Do you keep your doors locked when you are at home during the day?

[FrannyandZooey]

if so, why?

yes we lock ours at night

No. Unless we want to corral the children for some reason.

I was in the kitchen and dd was playing in her room. She moves fast

In old house we had top and bottom bolts and one day DS who was small shut me out when I was unloading car and then drew bottom bolt across . I then had to coax him to unbolt it - this meant feeding him bits of Curly Wurly through the letterbox.

I don't but Dp always does when he's here... Not sure why - he's just a bit more paranoid careful than me

F+Z

I don't live in a terrible area. Its just close-ish (10 miles) to a major city with high crime and apparently gangs of professional criminals target nice areas (with nice cars to nick etc) esp ones close to a m-way junction to allow them to make a quick getaway.

Would love to live in a sleepy village but sadly not possible at the moment

Back door no, if boys want to go in and out but front door has top bolt locked to keep them in. Not long after we moved in I spotted DS1 3.5 walking hand in hand with 18 month old DS2 off up the street towards the main road.

Front door,sometimes, back door rarely, dd's tend to free range with neighbours dc's so would be a pain to keep locking it. I try to remember to lock them at night though, but sometimes forget!

We never do in the day, including if were just nipping to the shop or something. Have come home many times and my mums been sat in the living room with a brew, watching tv!

So those of you that dont lock your doors - Im presuming you do at night???

Oh aargh ClariceBean, ds used to play in the car sometimes and managed to lock it, with the keys inside

cue lots of insane gesturing through the windows and eventually me climbing in through the hatchback once we persuaded him to step on the boot release thing

I always have all the doors locked, unless dd is playing out then the door is left so she can come and go in and out. If we're in the back garden then the front door is always locked. We don't live in a dodgy area or anything but for years before i met DH i lived alone and was very security conscious, especially as one day i was cleaning upstairs and 2 young lads came and tried the front door coz it looked like no-one was in! Was very scared!! That was on a really nice street as well, you just can't be too careful and you never know who is lurking! My DH is even more security conscious than me..we're a right pair of neurotics! God knows what DD will turn out like, although she seems to be totally opposite of both of us!

Yes and the one time I didn't, which was waiting for my brother to help me last weekend, due to me being ill. I was lieing on the couch waiting for him and My eldest went to the door, came back to tell me there was a man standing at the front door but not outside. I went to see what she ment and there was this lad about 19, just stood there with a finger up to his mouth as if to tell DD to shh. I was to ill to be really scared and at the time just couldn't be bothered with anything and asked him what he was doing in my house. He just turned around and went. Got a bit scared thinking about it later but he hasn't been back.

My back door is only locked if we are away on holiday or if Dh is away and Im alone with the children.

I know we should lock it at night but never remember, none of us carry house keys either

Always lock myself in the car as well..is there something wrong with me? (don't answer that, i'm easily offended!)

could I just caution people perhaps NOT to announce on national website that they don't lock their doors at night

we have had a few threads recently where people had not realised how identifiable they were from their posts

I would not want this thread to start spate of burglaries!

No, never. The back door is a stable door. Always left unlocked, and mostly at night too as I just forget.

The front door is pulled closed and that's it. I never double-lock it with the key.

I feel very safe where we live, even though we live on a busy little street (pedestrian busy) just off the highstreet of a big village. So lots of passersby during the day, and even at night as the village boasts a large number of restaurants.

My main fear is burning to death in a house I have protected so well from intruders that I am unable to easily get out.

Doh! Now you tell me

Oh, locked, all the time! Fort knox my house is, cannot get in ever.

Yep I always lock car doors when I'm in the car too.

yes I panic about not being able to get OUT also

I wonder if this is related to tendencies to be either claustrophobic or agoraphobic? I am slightly claustrophobic and would feel more uncomfortable in house with doors locked, keys not in the lock, than in house with doors unlocked, personally

Things like people trying the door would really shake you up

when i was a student someone came and sat on my (open, ground floor) bedroom window and smoked a cigarette v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y in the middle of the night once

it was the kind of low window you can just step in

I crawled out of the room as silently as I could and went to call security in an absolute panic