What would you think if you were at someones house and saw a lock on the outside of a child's bedroom door?

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I wouldn't think anything of it tbh. Could be to stop a child with SN from getting in or out, it could be to keep the door shut if the closer is a bit iffy or it might be a remnant from a previous owner - maybe a student house.

stairgates can be climbed over by lots of children as well at which stage they're not much use. We used to shut ds1 in with 2 stairgates one on top of the other (he could climb over one).

The other choice was locking the door or having him not in bed at all.

Yurt - my uncles worst nightmare is hearing a mother say there windows are locked at all times - he has had to recover the bodies of many small children because they were locked in rooms and their parents couldn't get to them when there was a fire and they couldn't get out!

He also says always leave keys in the windows for the very same reason.

I'd think they had a cat who could open doors (we have locks on the outside of 2 doors)

Ideal world Twinkie. You can't do that when you have an autistic child.

But stair gates cant be jumped over by the child... if they could jump over it them you wouldnt keep it there any more!
An adult could just as easily un hook the lock and open the door as they could jump over the stair gate...

I havent got locks on any of my doors, but I do have the stair gate, plus I double bolt the front door and lock all my windows to keep DS safely in!!

Have also got smoke alarms on both floors though

We have locks on doors of rooms we want children to keep out of , makes me far more relaxed when their friends come round to play and I don't have to patrol .

Just waiting for the day when they are tall enough to unlock the doors

For most children I wouldn't recommend it either but for some children the day and day dangers of them wnadering/escaping outweighs the risk of a fire.

I have hook and eye locks high up on two bedroom doors, to keep the cat out (when we had babies), to stop the doors banging and to keep out visiting children during parties!

My friend for example had a guest visit who opened the window and left it open. Later her 5 year old came running screaming because her daughter was hanging out of the window clutching on by her fingertips. She had to drag her back in, with awful bruising.

Now if something was invented that got round this problem, great.

DS1 is MUCH more likely to come to harm from my 2nd floor windows being unlocked and him falling out, than he is from me keeping them locked and us being caught in a fire...

At another friends house she climbed out onto the conservatory roof.

Some children need locks on windows.

Yurt1 - can you not get a window restrictor like they have in hotels? It can only be opened a few inches - probably not even wide enough for a cat to slide through. Or get louvered windows at the top. Could be expensive though.

DC's window is always locked now - with no key. I cannot trust DS, he would easily be out and splatted.

Locks outside doors - we always had em growing up, generally to keep people out. i probably wouldn't notice.

We have barrel bolts on every door in the house (including the cupboards under the stairs), they are an absolute neccessity for us.

Recently I had social services coming to the house as I had requested an assessment for some respite. I was a bit nervous about the bolts, as I had heard people in the past, talk about them being a social services 'red flag'.

However, they showed no concern about them, infact they recommended 'star locks' and asked if I would like to talk with a colleague of theirs that dealt with safety and adaptations.

As others, all windows need to be locked at all times with keys removed and all external doors have alarms on them that sound when opened, it is lucky that we can lock the windows slightly open (a cm or so).

To the op - we've been thinking about getting a lock on DD1's door to keep her little sisters out while she's at school.
The guests are your friends - no one is goign to suspect you of anything sinister

its the mn effect. I keep thinking someone will start a thread about it the next day!

I had a lock on the outside of my bedroom door as a kid to stop it banging around in the wind. We liked fresh air in our house, lol.

We have restrictor hinges on the window in ds1's room, but you can shut then open them. I don't want ds1 to even know that windows open tbh

When dd was a baby we used an eye and hook lock to keep the dogs out of her room. I was confident enough that if there was a fire, the door could still be shoved open (and lock broken) with ease.

Now we have well behaved dogs

I'd think I was at no. 4, Privet Drive, Little Whingeing, Surrey and that Uncle Vernon was right fucked off about something. Again.

I wouldn't think anything really. We have locks on the outside of some doors because when they boys have friends over and are upstairs I don't want them in those rooms. Don't have them on kids' bedrooms but I would think it was for a similar reason, or because they were there when they moved in.

Or maybe they put them in there for time out and lock it so they don't have to hold the door??

yes, ours are hook locks - if you give them a bit of shove they just ping open but it's enough to put a child off trying to open it. I have them on the office and our bedroom so they can't play in those rooms. For a while we had one on the kitchen too as ds3 kept going in the fridge and eating whatever he could find.

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