Silly Parent #32, Locked Out
So here’s the story. Usually when I bring the dogs out to pee, I will bring Isabelle with me or leave her in the living room to follow me. If she’s in the living room it takes her a little bit to follow so I will leave the door between the house and the garage open. Then what usually happens is I hear her stomping down the hallway. I peak around the door and she waves at me with her little hand on her forehead saying in her little high pitched voice, hiiiii!!
Well today right before Isabelle’s nap I brought the dogs out like usual. But today she didn’t follow me. I had put on a newly rented Kipper DVD so obviously she found that more interesting. So like usual the door between the house and the garage was open. So I thought great! While she’s occupied I’ll hose off the dog run. So I started and Waldo was chasing the water and he would not stop. So in frustration I slammed the door from the garage to the back yard in his face. I then tried to open it and it WOULD NOT OPEN!
OH MY GAWD IT WOULD NOT OPEN AND THE BABY WAS IN THE HOUSE! Can you imagine my panic? I tried to turn the knob but nothing. I don’t remember pushing the little lock button but the door would not open. In a panic I ran all around the house, with the dogs chasing me, hoping something was unlocked. But I knew nothing was. I saw my neighbor in front of his house and yelled at him oh my gawd stay right there! and ran back to the back door. (So glad I wasn’t in my nightgown and actually had clothes on. I mean we were right about to take a nap!) I told the dogs to go inside and blocked the doggy door so they couldn’t go chasing me again.
I ran back to the neighbor yelling oh my gawd I’m locked out of the house and the baby is inside! Give me your phone! He did. I ran back to the door again trying the knob while calling Alan and screamed at him, Oh my gawd! COME HOME! I’M LOCKED OUTSIDE AND THE BABY IS INSIDE! Alan’s yelling at me, WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE BABY IS LOCKED INSIDE?! Then me, SHE’S LOCKED INSIDE! JUST COME HOME!!! Then I ran back to the neighbor and gave him his phone and ran back to the door.
So I’m frantically trying to open the door about to break down crying. I reach in through the doggy door and try to turn the knob on the door which would usually mean unlocking it. But NOTHING. It will not turn. And then I push the lock button. And the door locks. IT WASN’T LOCKED BEFORE. THE DOOR IS JAMMED. That’s why I couldn’t open it.
So then I’m thinking all kinds of crazy thoughts. I’m thinking about breaking windows to get into the house. I’m thinking of kicking the door in like you see on tv. I’m thinking about how the doggy door is too small (because we’ve been locked out before and couldn’t squeeze back in) and how I’m willing to break bones to squeeze my way in there. You know your basic frantic crazy panicked thoughts.
So I must have tried pushing the door with my shoulder. I don’t remember doing it but I must have because I my shoulder hurts now. And then I laid down and put one arm in the doggy door. Only one arm and my shoulder because that’s all that would fit and then I squeezed the rest of myself in. I SQUEEZED in. It was tight but I got in. Really tight. Not like in my drawing. I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know if the last time I tried we had a smaller doggy door or if I’ve lost weight. I don’t know. All I know is I got back into the garage. I stood there for one second in total unbelief that I had just gotten back in.
I then raced back into the living room to Isabelle. And what was she doing? She was standing right where I had left her. Watching tv. She did not even look at me when I walked in! She did not even miss me.
And Alan was so mad. He had turned back to come home and then had to turn back. He was late for work. Then I had to take a shower. Ya know I was lying in the freshly hosed off dog run. Yeah. Shower. And I grabbed Isabelle and put her in the bathroom with me and she was so confused. She kept trying to climb in with me thinking it was bath time.
I don’t know how long I was outside. It felt like forever. Scariest, longest, what…five minutes of my life.
Go read Silly Parent #31, Happy When She Copies Me.
May 24th, 2007 at 12:14 am
oh! i know how scarey that is! i went to the curb to get the mail and i left the door open just a smidge and jerrett shut the door!! i was outside screaming at him for what seemed like forever!! he finally opened the door after he helped himself on the counter to get a cookie. the apartment we lived in was on the 2nd floor so i was going to try to figure out how to climb up to the balcony!
glad you got in!! now i always take a key with me just in case!
May 24th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Oh my gosh, your story is deja vu.
“Many” years ago as a teenager I was babysitting my 2 yr old niece and I stepped outside the door and it slammed close on me. Now this is in San Francisco which is wall to wall homes, and only garage doors on the ground floor–no windows or backyard to run to. I ran to the next door neighbors; they couldn’t speak English. I kept saying something like “baby in casa” “baby in casa” pointing next door. I ran through their house to the back, down their back steps,over a fence, up my sisters stairs and through a second story kitchen window. Whew! I think we only do that once!
Barbara C.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:38 am
i had almost the exact same thing happen to me when parker was the same age as isabelle. i had run out to take the trash cans to the end of our driveway and he shut the door and pushed the lock button. i freaked out too — i was running around knocking on all the neighbors doors and finally found someone still at home. i called 911, the fire department came and they used a massive wrench thing to rip off the doorknob and let me in. parker was also happily watching tv and did not even notice the commotion.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:38 am
I have a great fear of doing that every time I go out to check the mail. Only I’m pretty sure one of these days the 2-year-old is going to deliberately lock me out of the house. It’s so funny to see Mommy panic!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Our doggy locked me out once, but then he unlocked the door and let me back in. Panicked because I thought I was going to spend the day on our lawn, but that is NOTHING compared to this horror which was beautifully described in your post. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time!
You are incredible. Super-Hero like even!! Hugs!
May 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am
i think it happens to all of us at one point. luckily mine was that i had locked my self out of the front door but the sliding glas door was open with the screen pulled to. but it was locked. i ran to my neighbors and got a pair of scissors and cut a slit to stick my hand in to flip the lock. not as exciting as yours but that brief instant you realize youare locked out is insane.
May 24th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
And since no one has mentioned it, PLEASE hide a copy of a house key someplace where you can find it next time. (Trust me, there’s always a next time.)
I have to confess to my own idiocy when it comes to being locked out. I got “smart” and put a locksmith’s business card in my billfold. One time it came in handy and I called him to let me in about 8 p.m. I was so proud I was bragging about how I was able to contact him.
Then he said, “Instead of a business card, why don’t you just put an extra key in there?”
So that made me feel bad enough. Then I realized I have a combination lock on my garage door. I could have gotten in any time.
Now I still have the combination lock, but I also keep a key hidden.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
Holy COW!
What a horrible scare! And that you could even fit in the doggie door. What are you like a size 0!?
I am having a fit just thinking about it.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:07 am
lol i’m so sorry to laugh but when i imagined how panicked and scary you was and after the impossible squeezing and then “She did not even look at me when I walked in! She did not even miss me.” part, i am visualised your drop-down-jawline look! and that’s funny! i know i know, this ain’t a funny post! i know this a very scary scene.
instead of teaching ashley stay away from doors, i actually teach her how to lock and unlock them. i was thinking if there’s a break in, i can quickly ask her to hide in and lock the door and wait for me.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:25 am
seems like many of us had a same “scary experience”, I did too, but it wasn’t so bad: the children I had to babysit on, were outside with me when we locked ourselves out of the house. Luckily I knew the neighbours of my babysit-children, and I could put them to sleep in their neighbours’bed, shamefully waiting for the parents to tell this story…
May 25th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
Oh no! I’m so glad everything is OK. I can’t even imagine squeezing through a doggy door. I can imagine kids not even noticing since my kids do that all the time!
May 25th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
oh my! i’m glad you were able to get through the door… very scary…
June 1st, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Sounds like everyone has managed this! When I locked myself out, I lucikly had the baby and stroller with me. And my purse, so we could walk down to the library, stop at the convenience store for some lunch, play in the yard, go back to the convenience store to use the potty, and find all sorts of creative ways to kill time until my husband got home from work. He didn’t work close enough to dash home and let us in. And of course that was one of the few times he worked late.
He’s the one who managed to lock the baby inside alone.
Good for you, getting through that doggie door! They say moms can perform miraculous feats in an emergency.