Something is Missing…

Our kids’ rooms have pushbutton locks on the doorknobs. Over the last few weeks, this has become an issue, with Luke or Beth or both deciding to lock us out if they don’t want to do what we’re trying to get them to do. Usually they do this in the middle of some important task we need to do without delay — like get to school.

Yesterday morning, they both did it, repeatedly, despite warnings.  Enough is enough. I removed the latches so they can’t be locked. The doors still stay shut on their own. I was going to remove the doorknobs altogether, but I decided not to eliminate their privacy.

I briefly toyed with the idea of reversing the locks so the pushbutton was on the outside, but I know the kids would lock each other in their rooms. This could be funny, but… no.

I also considered just removing the doors entirely. I threatened that once when Luke was going through a period of slamming doors, and he stopped.  Instead, this is perhaps the minimum I could do. I’ll save the door removal for any additional issues.

Have you ever removed locks/doors/etc. from your child’s room?