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?

I haven't lived in the UK since I was in my early twenties and I don't remember what our front door was like any more but i don't remember it being able to be opened like that from outside. Are all front doors like that? Seems really weird. Where i live the only way to open the front door from the outside is with a key.

Did when I lived in a high crime area but now I live somewhere pleasant, I don't think about it as much. Maybe It's a false sense of security, and I should start.

I have a friend who is a tech geek living rurally. Their doors can be double locked using a key when they are are out to make super secure behind the gates! But when they are at home they don't use a key, the doors lock when they shut but they have cameras with facial recognition so they don't need keys at home, they just smile at the camera and it lets them in. I am in awe!

We live in a low risk area, but our doors are always locked, unless we are in the garden next to them.
If people think that the risk has gone down, please remember that many crimes are not reported, or are now presented in a different way, so they don’t show in the statistics as before.
Houses can be entered in the same 5 minutes as you are taking a loo break.

About 48 years ago a thief came in quietly in through the front door, (when 5 family members were in the house), made their way internally through the house and stole the car out of the garage - happened way back then, random crime has and will always exist.

Always have the front door locked, my partner never locks it and it drives me mad. I do however usually have the back door open so the dog can come and go.

We live in central London on a busy street. So yes, always locked whether we are in or out. And we would lock it at night (additional lock).

I'm rather shocked of those that don't because they live rural, where I live it's not on a Main Street and you wouldn't be that way unless you were visiting one of our homes but to me this makes me think someone would even more likely try to come in because it's a nice area, therefore likely more value to steal and secondly you're less likely to be noticed in a place that's not busy than on a Main Street

No, I never lock the doors when I'm home. But anyone coming would have to get through an electric gate and past a large dog so I feel safe.

I didn't used to lock my door until one day I was looking after my 4 year old nephew and he let himself out of the house. He only sat outside the front door but my sister was rightly furious with me. At the time I had no children of my own so it hadn't occurred to me but I make sure it's always locked now

I don't but I should 😬 the kitchen is at the back so anyone could walk in and straight up the stairs if I was in the kitchen doing something. My husband is forever telling me off about this, I just forget

No, I don't. Also been in 2 fires, and very claustrophobic. We do have 2 dogs. My neighbours double lock the doors, yet, they live in a bungalow and the windows are always open, even when they aren't at home!

The answer is yes and always yes. Modern door designs seem to be all about not getting locked out and not at all about safety in other respects. I assume we are talking about one of those lift handle and turn key to lock/unlock style doors?

My extended family never do - semi rural area. Someone did get broken into once, probably 40 years ago.

We always do - high burglary area, and we’d be uninsured if anything were nicked when the doors were unlocked. God knows we’ve been broken into more than enough already.

When DC were toddlers - HELL yes. They’d wander out in the blink of an eye.

Yes, thank you for pointing it out as it’s something to remember as well. It’s one of the reason why we put camera and video door bell. Even they don’t exclude everything but at least we are not inviting problems by our own behaviour.

Always locked and the keys are near all the exit doors but not in the door or line of sight. There are 5 doors you can use to exit this house, the children now adults know where all the keys are in case of a fire. We take the front door key box upstairs at night as that has the car keys in it. There was a spate of people opening doors, taking keys and handbags and nicking the car off the drive. If you live in a nice area this is the area the burglars come to.

We have a local alcoholic who happily lets herself into any house that is unlocked and will go through any handbag she finds whilst in someone's home. I unfortunately did not know about this woman when I first moved here. My door was locked but she knocked and I answered it. It was early evening and she literally fell into my house, I thought she been attacked because she was frantic and out of breath. She had some cuts on her face from I think bushes she had not seen or walked through.

She sat at the bottom of my stairs whilst she caught her breath. At that point I could smell the alcohol coming off her. Luckily she left when I asked but she had pissed herself on my stairs. Lesson learned the hard way. Fortunately I had a carpet cleaner but the task of cleaning up some random woman's piss still haunts me.

We have lived in villages for forty odd years and I never have, unless I am going upstairs for a shower, or am ill in bed.
We have always had dogs and we have a guardian breed at the moment, who can be quite fearsome and acts as an early warning system, aka known as the “dogbell”.

But recently I have been wondering if I ought to start.. the world isn't getting any easier or kinder.

No. Rarely lock it when I'm out either to be honest, unless I know I'll be gone all day. Live in a village though. From the replies here I'm guessing mumsnet is very city-centric in its demographic. Poor fools.

We lock both front and back doors before we go to bed at night but other than that they're always open. We are rural though.

Can I ask (out of sheer nosiness) does anyone use alarms these days??? We had a power cut last week and only noticed (it was late at night and we were in bed) because we heard a couple of house alarms go off nearby. I said to DH I haven't heard a house alarm in years!

Funnily enough we had this conversation the other day around the dinner table. We have a very busy household and locking the door all the time would be a huge PITA. The doorbell would be going all the time as no one actually takes a key with them if they know someone is home which is 90% of the time.

That said, my partner is a big bloke who boxes & my son is a 6ft tall bloke. Oh and we have two very loud dogs. I am sure there are easier targets.

Only at night or if going for a nap (if no other adults awake at home).

I always lock my doors whether I'm in or out. No particular fear of crime but like the house to feel secure.

Strangely, my parents, who go on about crime constantly never lock their doors.

Oh and yep should have added to mine, we have two massive, loud dogs. Definitely recommend to anyone worrying about safety. You won't get anyone within 10 feet of the front or back door without them letting you know about it.

Not during the day, or in the evening, if partner is home with me and the kids.

Will do during evenings that partner is working when me and kids are on our own in the house.

Always at night, no matter if partner is here or not.

We live in a rural area with v low crime rate and not many people around but have still had our car and shed gone through at night before.

We don't, but the front door needs a key to open from the outside once shut. The back door is generally left completely open (let alone unlocked) during the day in the summer - just shut and locked when we go upstairs to bed. Sometimes the front door too. That said the layout of our garden means that someone would have to walk quite a way from the road to access either the front or back door and we have a dog who lets us know when someone is approaching the house, so I don't feel at risk at all. Plus it's a safe area with a good community feel and an active WhatsAp group, so any suspicious behaviour would be noted/reported.

It locks automatically but if not yes I would. My cousin has been burgled twice while in her home by someone just walking in and taking her handbag off the hall table - and she lives in a very nice neighbourhood with detached houses or- someone would have had to walk up the drive, so not just opportunistic person trying random doors in the street.
Growing up we never did - we even went on holiday once without locking the back door!