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?

Yes, always …including patio/side doors.
A previous boss of mine had a laptop stolen from their kitchen island once. He didn’t notice immediately but they checked the CCTV and someone had jumped over the back garden in broad daylight, walked in and took it whilst his wife was pottering around the house

Our front door is always locked (we hardly use it anyway). The "back door" on the side of the house is the one we use. We lock when we go to bed, unlock in the mornings and it stays unlocked unless we're going out. That's my idea of normal. Was never an issue when the DC were little either and they're the easy to open UPVC door style with lower level handles and locks. At the old house it was a traditional high up Yale lock that a toddler wouldn't have been able to reach.

I do at night obviously. I also lock it when I leave dp at home asleep. But if we are both up and about (we live in a flat so it’s not massive / we don’t have a garden) we don’t lock it no.

@kiana2015 the danger if you’re dd escaping is much greater than anyone getting in I think. But having a kid does make you hyper aware so I understand why you want it locked.

Yes, always. We live in a relatively nice area but it’s still in a city centre so anyone might walk in.

We have a Yale lock and a mortise lock on our front door (back door is always locked).

We lock the mortice when we are all out of the house, otherwise just have the Yale on. Nobody can get in (well they probably could, but it’s not unlocked) but we can get out in a fire.

We always lock the door.

Our back door has an alarm on it for exactly this reason - gives an unpleasantly loud beep every times it opens, to stop anyone sneaking in. It scares the shit out of us every time it goes off, but I do think it is reassuring.

No never.

Yes always. Some people I know don't though

I don't even remember to lock mine when I'm asleep reliably...

In the day it's a 50/50 - if DH/I go out then we unlock it when we leave and then it'll stay unlocked while the other one of us is in the house. If both of us are WFH and aren't going anywhere (and I remembered to lock it the night before) then it'll stay locked until one of us leaves. I'm not really bothered about it being unlocked in the day because it's so noisy when it opens and directly down the staircase from my always-open office door that anyone coming in would be heard immediately, but I should get better at remembering to lock it at night for insurance reasons.

We always lock our front door. At Christmas I had a delivery, they knocked the door, I got up to go and answer and found the guy trying my door handle. We do not have a porch, the door leads straight to our hall. So if it wasn't locked he'd have been in my hallway! I was at home alone. Scared me to think what could have happened. I wonder if he regularly tries doors...

I don't, only overnight. Rural Devon though. If I had small children who might wander off, I would.

No and no! Actually I don't know where any of the door keys are. 😱

I had assumed that the yale lock was enough just by pulling the door closed but years ago I heard a noise when I was in the hall and pulled open the door to find a suspicious looking young man standing altogether too close to my door, called 101 and it turned out he was a well known face in the neighbourhood and a one man crime wave. So after that, the snib goes on as soon as I'm in. Also, more recently I let the door close behind me by mistake and had to call a locksmith to let me back in, I can tell you it took him half no time to open my door with a bit of flexible plastic that looked like it was cut out of a pop bottle, it was not reassuring in the least.

No, only at night time. Front door locks automatically but back door doesn't.

I also don't bother locking my car during the day if I'm at home. Don't keep anything valuable or much at all in it and it's an old dinted very undesirable very slow car that no one would ever want to steal. Even if they did it's very unsophisticated so its locks wouldn't stop them.

You knew the answer you were going to get from MN. Outside of MN, I've never met anyone who does this unless they happen to have a Yale Lock. We lock the door when we go out and before we go to bed.

I always do. I always did anyway but a friend of mine got her handbag stolen when a thief entered her house through the unlocked front door and took it off the hall table. She only noticed when she realised her car was missing (the keys were in it and he stole the car too). Makes you think twice..

Does it not occur to you that that is the beauty of huge a huge forum of people from all over the UK (and beyond), with people from all age groups, all socio economic backgrounds, who live in all sorts of different communities in different types of location ?
You will get a much wider range of experiences than just looking round your immediate social circle.

You think Mumsnet represents a wide range of age groups, communities and socio-economic backgrounds? 😂😂😂

It's almost exclusively middle class private school Mums from London and extremely anxious ND Mums who come here because they are too terrified to talk to people IRL.

Another rural Devon here who only looks the door if we actually leave the country.

Yes. I didn't used to, but a few years ago our local police went round opening people's unlocked front doors to warn them about how easy it was for burglars to do the same and it scared the shit out of me to have a policeman appear in my hall when I was at home alone.

Well, just closing our door means it's secure from the outside, so no need to actively lock it.

This! If I bought a house without such a lock, I'd change it sharpish.

Our front door is always locked if we are in the house and at night is triple locked and the hall door is locked.
In the summer, if we are at home, during the day the garden doors are usually open into the garden. In the winter they are closed and locked. The door from the utility room into the garage is always locked. Garage doors are always locked. If I am not in my art studio, the doors are locked. It is partly security but also we have young children who we don't want wandering off.

Nope.. most people I know lock their door, from my experience working in delivery and just from people I know.