So it all started when I had the bright idea to lock up all the books and almost all the toys. It’ll help keep the house cleaner, she said. It’ll be great, she said. With fewer things to get out, there will be less mess, she said.
The truth of the matter is, my kids would be happy with some cardboard boxes, old sheets and scissors. They don’t seem to miss the toys and games lock up. I should just lock up the rest of it. They do, however, ask for the key to get out books, I’m happy to say.
One of the rooms that we have locked is our storage room. All the girls and Kevin and I are going on a road trip tomorrow. (Before you get too excited, know that we’re driving umpteen hours in the truck, pulling a trailer, to pick up a combine head, almost in South Dakota!) This does warrant an overnight in a hotel, so getting the swimsuits out of storage was in order.
I was busy cleaning up the pomegranate disaster in the kitchen (don’t ask) so I gave Aviana permission to get the swimsuits out of storage. She promptly gave the keys to Brielle who happily unlocked the room and promptly set the keys down. In the room. Somewhere.
Meanwhile, I finally finished cleaning up the kitchen and went up to the storage room to get out the wreaths with my decorating-for-Christmas-loving five year old. I shut the door. To the storage room. In which the keys were lurking.
Still the door was not locked. As far as I knew.
Much later, I sent one of the kids up to get the suitcases, and we discovered someone had turned the lock and the door was not able to be opened. No one owned up to locking it (which due to the fact the lock is at the top of the door had to be intentional). The room being locked is irksome enough, people lying to me about it really stresses me out.
Finally, the culprit came clean, which really helped my attitude and ability to be gentle, but didn’t change the fact that three of the five upstairs doors are now unenterable.
I had the Bright Idea to look up picking locks on Youtube. Fortunately, there is a plethora of lock picking videos, and all of us successfully picked the bathroom door lock and my bedroom door lock with paper clips.
Unfortunately, the locks on the upstairs doors are completely different. They are still locked. And now I have successfully taught the kids how to break into the bathroom and my bedroom.