Oh sh*t! My Toddler Locked me Out of the House!

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There are plenty of mom wins, and there are probably even more mom #fails. I, as a new mom and trying to navigate the world of toddlerhood, have had bumps and bruises here and there and I am happy to share this particular one riiight here. Enjoy.

On an incredibly hot and humid summer day, my 2 year-old and I were in the house hanging out. He was watching TV as I was prepping our dinner and taking care of some kitchen TLC. The trash can was full (and stinky), so I made my way to the backyard to empty its contents.

As per usual, I make sure my son is preoccupied with something (in this case the TV) and then I walk out the sliding door. I shut it behind me, walk a brisk 12 steps each way, and make it around the corner of the terrace in a nice, quick, painless manner.

Only this time, as I’m on step 3 after dumping the trash bag, I hear a familiar “click” sound. I immediately recognize it as the sound the sliding door makes when it is locked or unlocked. “Oh sh*t!” I said. As I take another 2 steps to round the corner, there he is. My little innocent Alfie, with his hand on the sliding door lock, simply smiling back at me. “No way” I said to myself. I quickly tried to open the sliding door and of course… It was locked. He had locked me out…making matters worse, I had just turned on the toaster oven.

So what do you do in situations like these? Try not panic. So, I asked Alfie if he could unlock the door. He tried, but failed. Our sliding door’s mechanism is a little harder to unlock than it is to lock, so I wasn’t surprised that he didn’t have the strength to push it down. I knew I had locked the front door, so instead of testing my luck there, I decided to run to the neighbors house and call my brothers (who live 2 minutes away) to ask them to bring me the spare key. I ran very fast, and luckily my neighbor was home, so I made a very quick call to my brother. Luckily again, he was at his place and had quick access to the key. He promised he’d rush out to us. At least now I knew that access to the house was finally on its way. Now I was determined to find an even faster way to get into the house, while my brother made his way towards us.

Alfie was totally chillin’ at home when I ran back to the sliding door. So I sprinted to the front door. Alfie knew how to lock and unlock the front door, but wasn’t strong enough to actually push the door yet. I went ahead and knocked on the door, hoping he would unlock it. Unfortunately he didn’t, and I really couldn’t see inside the house to check on his status…So I sprinted back around the house to the sliding door.

I saw he was walking back from the front door and I tried the sliding door again. Locked. Casually (and with a smiley face), I ask Alfie “Alfie, Mama’s gonna to go to the front door, can you open it for me?” He smiles at me, nods, and makes his way to the front door. I sprint again to the front of the house and knock once more.

By this time, I already knew what window I was going to break, should the spare key not arrive soon after. Suddenly, I hear another familiar sound: the “clack” of the front door lock. I grab the doorknob and pull. Yes! Alfie opened it!!!!! I swing the door open and there he is. “Hola Mama!” he says to me, with a big smile on his face. LOL! I smiled too, and gave him a hug and a kiss…and told him he couldn’t lock me out like that ever again.

I then ran to the kitchen and checked on the toaster oven. I turned it off and checked on the food. It was cooked and ready. The timer had already gone off, but I didn’t know for sure when exactly it had rung. I just knew it couldn’t have been more than 2-4 minutes past the cooking time, because the food wasn’t burnt at all. So, after doing the math, I figured this little situation must have lasted somewhere between 10-12 minutes.

I made my way to Alfie again just as my brother made it to the house, racing on his bike and jumping off at our front lawn.  I open the door and told him everything that had just transpired.

Lessons learned? We now have another backup plan in place, just in case something like this ever happens again. I have also learned to never underestimate the ability of a toddler.

Have you been in situations like this? Did you panic? Did you surprise yourself on how you handled the situation? Tell me more! I’d love to hear.

Thanks for reading!

:: Travel without your kiddos and Zero Guilt :: Tips for Traveling with an Infant ::

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