to not double-lock the front door?

[Jacksterbear]

DH always double-locks it when he's here but it's just me and the DCs tonight.

Have not double-locked it as I'm sure fire is more of a risk than burglars, and fiddling around with the key trying to unlock the door and get me + DCs out of the house in a fire, would not be a good thing.

You have to weigh it up, I guess. I always double lock, but I live in London, in a basement flat and we've been broken into before when it wasn't double locked.

We can also easily escape from various other places in the house, if there was a fire, I reckon we'd just go out our bedroom window as we're on the ground floor.

Don't see what your husband being away has to do with it though - is he more capable of unlocking a door than you?

You're a braver woman than me. I used to get all OCD about checking locks in the last house I was in. Soooo glad I live in a block of flats now.

yellowraincoat I just meant that I'm more jittery on my own so my first instinct was to lock the door but then thought, no logically that's probably the more dangerous thing to do, because in a fire it would just be me trying to get 2 small DCs out of the house! IYSWIM.

I live in a house, in a village, btw.

I guess it depends where you live. In the more "lively" areas of the city I'd double lock the doors. In a rural area I'd be less troubled. I've lived in both and on both sides of the Atlantic. Hey, here in the UK, in a village I sometimes forget to lock the doors at all, not a mistake I'd make in the city!

YANBU - you're a grown up, and perfectly capable of assessing any risks to your family and home from locking or double locking a door.

BTW, how old are your DC? Is it too early to teach them how to open a window and get out/bang on the wall for a neighbor etc in times of emergency?

Never double lock the door - whether we're in or our.. don't know why - neither of us do despite the fact they're fitted... And DH is normally fairly obsessive about this sort of thing too... And we live in a naice part of London...

Graham, they are 5 and 1. DS knows how to phone 999, good idea to teach him other emergency stuff too.

I grew up in London, would definitely lock doors there!

I'm on my own sometimes and tend to double lock the door but ensure the windows are easily opened and have the keys/phone next to me in bed.

Burglary is much more common than fires I would have thought.

Keep the keys with you

Dh double locks us in all the time, it drives me nuts! We live in a small rural village with zero crime and every time someone rings the doorbell or I want to get outside my house I have to find my keys. I'm happy to be locked in overnight, but whenever he is in the house is just ridiculous. He grew up in a big city though, so may be that explains it...

I do lock the door but always leave the keys by the front door. I know the police don't recommend you to do this but like you I'd rather we could get out in a fire. I don't want to be burgled but of the two it's the chance I'd rather take.

I have never double-locked locked my front door.

I don't live in London, any other large city, a town or even a suburb.

I was born here, grew up here, married and brought DD into the world - and still live here (rural Cornwall).

I feel very sad for people who live in places so bad that they feel the need for such security.

Ooh, interesting, just did a search on the police.uk website: burglaries for 2010-2011 in my village were 8 per 1,000 of the population. Compared to 12 per 1,000 in the area of London I used to live in.

Don't feel sad for us, Pendeen, at least we don't run the risk of dying of boredom.

Most of the time we don't lock our door at all. I'll lock when DH is working away overnight.
And we stay in a quite large and widely considered to be scary city.

YANBU- I live in a basement flat in east London too (actually yellow, this is getting a bit creepy ) and I never double lock the front door with a key; I am much more scared of losing lives in a fire than losing possessions.

I fitted a large bolt to the inside of the door instead; that way, it's a bit more secure, but no key is needed to get out.

I double lock my front door and leave the keys in it.

Glad to hear that yellowraincoat

tethers that was my other thought - that as well as being more likely to happen at all (? unsubstantiated guess), a fire would be more likely to injure or kill us, if it did happen, than burglars.

Don't feel sad for us, Pendeen, at least we don't run the risk of dying of boredom

In the winter it's all locked up - in the summer it's all wide open

Right well I'm off to bed, hopefully to enjoy an uninterrupted, burglar/fire-free night.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Jackster - Thanks for that site :o I just looked my place up - we have 3.58 burgularies per 1000 population per year...

I must admit - it doesn't occur to me to double lock the door, but maybe it should...

Well, on a topical note, my 94yr old grandma was burgled last night... And to make a mockery of this discussion, the burglars unscrewed all the locks and cut through the door

This is interesting. My husband double locks at night but not during the day if we're home. I've always felt a little nervous about being locked in, we keep the keys in the bedside drawer.

I wonder if it would be safe to keep a key in the french door as there's no access to the inside lock from anywhere outside. (no windows close by). We live in a rural area with 2.56/1000 crime rate.

Something tells me no, but I just wonder if the risk is acceptable with the front door unbreachable in an emergency.