Do your teens have locks on their doors?

[PurpleLily7]

Quick poll...are your teens allowed to lock their bedroom doors?

Any of mine could have if they wanted. I had one as a teen as my younger brother would not stop going into my room or bursting in whenever he wanted to.

If you have trustworthy children then you shouldn’t doubt yourself. All teenagers are going to get up to some mischief; they’d find a way round no locks on a door. My biggest concern would be the safety aspect... just check they know to leave them unlocked overnight etc.?

No & I wouldn’t - if there was ever a problem (teenage drinking & subsequent consequences for example I’d worry I couldn’t get in if I needed to). We just respect their privacy & always knock & wait for a response before entering the room.

I know my Mum didn’t have those boundaries and would burst in unannounced - ironically teens in those kind of households are the ones most likely to want locks and presumably the least likely to get them. If they have mutual respect, their own space & know you won’t randomly burst in there is no need (I’ve never felt the need for one as an adult in a home I feel safe in, why would they?).

No locks on doors

However I would never walk into their rooms without knocking if they were in there

The 'younger sibling' aspect is exactly why they have locks - and also that this house happened to have them when we moved in. We took the keys out at first but then let DD have a key when younger sibling barged into her room without knocking.
Younger sibling then got key when they reached the same age.
(The doors are very flimsy and could easily be opened with a shove in an emergency. )

No locks apart from bathroom and front/back doors. We do however respect privacy and knock and wait before entering a closed door.

No but we never go into each other's rooms without knocking.

The bathroom locks from the inside though, to prevent the accidental barging in.

No locks but privacy is given.

Myself or my dh always knock and wait to be told it's ok to go in. I wouldn't rummage through her things without her knowledge either.

She leaves her door open if she wants us to walk straight in, she closes it when she wants space/time to herself.

Regrettably, yes. And they use them, and I hate it. But the only reason I succumbed is that our 7yo goes into their bedrooms (14, 16yo) and bugs them for the PlayStation and general attention.

No locks at all in the house except bathrooms.

No because of a health problem. We knock however, and if they respond and ask us not to go in just then, we don’t (17).

No but they would be welcome to have one.

no locks here apart from on bathroom doors. Like pp they prefer to be downstairs, but we all knock if anyone is in their room

More likely just to yell from another floor tbh.

No. There's no need. A closed door requires a respectful knock, not a lock.

I also find the idea of an external lock uncomfortable too.

Dd went through a stage where she was not allowed to lock a bathroom door (& had to be accompanied to the loo by a friend at school) due to medical issues! (She’d twice been found in the school toilets passed out, the second time someone had to climb over the door to get to her.

I will never have locks on any of my doors, aside from my bathroom and main doors of course.
They could become a safety hazard, and I would never want to risk the lock getting stuck it our home was on fire, or somebody broke in etc.
However as dd grows older I will respect her privacy if her door is shut, as my mum did with me. I will always knock before entering unless I felt she was at risk.

Yes.

However, he's never used it to my knowledge. Mostly his door is propped open.

No it's dangerous

Mrskeats, why do you think it's dangerous?

No!

Because if they were taken ill it would I be hard to get to them. My daughter is prone to fainting as is my sister and she once fainted behind a locked door and that was scary.

Mrskeats you have a point, but then nobody should have locks on bedroom doors.

We don't we just knock if a door is closed.
Also it's a fire risk.

I had a lock as a teenager. It locked from the inside by pressing a button, but you needed a key to get in from the outside. I had a key, and my parents had a spare key in case of an emergency.

For us, I can't see that it's a fire risk. We have fire alarms, wired in, throughout the house. As long as the alarms woke us at the first hint of smoke, even if their doors were locked and they didn't respond to shouting and banging, we could break them open quite easily.

And yes, in that case surely having a lock on a bathroom door is more dangerous, thinking of the risk of slipping and banging head...
(Our bathroom lock can be opened from the outside using a coin.)

Anyway - I guess ultimately every family has to do what works for them and there's no 'one size fits all' answer. I think it also depends on the layout of the house and the type of doors!
Thanks all!