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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be paranoid about sleeping with the windows open?

57 replies

tortoisefairy · 29/06/2010 20:41

So because it's so hot we are sleeping with the windows wide open but am I acting paranoid to worry about being burgled? Do you think someone would risk it? Or worse ds1 or 2 being kidnapped? I know thats probably taking things a bit far...I am 8 months preggers with ds3 so really feeling the heat....

FYI if it makes a difference we live in a 'good' area in a large detached house in the centre of a middle class town...

Our neighbour was burgled a year ago but they only took the car keys to their porsche which was on the drive and we have a ford fiesta on ours that I never lock!!!

Just honestly wondered if other people sleep with windows open in this heat and consequently worry?

OP posts:

HecateQueenOfWitches · 29/06/2010 20:45

I do. Bedroom windows obviously and I assume that's what you're meaning too? We live in a safe area too. Not something I've ever worried about.

Actually, I leave the windows open when we go out sometimes and have been known to forget to shut the door. came back and postie had put the letters on the stairs.

But then, any burglar would probably walk in, look round and walk back out again. Nothing worth taking/mess makes them think we've already been burgled.

junkcollector · 29/06/2010 20:46

YANBU. I'm a bit OCD about shutting the windows before I go to bed, even if DP is still up. He just rolls his eyes, lets me and then opens them again when I've gone to bed. I sometimes do sleep with them open, but don't sleep very well.

biglips · 29/06/2010 20:46

is this is your bedroom window? as ive had mine open for weeks now and sometimes i switch my small fan to cool the room down an hour before i go to bed.

BAFE · 29/06/2010 20:46

Can you afford air conditioning? Answer to my prayers that was.

chitchat07 · 29/06/2010 20:48

Our insurance policy is void if we go to sleep with windows open in any other room except those occupied....

Ripeberry · 29/06/2010 20:50

Our neighbour has their bedroom window open all through the year, even when it's freezing outside, but then they have a house full of dogs and cats and no burglar would dare come in

MarionCole · 29/06/2010 20:51

I started a thread last summer about this (although admittedly my main issue was the thought of DS being kidnapped) and I was told to stop being so PFB. I'm still scared though...

winnybella · 29/06/2010 20:51

We sleep with our windows closed, but that's because there was a break in before we moved in. We're in a second floor flat in the center of Paris. Two guys came climbed on the pipe, walked along the ledge from the courtyard side and went in through an open window. Woman heard them moving around the house and pretended to be asleep as she was terrified they would kill her if they realised she was awake. They had small children sleeping, too. In the end I think they only took a mobile phone and left, but it has freaked me out.

PeedOffWithNits · 29/06/2010 20:52

I dont know how anyone can bear it with their windows shut all night,its roasting here!

mind you some people hardly seem to have them open when they are at home all day!!

gorionine · 29/06/2010 20:53

Are you on the ground floor?

I used to, and I religiously closed the windows before bed. Now I do not care that much anymore We usually sleep with the windows open and it is not uncommon for me to do the school run in the morning with the upstairs windows still opened.

bumpsoon · 29/06/2010 20:56

just out of curiosity how many children have been kidnapped from their homes in the uk ? I cant honestly remember any ,but my brain is mush at the moment

Fel1x · 29/06/2010 20:56

I have to shut all upstairs windows before going to bed.
Am utterly paranoid that one of the DS's will fall out of one in the night. Our bedrooms are on the 2nd floor (town house)
DH thinks I'm mental

DinahRod · 29/06/2010 20:56

If it's paranoia, I share it!

I shut the dc's windows when we go to bed (have recently discovered the windows have safety catches which allows them to be locked very slightly ajar) and leave on the fan - but yet I leave our bedroom windows open!

However, the dcs' bedrooms are on the other side of the house and do have a sloping roof outside their windows so are easy to scale. Otoh, I am so cranky and sleepless being hugely pg with no 3 that I almost pity an burglar that encountered me!

scurryfunge · 29/06/2010 20:57

I leave a window open all year round though my bedroom is on the first floor. Wouldn't do it for ground floor rooms.

firsttimemum77 · 29/06/2010 20:59

Yanbu. I do sleep with bedroom windows open because it would be difficult not to, but am paranoid because we were burgled last June whilst we slept. The burglar/s broke in downstairs but it's made me paranoid since. I live in a 'safe area'... House is now alarmed downstairs at night but can't shake that uneasy feeling.

usualsuspect · 29/06/2010 20:59

I always sleep with the windows open in hot weather...one look at me sprawled out on top of the duvet would have any burglar running a mile

JacobBlacksBitch · 29/06/2010 21:01

we are on first floor so I sleep with window open most of the year apart from deep midwinter. can't stand stuffy sleeping.

If I was on ground floor I'd have to get some locks on windows so I could open them a reasonable amount, but not far enough for someone to climb in.

PrivetDancer · 29/06/2010 21:01

I close dd's window when we go to bed too! I also have the kidnapping paranoia. Glad I'm not the only one!

Often leave our ensuite window open as I think I would hear someone climbing through that, can't leave our bedroom window open unless it's desperately hot as it gets really noisy in the morning with the bloody cockerel a few houses away.

JacobBlacksBitch · 29/06/2010 21:03

I'm in zone 2, London BTW.
If I lived where you do OP, I'd have all the upper floor windows open in this heat.

Oblomov · 29/06/2010 21:15

YABU. You know you are. yes there is a chance, that in this heat, someone will climb up , into your window, and burgle you or steal your children. yes there is a chance. a very very small chance.
same as the chance of a car internally combusting, whilst you left your children in it to cross the forcourt to pay fro petrol. a chance. slim-to-none though.

open the windows in extreme heat. please. for gods sake. some people are so over-cautious, that you leave your kids in unbearable heat, due to your fear, almost irrational, of the chance that a very unlikely thing, will happen.

and this makes sense.? you might have to run this past me again, i'm afraid.

Dysgu · 29/06/2010 21:17

We have all the windows open in the house if we are home. Upstairs windows are generally left open all day too in this weather.

At night the windows on the top 2 floors are all open - we are in a 3 storey townhouse on an island in the south of England. DDs sleep on the top floor - have never worried about them being kidnapped!

Have also been known to leave front door unlocked all day.

Went to town fayre type thing recently and purposely left driver's window wide open all day as it wouldn't close! I was not worried - but didn't tell DP as he tends to worry about such things!

My parents regularly leave their back door wide open even when they go out!

2old4thislark · 29/06/2010 21:19

Funny was having this conversation with my 20 year old DD yesterday. We live in a bungalow in a 'safe' area. Her room is at the front. I was trying to persuade her that it's ok to leave the windows open. She does have our two JRT's sleeping in her room though!

I leave our windows open in this heat and they are big windows that could be climbed through. We have low garden fences and a field at the back. On the other hand DH sleep in the raw which is a pretty scary
sight so i feel quite safe!

johndehaura · 29/06/2010 21:21

I'm with JacobBlacksBitch - I also keep my window open as much as possible all year round. I can't stand stuffy rooms either.

Though this doesn't help your paranoia.

Metal venetian blinds/micro blinds are a good deterrent as they make so much noise if touched. Even nice plain white wooden blinds would make entry difficult.

frogetyfrog · 29/06/2010 21:25

I used to sleep with my windows open until a close colleague at work woke to a bloke standing over her and her husband and one walking out of the bedroom onto hallway. They had come in first floor windows.

They werent hurt as burglars (to be) ran after pushing them back onto bed, but it was hellishly scary for them.

I now shut my windows, but leave the tiny top ones open with the bigger ones locked. I was broken into as a student and then came through one of the lads bedroom windows, standing on his bed as they came through. He didnt wake up until they broke a window to get out of another room to avoid waking him but ended up waking us all!

justsue · 29/06/2010 21:28

I live in a first floor flat and leave the bedroom windows open come winter and summer. We have cctv around the block of flats so dont worry so much.

CCTV will help

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