wait to see what other tricks Alea has up her sleeve as she gets older! 😛
such a fun post to read when it happens to someone else … 🙂 also – hello from minneapolis 🙂
Oh no! haha if it makes you feel any better once when I was little (~4) I locked myself in the 2nd story bathroom and one of my older cousins (he was ~16) had to climb onto the deck’s little roof thingy and climb in through the tiny window haha
Addie went through this phase as well. We had to take all of the door knobs off for about four months. We replaced most of them but I left her bedroom knob off. It is just easier that way haha
Good think you have such a handy man!
xx
Kelly
Sparkles and Shoes
Well, if you want to avoid breaking the door lock after missing your keys, then the best way to make a safe entry into your home will be to call the professional locksmiths covering Johannesburg area, and let them do their job calmly.
It is a great post for those who are eager for latest security features.
The situation was bit of a funny type, it is usual that our children want us to sleep with them in their rooms and for this they do the same and we are caught in the same situation as you were. You did a great job this time that you had a trick with knife and it worked but if any trick does not work you must call for Locksmith service because we are not the professionals and we can aggregate the problem.
If you want to enrich your knowledge about the modern key unlocking techniques used by the professional locksmiths at Cape Town, then you should go to their blog immediately.