hi i have a little girl who just turned 5 in may....my name is A. and i need advice terribly..this is a problem we thought we took care of...think not!!! heres my question my daughter keeps getting out of out house and we cant keep her in...
we've had padlocks to door sensors to scaring the hell out of her...her father and i are at our wits end...i dont know what to do or what the problem is......someone please help...its not just causing us problems...i love my children to death and dont want them taken away or worse her getting kidnapped for getting out the house...lucky we live right next to my dad on a big property now so she cant get in harms ways to go there...but still its very bad....so please once again please please help..and its happened once in the last few months thank god thats why we thought she was done with it...(part 2 bc i cant response to the post) my child is very smart when i tell u we've tried everything we have..we put AT OUR OLD HOUSE,our dead bolt inside out so u needed the key for the inside...now we've moved we only put our padlock up and she took a fork and unscrewed the screws from the frame of the door...shes super smart i thought of covering the x marks on the face of the scew so should couldnt put anything in them to un screw.....
This is the lock that we installed. Put it up high.
http://www.amazon.com/National-Hardware-V808-Door-Brass/d...
Covers that go on door knobs so they can't be turned, flip over door lock like this http://www.build.com/baldwin-0250-solid-brass-security-do.... Time outs, spanking, grounding, take away toys, etc.
I can understand all you have said, so my question to you is: Have you tried discipline? A five year old can definately understand having things taken away because of bad behavior, or some form of punishment. Better to discipline her now, then to have something unspeakable happen or later she is sneaking out of the house as a teen. Don't put it off, help her to make good choices by making bad choices so "painful" that she doesn't want to go there (and I don't necessarily mean spankings although in my book it is an option). Good Luck!
From your response it sounds like she is getting out to go to your dads house. Since she is smart to even unscrew locks to take them off etc then the only way you are going to solve this is by doing two things to get to the real problem. One talk with your dad and explain the problem and ask for his help. If she shows up at his house unexpected he is to immediately bring her back to your house and tell her it is not safe for her to come over by herself and he would love to see her later when she gets permission from you or you bring her over. This must be done by him or anyone else in the home EVERYTIME. This is for her safety so tell him no excuses. Then the second thing is that you need to find more things to keep her busy at home. Read books to her-painting drawing or coloring stuff- playdough blocks dollhouse are all things that keep my high energy daughter busy and may work for you. Plus you need to keep her in the same room with you or in eyes view until she has outgrown this phase. If she has time to unscrew a padlock on the door she has too much time by herself lol You may be doing some of these things already but I hope you get some new idea that helps.
Best of luck to you and your family!
A.
