Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Heeerrrree's Johnny!

No, not Johnny Carson...I guess the title really should be "Heerrree's Winter3!" Remember the famous scene from The Shining when Jack maniacally peers though the partially open (well, hacked open) door? Take away the maniacal part and it becomes a scene from my life.

Winter3 is pretty good about going to bed and staying in bed...for a while. The problem is that as you know, he is everywhere and into everything. People say that no one wants a smart cat because of all the trouble they can cause. The same can be said about three year olds. Curiosity really didn't kill the cat...it stressed the life out of his mother. We just can't trust that Winter3 will stay in bed all night long. I have visions of him going downstairs in the middle of the night and trying to make soup, or call Ireland or start my car. I'd like to think that my son who is "skeered of funder" would be too fearful to go downstairs alone but I don't care to lay awake in bed debating that thought.

Sooooo...cue parent of the week music...we lock him in his room at night. Naturally, the one door of the house that doesn't close well is his bedroom. Since the knob doesn't close well enough to lock we've tried various doorknob covers which all worked for a while but which he eventually figured out and broke off. We stepped up our game by duct taping the door knob cover on. This too worked for a while and even well enough to lock me in the room (only for a minute, sheesh). He's worked so hard at the door (persistence is good trait, right?) that now it won't latch at all.

Our final move before we give up on this chess game is a chain lock like you might find in a hotel. So far, so good but this brings me back to my "Heeerreee's Johnny!" reference. Rather than an axe wielding murderer, I have a talking three year old. Imagine the little face squished in the door, "MomMomMommyMommmmyyyMama! Let me out!" The power to open his door, even if only that much, was exhilarating. After a few days, he gave up and doesn't play with the door much except at naptime and in the morning.

But he can't get out. And my life is no horror movie so even if I have a crazed three year old on one side of the door, I know that my sanity is safe.

1 comment:

  1. Steph, I just need you to know that I always locked my older 2 in their rooms. Seriously, it was for sanity sake. That's not a MOTY move in my opinion! ;)

    ReplyDelete

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