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Original poster

Bloody hell. Dd locked me out of the house and had to call the fire brigade.

61 replies

MustardScreams · 30/12/2019 12:23

Dd is almost 3. I was in the back garden grabbing the washing and dd locked the door (we have a thumb turn on the inside.)

Front door was chained, I live in a terrace with 3 gardens between me and the alley and there’s a locked metal gate on the entrance. Neighbours not answering my knocks.

Lovely, lovely fire brigade came out (4 minutes from when I called!) and took the alley gate down and cut the chain for me so I could get back in.

Just about recovered now but bloody hell!!!!!! Thankfully I have a cat flap so dd was fetching me random things from the sitting room to pass the time. How on EARTH did I let that happen though. Massive parenting fail on my part. Christ.

OP posts:

Concestor · 30/12/2019 16:23

DS 5 got cross with me one bedtime when DH was away and stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door. In the process he broke the door handle leaving DD and I stuck inside.

I had two hysterical children and had to talk DS through calling the police as I didn't have my phone. He did brilliantly but it was pretty hairy.

You're not a shit mum. Shit happens sometimes.

Waffles80 · 30/12/2019 16:25

My DTs aged 3 locked my mum out the front of our house in only her slippers - she was taking nappies out to the bin! She had to climb over the 8ft tall back gate and get in the open back door. She was 67 at the time!

The twins were stood at the back door watching her climb over the gate shouting “no! No nanny! Get down nanny!”

She now always leaves the front door to do the bins with keys in her pocket.

mumwon · 30/12/2019 16:28

because dd locked me out I wore my keys attached to my jeans waist by nappy pin (remember them?) ever after (now I know why Victorian housewives had their keys attached to their waists by chains )

Greyhound22 · 30/12/2019 16:31

DS did the same. Me and Ddog went out to the bin and he slammed the door and turned the key. Think he was 4. He couldn't get the key turned again as it gets a bit sticky. I was in my pyjamas and it was raining. We were all getting slightly hysterical and it took about twenty minutes to get the key to turn. My phone was also in the house.

He then told nursery about 6 months later that it made him sad when Mummy took the dog out and locked him in the house. Welfare call then received to check the story 😑

He also locked himself in the bathroom when he was two with water in the bath. I was hysterical and DH was away. Luckily there was a glass panel so I could see him - DMIL came round and took the door off it's hinges. I told nursery that one as well in case he dredged some abusive version of that up.

Shosha1 · 30/12/2019 16:32

40 years ago DS1 did the same. He was 15months Shut me out when I went to put the rubbish in the bin.
It was a down stairs flat with only one entrance. The front bedroom window was big with a ledge only about a foot off the floor. I kept knocking till he came to the window. I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get him to open the window. The windows didn't have locks on them then. Finally he pushed it up a little bit, but was too small to push the latch any higher.
I was 7 months pg and couldn't do anything.

The ice cream man came around the corner just then. Bell singing.
He came out if his van and using a very large knife he managed to open the window and get in to open the door for me.

Gave DS a icy as well 🙂

TheBoxOfDelights · 30/12/2019 16:37

My 13 year old did this to me last week OP. Left her keys in the inside of the front door after locking it when she got home from work. Keys also on the inside of the back door.

I was not impressed, after 40 mins knocking, phoning, ringing the bell I went to the pub. 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Half an hour later I started to think what if something has happened and I am having a - she had had an awful cold the previous week and is asthmatic! .

I decided to give it one last go (neighbours and landlord now involved) knocking the door knocker / phoning house and mobile and she woke up! My next stop was the fire station.

I have replaced all my lock barrels with thumbturns on the inside so I can’t be locked out again but I can see why you might want to change yours for those with keys on the inside at different life stages of kids!

RudolphIsMySpiritAnimal · 30/12/2019 16:37

I was heavily pregnant with her little brother when DD managed to shut me out of the house. We were just back from shopping, I took her in first, went back to the car for the shopping - and she slammed the door shut.

I somehow managed to squeeze me and bump through the sash window, but was worried the whole time it would end in a "Winnie the Pooh trapped in Rabbit's hole" situation.

Frenchw1fe · 30/12/2019 16:38

@Somanysocks surely if you were only locked out and no child inside you would call a locksmith. No way would I call the fire brigade to get in my house just because I was locked out.

DingDongMerrilyOnThigh · 30/12/2019 16:55

One of my friends' kids locked herself in our downstairs loo - we'd removed the knob on the inside precisely to stop DD locking herself in but this kid managed to turn the spindle thingy. DH was away, so after various attempts on the door and to get her to open the window failed we called the fire brigade. They were lovely, but sensibly removed the bolt after prising the door open with a big screwdriver and a lot of muscle, 15 years or so later it's unlockable!

Not a toddler, but my teenage brother - neighbours phoned from holiday in a panic that they'd left a radiator on with cloths drying near it. They gave instructions on how a lithe youth could break in through a back window they'd not locked, which DB duly did, made sure all was safe and properly locked up and exited via the front Yale lock door, which he pulled shut .... into the porch which had an external extra door which was deadlocked. I think my parents had to get a locksmith - and thereafter the neighbours left a key when they went on holiday!

Moodolph - and everyone else - should enjoy this video of Otis the dachshund

Echobelly · 30/12/2019 16:58

Yikes! This is why I always took a key with me when popping out of the front door when the kids were little, even just to put something in the bin.

DH once had to come to the rescue of a poor woman he found in tears because she'd locked herself out and her baby was asleep inside!

SpockPaperScissorsLizardRock · 30/12/2019 17:00

DS (8 but Autistic) has locked me in the conservatory numerous times over the years. Thankfully I learnt my lesson the first time and keep spare keys hidden in there now!

Papergirl1968 · 30/12/2019 17:24

That Otis video is fab! X

Papergirl1968 · 30/12/2019 17:25

Oops, stray X there

Dancingontheedge · 30/12/2019 17:47

We now have a key safe.

Somanysocks · 30/12/2019 18:00

@Frenchw1fe can't remember why it was so long ago, we were very young and no mobile phones back then so wouldn't be able to google a number. I think that's what people did back in the dark ages.

Original poster

MustardScreams · 30/12/2019 18:34

I’ve got someone coming out in the new year to put a keysafe up in the front and back lest this ever happen again. The day I forget to take keys with me will be the day dd does it again!!

OP posts:

Southmouth · 30/12/2019 19:43

My DS who was 2 at the time done this with DD asleep upstairs who was only a few months old

I literally nipped out the house for a second to grab something from the car in the drive, DS kindly shut the door I went to open it and couldn’t get in and realised he’d turned the key and locked it. Still baffles me now how he did it as you have to lift the handle up to lock it first and he wasn’t tall enough to do this and there wasn’t anything for him to stand or climb on.

I tried talking him through unlocking the door but he couldn’t and was getting upset. I was stressing out with my phone locked in the house. Knocked on neighbours no one was in, then wondering what the hell I do when my neighbour pulled up outside with ladders on his van. Luckily a upstairs window was slightly open so he climbed in and unlocked the door for me.

I was a state after thinking of all the things that could of gone wrong. I now have a key safe on the wall...

TheBoxOfDelights · 31/12/2019 12:46

I don’t know your set up OP but I would be more inclined to change the barrels for keys both side and hang the keys high up out of reach.

I think I might worry that if they can turn it and lock me out that they could turn it and get out.

I bought the Yale platinum highest security barrels and fitted them, myself for £35 each in ten minutes.

The only police approved key safe is the £80 one (I am considering putting one of those on the inside of the front garden wall).

thebabessavedme · 31/12/2019 12:53

approx 55 years ago I locked my dm out of the house just as the insurance man arrived (in those days you paid the man from the pru weekly and it got ticked off in a book) I then took all my clothes off and danced round the kitchen until the man from the pru had borrowed a ladder from nextdoor and climbed through a bedroom window - I know about this as my dm has NEVER EVER let me forget it parental failures are not a 'new thing'

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 31/12/2019 12:55

I had to call the fire brigade once. My ex had pushed me out of our flat barefoot in just a short nightie (no knickers) to throw away a torn up copy of Cosmo that he refused to have in the flat (he was an abusive arse). He followed me out to make sure I did as I was told, and the doors slammed shut behind him. He didn't have the keys and it was before mobiles so he made me walk down the road to the phone box to call the fire brigade. When they turned up and got us back in the flat, I was mortified at my state of undress.

Dieu · 31/12/2019 13:03

Crikey, that's certainly one story for the grandkids!
Glad you're both ok.

BertieBotts · 31/12/2019 13:08

My friend's toddler locked her out onto their balcony. It has a tilt and turn type door, so by pushing the handle down you actually lock it She had no phone with her and had to attract the attention of a neighbour by shouting for help!

MoaningMinniee · 31/12/2019 13:16

I've also had the dog setting off the central locking by stepping on the button thing! I had a dog guard but Houdini dog had managed to jump it somehow. Luckily it was an old car and it turned out the central locking no longer did the boot, so I clambered in that way. And I never ever leave the keys in the ignition even for a few moments anymore.

MoaningMinniee · 31/12/2019 13:21

Oh and just remembered this one - on holiday we discovered the sliding glass door onto our balcony automatically locked if you pulled it closed behind you to keep mozzies out... first floor suite... phones locked inside... I intrepidly climbed round to the next balcony, giving the two elderly ladies staying in that one a terrible fright! They were very nice about it as they let me through their suite to get to reception and ask for a pass key!

MorrisZapp · 31/12/2019 13:22

We had our kitchen door 'dipped and stripped'. DP was putting it back on its hinges and I was helping. Once it was hung, he said it'll look better against the white surround, and shoved it shut to show the fabulous effect.

Well the door had expanded due to the chemicals, and it jammed completely in. Our toddler DS was asleep elsewhere in the house and our phones were in the living room.

Luckily we managed to unearth the doorhandle and screws, and much swearing later we freed ourselves.

The door looked, and still looks, shit.

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