Do you lock your doors when you're home?

[kiana2015]

My husband has a habit of not locking the door behind him when he leaves for work if I'm up, this morning I was in the kitchen washing DD's bottles when he left, I spent a good 30 minutes in the kitchen before I came out and realised the door was unlocked whilst DD was upstairs asleep, I panicked and was rather annoyed with him. It got me thinking, when you're home do you lock your doors? Since DD came I've had this awful anxiety about the door being locked and someone comes strolling in, the way the world is now it wouldn't surprise me if this happens, does anyone else have the same fears?

Crime hasn't gone up it's just your perspective. Burglaries have gone down since 2002 significantly. Violent crime of all times has gone down since 1995. Where did that people think it has gone up. The main reasons for this is 24 hour news and the internet. So we are reading about it more.

No but the Yale lock is high up and my younger children can't reach it. I'm careless with keys so on balance I think not being able to get out quickly in a fire is a higher risk given the children under 8 can't open the door by themselves s

Yes, if it’s shut it’s locked because it takes one second to do.

Got burgled when I was in the shower once. The thought that I was butt naked with a stranger just feet away, made me never leave the door unlocked again.

So your door is permanently unlocked? That's terrifying

Also you can't get in from the outside without a key so I don't have the worry of someone just trying to enter

Do you mean a door with a Yale lock? They're not at all old fashioned. We've got one on our front door, so our door is automatically locked when we're in, but we don't have to faff around with keys if someone comes to the door or to get out in an emergency.

That's actually more of a risk than not locking at all!

No, never!

But we are also fairly rural Cornwall, have kids, DH coming and going all day and a territorial Lab with quite an intimidating bark.

I would if we lived inner city however, though my Folks live in Edinburgh, my dad is an ex cop and they also never do. Surprising now that I think about it as they are quite cautious in other ways, light timers, alarms on while out, keys left out of door and sight of window etc

I always lock mine but the teen just swans in and barely closes the door properly 😝

I watched a YouTube video with a psychologist and she said serial killers have a sense of entitlement to go into your home more if its unlocked.
So it freaked me out and now it's locked up so much dp is surprised I haven't managed to install lazers.

If you leave keys in burglars can put their hands through the letter box and take them. They then let you think you've lost them, wait till you're away and happily enter without raising alarm. This is a very well known crime. If you're going to lock you need to keep the keys on your person so you have them in case of a fire

Always. Force of habit

Handle up. Turn key

Used to drive my dh nuts

But if I didn't then people could open door and walk in and I wouldn't know

So safety measure

No, not if someone is up and in the house. I do, if I am home alone and going out into the garden, in the shower or the bath, when I wouldn't hear the door.

Always locked at night.

Through the day it depends. When DM was alive she lived over the road and would come and go all the time so I just left it. Now I tend to lock it more, but then I get "why is the door locked?" from DP who doesn't always take her keys to work.

Back doors are generally locked in winter but often open in summer, front door, and porch only locked when we go to bed.
Anyone could (if they wanted to) get in the porch but the front door doesn't have a handle on the outside its got a yale lock , so not as easy to open from outside

My DH is a bugger for not locking the back door. I always need to check it before I leave for work. Once he left later than me, and I got home to find he'd left the back door actually open.

Not routinely, no. I did when the kids were little - and was also worried about fires so I had a little hook by the door, out of reach of kids and the letter box where I kept them.

Now I tend to do it if I'm working in our little shed in the garden. And obviously overnight. But if we're all milling around the house I don't tend to.

Front door and front deck gate are usually locked. Back doors as well but they have key locks on them so you don't need a key to open them if you know the code. We live in a high crime area so are very careful. DH used to think I was ridiculous until the night someone tried the backdoor he had left unlocked and at the same time someone else was trying to get into the car. After that, he is a bit more cautious.

Only if i go upstairs for a nap or a shower. If I'm up and around the house I don't bother.
We live in a rural spot, the only person who comes up to the house is the postman and he sometimes opens the back door and leaves the post inside for us.

Front door yes because it opens onto the road, back door not always (although always at night) because the gate locks automatically so people need a code to get access. Kept it locked before we changed the gate though!

Yes, front door gets locked every time it’s used. We sometimes text each other to say we’re a few minutes away from home and the person at home will unlock the door to make it easier.

Keys are on a hook just inside the hall so easy to get out in an emergency.

To be fair our street is pretty safe - Amazon sometimes leave a package on our front doorstep (😤) and it never gets nicked.

It’s not locked but you can’t open it from the outside without a key. The likelyhood of dying in a fire is higher than the likelyhood of being murdered by an intruder. It only takes a few breaths of smoke to pass out, I’ve heard of bodies being found in hallways/ by the front door - to me that is terrifying.

Our front door locks automatically, I don't lock backdoor unless going out or bed, we do have side gate but that's locked, so not easy for people to get to back. Also have a dog that goes mad if someone comes up the path.

We live ritually in a very very low crime area but, we have a catch number lock ( like the ones you get in gyms) on the inside of our kitchen door. The front door is always locked as we only come and go through the kitchen. It my husband has to go out in the night (he’s a farmer) he just pulls the door shut and it’s automatically locked.
growing up I lived in a tiny village - we also kept the front door locked kitchen door open - I’d only lock it if I went for a shower or went to bed. X

Yes but only since my son, who’s now three, started getting himself about. We live on a working farm, there’s very little risk of intruders (and even less again of undetected-by-our-three-loud-farm-dogs intruders) but a very high risk indeed that my tractor-mad son will take any opportunity to go and see daddy and the tractors, which is, of course, incredibly dangerous. It’s second nature now!

I've fine through phases with this-when the DD's were babies and toddler I was very anxious and made sure everything was locked. And then when I was a single mum the same. We later moved to a village and I became less bothered. We are now back in a town and after a weird incident where my car keys went missing from the hallway and were later found the other side of town on a bus (car was still there and we have never got to the bottom of it), I'm much more security conscious. Dh/DD's are less so and if they forget to lock up they do get reminded!