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I've always had trouble getting my toddlers to stay in their beds and rooms at bedtime, but never anything like this!
One anonymous CafeMom's 4 and 2 year old boys have been destroying the house at night:
"At least once a week they will both wake up in the middle of the night and bring food from the kitchen to their rooms. They'll open every piece and spray it across the room,'' she says.
"Often times they empty out the closets, as well. One morning I woke up at 2 a.m. with a jar of rice all over my 2 year old's room, mixed in with some Kool-Aid powder (didn't even know that I had that) with every single toy out of the closet. Then I walked into my 4 year old's room and he had all of his plastic kiddie forks all over the floor and in the peanut butter jar, and a pack of crackers crushed into the carpet."
The mom has tried baby gates on both of their doors (they climb over), bungee cords on the pantry and the fridge (they undo them), and just simply trying to keep stuff out of reach (the oldest will climb up the highest shelf, 10 feet in the air, to find things).
Moms in Advice for Moms gave suggestions on how to deal with these types of security breaches:
Put locks on their doors and shut them in from the outside. "We do this with my son as he knows how to open doors and we don't want him wandering around at night when we're asleep. Works like a charm."
Use hook and eye fasteners. "Also, the sliding chain locks on the outside of their doors might help. They'd be able to open the door to yell for you in an emergency, but it wouldn't shut to the point where they couldn't get out."
Cabinet locks would be the first thing I put on. "Bungees are way too easy."
Install a door alarm. "You can get them at Radio Shack for $15. Get one for each of their doors. It's not a lock, just an alarm so you know when they leave their room. Within a couple days, I'm sure they will stop because the alarm will scare them, it's loud!"
Exhaust them out during the day. "So they are too tired at night for mischief. I sleep with my door open to hear better.
I'd also sit them down and explain that the behavior is not acceptable. Discuss punishments -- taking away things, time-outs, making them clean up their rooms -- and then if it happens again, have them clean it and carry through with the punishments discussed.
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What type of mischief is your toddler up to at night? Do you lock your toddlers in their rooms?
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Comments (26)
My friend had to turn her son's door knob around and then just lock it.
My daughter isn't able to figure out the door knob locks (the plastic thing that goes over the door knob). Our house has a door that leads to the bathroom and both bedrooms, so I just put the door knob lock on that door and the bathroom door, that way she can get out in a tiny hallway, and that's it.
we have the door knob saftey things so you have to press the 2 buttons to turn the door knob.. I dont know the "correct" name lol.. but it works and shes almost 3.
I am against the idea of locking a child in there rooms or any rooms for that matter.
Well, to the earlier comment- I am against letting my child wreck the house while we're all sleeping. I agree that locking your child in their rooms is probably a good idea. Or even, put a baby monitor back in their rooms, so that you know when they're waking up. 4 is much too old to be doing that sort of thing. He should know better. Step one to stopping it is catching him in the act.
My guy hasn't figured out doors knobs yet. For now, we close his door all the way. This keeps him in and the dog out. Both of which are important. He doesn't feel "trapped" in the mornings or when he wakes up from nap. He simply plays quietly until we come and get him. I wounldn't be comfortable with this if he was crying about it.
when my daughter first figured out the Door knob thing (she was just breaking them off) she got in trouble. She kept doing it for a week and got in trouble for it everytime sometimes a little pop on the hand. Then I started putting her in her playpen she has learned how to crawl out of that. Now when I have something to do (clean the house, ect.) I put her in lock down in her highchair! we have a baby gate but she makes a major mess in the living room. Tried the toddler bed she did GREAT w/ it for a week then it turned to really bad I couldn't keep her in bed she will be 3 in Sept.
I can't imagine locking my child in their room...although I am sure that these poor mom's feel like it!
I would try the door alarm because it seems to me that that would be the only solution that would allow mom or dad to correct the behaviour (them sneaking out of their rooms at night).
DS is starting to raid the fridge during the say so I am thinking that while we are working on corrective behaviour that we will get a fridge lock.
I just can't see how children will learn that their behaviour is not acceptable by locking them in their rooms, so that is not a solution that would work for my family.
or you could have a monitor and get out of bed??? is that REALLY so hard?
"or you could have a monitor and get out of bed??? is that REALLY so hard?"
One time, my daughter was crying three feet away from my sleeping husband, and he didn't wake up. A baby monitor can present one of two problems. Either (like me) parents will wake up everytime their child rolls over, coughs, snores, etc. OR (like my husband) parents won't wake up, unless the monitor is so loud that the first happens.
It seems that your responses are always rather snotty.
my kids room doesnt have a door it only has a fenceandthough they dont get up in the middle of the night they wake up super early climb the fence and destroy the kitchen. I had them in the other room that has the door but that room is where they got lead poisoning so i moved them is there a longer fence that i can put up so they dont climb over.