No, he is not a prisoner in our home. No, we don't put a dirty bowl of old soup through an opening at the bottom at mealtimes. And no, we don't have a pooping pot in there either (I know you were wondering).
We look at it just like he's in a crib. When a child is in a crib, they are locked in. SAFE. I want to go to bed knowing that he is safe and sound in there and I don't want him coming out of his room all the time when he's supposed to be enjoying slumber. The way we lock him in is by putting a child safety door handle lock on the inside; when it's not there he gets drunk with power.
The lock was off for a day or so as a trial, and on night 2 he noticed. An hour after he went to sleep he came downstairs where B and I were watching TV. He was laughing hysterically and yelled, "I scored!" Who could get mad at that?! After giving us each a hug he went back upstairs and put himself to bed and I thought, "when did he get big enough to put himself to bed?" He's not. He was back down in 10 seconds laughing like a crazy person again.
This is when I had to lay down the law. I told him if he left his room one more time the lock was going back on. Next thing I know he is opening the door and then went to his bed. I went in with the lock to reattach it and he proved he was listening:
"I didn't leave the room, I just opened the door," he said with a mocking tone and a grin.
Hmm. He's right. But I'm bigger. On went the lock :)
(This is from his first night at our new house in November 2010...wasn't ready for the big boy bed quite yet.)
i'm pretty excited! i'm the FIRST one to post a comment on your blog. maybe even the FIRST person to look at it besides you and bryan! love it. keep it up. you'll thank yourself everyday of your freaking life.
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i need to learn all these parenting tips from you! i can just see simon coming in and out of his room. i'm sure E will do the same thing. RR
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