Do You Lock Your Door?

[Willow]

Funny this should come up! I usually ALWAYS have the door locked.

My husband was sitting in our family room a few weeks back and the door opened (one of our daughters had just come home and forgot to lock it) and a guy just opened the door and walked in!

My husband jumped to his feet and obviously looked a little less that friendly. The guy said "Oh..isn't this a daycare?" He said he was the ex of one of our DCM's and wanted to see the daycare. His daughter wasn't in care that day and I had never met the guy before. He seemed unfriendly and I was glad my husband and son were there. I told him he needed to make an appointment as I don't allow strangers around my daycare kids during the day. He said no. The DCM said she hasn't seen or heard from in months.....Real weird.

We are back to making SURE the door stays locked!!!!

This is terrifying!!!!!

I'm so glad everything turned out ok!!!!





I wanted to add when I say I leave my doors unlocked it's only during the work day. My door stays locked until I open and are relocked immediately after the last child goes home. My husband works out of town most of the week and I am not above letting my big dogs out before we head out anywhere just to be sure no one is anywhere near the house or garage.

[MarinaVanessa]

I lock my doors during the day because twice already we have had someone try our handle to see if it was unlocked (both times during the night).

I have a Schlage handle with a keypad and pay a small monthly fee of less than $10 a month to be able to set individual codes to my families. I give them an access code and set the hours and days that they have access and they can only get in on those days. I don't have to stop what I'm doing to let them in and we can keep people from coming in unwanted. The door is always locked on the outside but unlocked on the inside in case of an emergency.

[williams2008]

Per my licensor we are not to have our doors locked if we are using an area that is off from the house. The majority of our time is in the playroom, but when we go up for lunch, nap time, and bathroom breaks my door is locked.

My licensor made a pop-up visit last Friday and I was in the bathroom with a child, the other dcks heard her knocking and was trying to let her in. When I made it to the door, I explained to her that I had to take a dck to the bathroom and that's why it was locked, so she was okay with it.

[MyAngels]

I lock my doors during the day because twice already we have had someone try our handle to see if it was unlocked (both times during the night).

I have a Schlage handle with a keypad and pay a small monthly fee of less than $10 a month to be able to set individual codes to my families. I give them an access code and set the hours and days that they have access and they can only get in on those days. I don't have to stop what I'm doing to let them in and we can keep people from coming in unwanted. The door is always locked on the outside but unlocked on the inside in case of an emergency.

That's a good idea - I'm going to look into that .

[laundrymom]

Can you post the model number? I have a keypad but am not happy with it and am replacing it

I lock my doors during the day because twice already we have had someone try our handle to see if it was unlocked (both times during the night).

I have a Schlage handle with a keypad and pay a small monthly fee of less than $10 a month to be able to set individual codes to my families. I give them an access code and set the hours and days that they have access and they can only get in on those days. I don't have to stop what I'm doing to let them in and we can keep people from coming in unwanted. The door is always locked on the outside but unlocked on the inside in case of an emergency.

[LK5kids]

When I did child care before...quit 14yrs ago and I'm back into it, I NEVER locked my doors in our small town except for at night. I'm now in a close by town (smaller town, but not as small a place as when I did child care before) and lock my doors after the last child arrives in the morning and then unlocked again as parents start to arrive unless I'm in the bathroom helping a child-then it gets locked. The back door is always locked and deadbolted, unless we r outside.

[spud912]

I know in the past we have been rated as the worst city for theft (could still be....not sure), so yes, I always keep the door locked.

Just to give an idea of what we are dealing with, here are several examples of how theft has affected our lives. Note that none of these occurrences happened in bad areas and most occurred during the middle of the day. At our old house (about a mile up the street), we left our garage door open for 5 minutes while carrying in a piece of furniture and during that time, our car in the garage was robbed (they got the radio and GPS). I had my car broken into and a computer stolen at my last job. My in-laws have had their house broken into 3 times and my parents had their house broken into once and their car outside twice. They live about 15 miles away. My brother had has car stolen at the apartment we used to live at and my dh had his car stolen at his past employer's parking lot. This is just some of the stuff off the top of my head.

I absolutely do not want to be in a house full of daycare children when someone decides to test the waters and see what we have. On top of that, I like to control all chances of liability with daycare children and leaving the door unlocked opens me up for a chance (albeit slight chance) that a child can open the door and walk out. If we ever have to leave on a whim, I am always close enough to the children to evacuate them all quickly. I don't mind the interruptions as long as my families don't mind waiting outside for a couple of extra minutes occasionally so I can finish any necessary business before opening the door.

I suppose if we lived in a smaller town with a lower crime rate, I might have a different mindset .

[MarinaVanessa]

Can you post the model number? I have a keypad but am not happy with it and am replacing it

Here is the one that I have (a pretty penny):
Schlage LiNK Satin Nickel Residential Electronic Door Lever
I think Amazon has it cheaper like $160.00.

Here is the Schlage website:
Schlage monitoring

Here is the official website (the Schlage service changed to Nexia):
Nexia

PS: if you have a smart phone you can check if you forgot to lock your front door using an app and lock it or you can unlock your front door for anyone using your phone.

[Country Kids]

I know in the past we have been rated as the worst city for theft (could still be....not sure), so yes, I always keep the door locked.

Just to give an idea of what we are dealing with, here are several examples of how theft has affected our lives. Note that none of these occurrences happened in bad areas and most occurred during the middle of the day. At our old house (about a mile up the street), we left our garage door open for 5 minutes while carrying in a piece of furniture and during that time, our car in the garage was robbed (they got the radio and GPS). I had my car broken into and a computer stolen at my last job. My in-laws have had their house broken into 3 times and my parents had their house broken into once and their car outside twice. They live about 15 miles away. My brother had has car stolen at the apartment we used to live at and my dh had his car stolen at his past employer's parking lot. This is just some of the stuff off the top of my head.

I absolutely do not want to be in a house full of daycare children when someone decides to test the waters and see what we have. On top of that, I like to control all chances of liability with daycare children and leaving the door unlocked opens me up for a chance (albeit slight chance) that a child can open the door and walk out. If we ever have to leave on a whim, I am always close enough to the children to evacuate them all quickly. I don't mind the interruptions as long as my families don't mind waiting outside for a couple of extra minutes occasionally so I can finish any necessary business before opening the door.

I suppose if we lived in a smaller town with a lower crime rate, I might have a different mindset .

I so get what you are saying!

I have a friend who had the entire house emptied while away at a holiday dinner-. Came back to hardly anything left in the house.

[shelby]

I always lock my door after the last drop off. I don't want any escapees!::

Same here... I wonder why the need to escape is so fascinating to them.::

[Sunshine74]

Our doors are always locked, but being a center we have a different set up. The three doors leading outside are the type with the crash bar on the inside, so you can always get out from inside. The front door has a doorbell and there are three rooms that have a switch to unlock the door all places you can see outside. There is also an intercom in the one room in case no one recognizes who is at the door.

We used to have the doors unlocked during main drop off and pick up times (we had a buzzer when the doors were locked, but someone had to physically open the door), but we had an incident this summer with a non-custodial parent trying to take the children during pick up times. We got the new system and the doors are locked all the time now.

[WoodOx]

I keep my front door locked, yet it can be easily be opened by turning the knob from the inside, the side door is always unlocked, but its not easy to just walk up and open it, you'd have to go thru the gate first.anyway the parents always use the front door, they always knock of course. for a time i felt kinda bad to not let them walk in my home freely to come in, but I have heard a few stories from family members which made me make the decision to just keep it locked
one family member had a cousin whom had a mental illness and said they would occasionaly go walk around town and if there were houses around they would check to see if their door was unlocked and if it was they would walk right in and make themselfs at home:confused:.
another family member worked at a small daycare center and said some strange man came in, and wanted to use their phone and didn't want to leave when told by the directer that he needed to go to herefused to, idk how they made him leave, but sheesh creepy. so I keep my doors locked i am keeping the kids and myself safe.