Kids Opening Stateroom Doors!

[justmestace]

Excellent point! Thanks for pointing that out! No alarms!! ��

A lot of the alarms have different volume settings. You can find one with a lower decibel range.

And please don't let anyone make you feel guilty. You didn't do anything wrong!!!

 

[lilpooh108]

Also, thanks for all the kind words...obviously I never in my wildest dreams thought that would happen! He was all tucked in falling asleep to a movie, I guess he just got scared or lonely. I love my children and grandchildren with all my heart - after losing my DS32 to brain cancer, life is even more precious to me now. I ALWAYS try to keep them all safe...it was just an accident....and accidents DO happen!

I'm sure you are a great grandmother and I wouldn't let that one particular poster make you feel bad. You're obviously upset about what happened and there's no point in making you feel worse when you cared enough to ask the question about how to prevent it in the future.

If you hang around here long enough, you'll see that she lectures people on parenting quite a bit, mostly in a negative fashion, specifically in threads which do not call for opinions on parenting/child rearing.

 

[Ccann]

I was thinking more of like some kind of latch or alarm...we're going again next Aug with two of our other kids and 3 DGDs...they are very cunning...I'm thinking chairs against the door won't keep them in!! Heehee.... My DD is worried about just like during the day when she's showering and her DH is gone or something...

My DS from the age of 18mo til the age of 2.5 would leave the house without us knowing. Sometimes just to sit on the front porch... scary so I never took showers or got ready if he was awake.. I then got smart and went to lowes and got a door chime. You cannuse double sided tape but you out one on the top of the frame the other on the door, then their is a speaker you plug in everytime the door opened it chimed. The chime was so loud we plugged it in down stairs. They were about 30 dollars. You can try that...

I wouldnt blame my mom... grandmas get tired and shoot if inwas in the room with sleeping kids and onky one awaje I would probably fall into a deep sleep.... could happen to anyone... those doors are so heavy I wouldnt be able to hear anything on the otherside awake.. let alone asleep..

 

[mab2012]

Maybe it is just me, but I cannot image my kid doing this at 4. It was never even on my radar. A toddler yes, but a preschool aged child? Is it common for them to purposely open up the door and wander out? My sister was a sleepwalker and I could definitely see her ending up in the hall, but I would just assume a fully awake and functioning kid of that age would know better than to leave the room without an adult. I only have the one child, but she would never have done this at that age, and according to my nither would any of my siblings. We all knew what would happen if we did and had been taught how dangerous it was. It is common for kids that age to defy those kinds of safety rules and I am just not realizing it?

I can see where this question is coming from, but really I think it depends on the kid - and not necessarily anything to do with what they have or haven't been taught.

My daughter, now 7, would never in a million years have done something like this at any age. Heck, she wouldn't even come out of her own bedroom at night until recently; she'd just lie there and scream until someone came to her. My 4-year-old son, on the other hand... well, you can never just tell what *he* might do. Does he understand that he can't go wandering off by himself? Certainly. Would that stop him if, for some reason, he believed that I was in the room just next door, and had not been explicitly told to stay in the room? Possibly not.

In practice I don't think this would have happened with my kid, because a) if I left him with someone else for the evening, he would understand that this meant I was NOT in the room next door, and b) he would know perfectly well that if he left the room, he would not be getting back in without a key. But he's a pretty sharp kid, and not much gets past him. I can see how another kid that age might not realize (or might remember too late) that leaving the room without a key was a one-way trip, and might easily decide to go find his mom if he thought she was nearby.

If being a parent of two children with very different temperaments has taught me anything, it's that how they behave has as much to do with who they are as what I have taught them. And that extends to everyone else's kids too.

 

[Ccann]

You could out some clothes on top of it to make it less loud..

 

[justmestace]

You could out some clothes on top of it to make it less loud..

Or a layer of duct tape.

 

[summerrluvv]

We have a travel alarm that I got at Target for like 90% off several years ago. It's tiny and would be easy to travel with. Although we have never used it for travel. There are two metal pieces that go in the crack of the door, and they are hooked to the alarm piece that hangs on the knob. If the door is opened, the metal pieces lose contact with each other, and that sets off the alarm.

Ahh I see this was mentioned previously, and I kind of knew that someone would chime in about the noise LOL. Better safe than sorry, and it's not that loud. Much quieter than someone pulling the fire alarm

 

[jjje]

My son was a sleepwalker when he was little (as we discovered one night in the middle of winter when we heard him walking out the front door). When he was awake he knew better than to wander but when he was asleep he wanted to get out. For a long time when we traveled we had to stack suitcases or put chairs in front of the door. It didn't necessarily stop him from trying to stop him from trying to get out but it made enough noise to wake us up. Eventually we got smart and bought a string of big jingle bells and hung those on the door handle. I wonder if that would work on a cruise ship or if the rocking would cause the bells to jingle constantly.

 

[TheLanes]

Does anyone know how loud the door alarms are? Since your neighbors are so close on a cruise and the walls are kind of thin, this could be a disturbance to them. Speaking personally if I got woke up in the middle if the night by a door alarm from a child opening the door and setting off the alarm would be a little upset. Just think of the noise if every room was equipped with one of these. I'm thinking the anchor would be better

I think like with the controversy with Amber Alerts on cellphones bothering some people, to me this is a no brainer. If you are wisely using the alarm, it should only be going off in the case of an emergency (emergency being a 4 year old escaping a cabin or onto a verandah). I don't mind being bothered in the case of an emergency. I guess it is because I have kids and would hope that they would be saved by "annoying" alerts in case of an emergency.

 

[nolacindy]

I think like with the controversy with Amber Alerts on cellphones bothering some people, to me this is a no brainer. If you are wisely using the alarm, it should only be going off in the case of an emergency (emergency being a 4 year old escaping a cabin or onto a verandah). I don't mind being bothered in the case of an emergency. I guess it is because I have kids and would hope that they would be saved by "annoying" alerts in case of an emergency.

So your comparing an amber alert that is for a missing/abducted child to an alarm on a door because your child decides to open a door? That is a huge difference to me. I don't mind amber alerts, to me that is a real emergency. But hearing an alarm going off in the middle of the night because a child decides to be "mischievous" and head out the front door, this is the parents responsibility to keep the kids in check without disturbing others. If the alarm is something that can only be heard in the room, great. But if it can be heard other guest rooms, absolutely not. We do not have children and should not be expected to watch other guests children. That is called babysitting and I would expect to be paid for that

Note.... as one of 5 children we traveled a lot and there was always a rule, you never, never, never got out of the camper/room/tent before mom and/or dad were up. This is something that was taught at an early age.

 

[TheBeadPirate]

If you are wisely using the alarm, it should only be going off in the case of an emergency (emergency being a 4 year old escaping a cabin or onto a verandah)..

So, in the OP's situation the alarm wouldn't have necessarily been used wisely since the returning parents would have more than likely set it off upon their return to the cabin at the end of their evening out.

And, of you are coming up with ideas to dampen the sound before even utilizing it perhaps it is the wrong choice.

I'd go with the anchor or something of that nature.

 

[TheLanes]

So, in the OP's situation the alarm wouldn't have necessarily been used wisely since the returning parents would have more than likely set it off upon their return to the cabin at the end of their evening out.

And, of you are coming up with ideas to dampen the sound before even utilizing it perhaps it is the wrong choice.

I'd go with the anchor or something of that nature.

Great point!

 

[martinm]

I teach a class called Refuse To Be A Victim. One of the things I do is demonstrate some simple traveling security ideas.
There is an alarm you can hang over the door knob and if it turms an alarm goes off.

I honestly hadn't considered it for a cruise before but if I can find the info on it tonight I will post it.

 

[grammie12]

I'm sure you are a great grandmother and I wouldn't let that one particular poster make you feel bad. You're obviously upset about what happened and there's no point in making you feel worse when you cared enough to ask the question about how to prevent it in the future.

If you hang around here long enough, you'll see that she lectures people on parenting quite a bit, mostly in a negative fashion, specifically in threads which do not call for opinions on parenting/child rearing.

Thank you for saying that. My original intention was just to warn other cruisers that children could open the doors so they could be aware of it, and to ask how it could be prevented! I guess I shouldn't have gone into so much detail! Live and learn!

 

[RunningWithScissors]

Stacks of suitcases etc in front of the door?

Alas, and I'm being honest from the point of view of someone with a totally untrustworthy MIL (and a dead, would have been awesome grandma, mother), if I ask a grandparent to watch my kid, I want them to WATCH my kid. I wouldn't have been OK with you sleeping to begin with. We traveled with my cousin and her family and my aunt, and my cousin wouldn't have been OK with her mom sleeping while watching their 4/5 year old, either. Sorry, but it's where I'm coming from. Get a kid in an unfamiliar hotel room in an unfamiliar situation, have parents go out...they need someone watching them. My opinion. My feelings.



With children who could be described as cunning, my plans would not involve a cruise.

Ah, this reminds me of a quote I once read.

"It's better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a jerk than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

To the OP: So glad nothing happened to your grandbaby. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you were horrified. This could happen to ANYBODY. You have some great suggestion from many kind posters.

As to that thing that may harm the door--I say who cares if it hurts the door? I bet Disney would rather that thing keep a child safe than to have an unfortunate accident happen because their doors aren't safe enough.

 

[justmestace]

I teach a class called Refuse To Be A Victim. One of the things I do is demonstrate some simple traveling security ideas.
There is an alarm you can hang over the door knob and if it turms an alarm goes off.

I honestly hadn't considered it for a cruise before but if I can find the info on it tonight I will post it.

I posted a link to one of these on the first page of this thread, post #13.

That's why some people are talking about/complaining about the amount of noise it would/might make.

 

[bumbershoot]

Ah, this reminds me of a quote I once read.

To the OP: So glad nothing happened to your grandbaby. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you were horrified. This could happen to ANYBODY. You have some great suggestion from many kind posters.

As to that thing that may harm the door--I say who cares if it hurts the door? I bet Disney would rather that thing keep a child safe than to have an unfortunate accident happen because their doors aren't safe enough.

Right. I'm the jerk. Because I think there should be someone awake with a four year old when the people used to sharing a house with the child aren't there. Because I have a son who refuses to be alone with his grandmother because of two experiences he found traumatizing and yet were nothing even close to what the op's grandchild experienced. I hope the op's grand isn't as sensitive.

And you might not think I was kind about my feelings but the first thing I gave was an idea about how to try to prevent it.

We did not cruise for 8 years partially because I was worried about DS getting out. I apply the same feelings to myself as I did to the people I responded to. And if my son had gotten out and had been wandering for any amount of minutes I think I would still be hugging him and there wouldn't be a thought in my head about the next time because there would be no next time.

 

[neg58]

To clarify, my two DDs had adjoining rooms, and we were not in his room, we were in my other DD's room...I really think he was trying to get back to his room, probably to find his mommy. He had just turned 4. In hindsight we should have left the adjoining door open (duh)...but it was a last minute rushy rushy kind of idea they had, so we just did what we thought was appropriate at the time. Didn't tell him "don't go out of the room" bc we wouldn't have even remotely thought it was a possibility. He didn't deliberately disobey. Throughout the cruise we 3 families were often out in the hall, going from room to room, so I'm not sure he thought much about it.

I think this is the problem- you weren't in the same room as him. I think if he would have seen you, he'd have woken you.

I think the warning is good, that a rather small child can open the door so if you are in the bathroom or on the verandah, be aware. I don't think elaborate alarm systems are called for because it probably wasn't a silent escape. Bells on the door or a mini obstacle course (remember, in an emergency you need to be able to get out too so don't create a fire danger as the door is your only escape) might be plenty, but really the problem was there wasn't an adult in the room. Leave the connecting doors open or all stay in one room.

Nancy

 

[Bear3412]

I think this is the problem- you weren't in the same room as him. ......

They were all in the same cabin, but not the one the child was bunking in. His cabin was the connecting cabin next door. I agree, if she had left the connecting door open he may not have left the two cabins. He was trying to look into "his" cabin next door, potentially for his parents.

HTH

 

[WallaceFamily]

Wait. The 4 year old was the only one awake watching tv in the stateroom by himself with the adjoining door closed??? Yes, this was an accident, but could have been prevented by sleeping in the same room (I nap often in the vicinity of my kids like on the floor of their playroom) better chance of hearing him open the door, hearing him crying and hitting the door. Plus, he could have seen grandma and felt better. What 4 year old wants to be by himself watching tv in an unknown room with all doors closed???

Yes, get whatever door things you want, but please do not leave a toddler in a closed stateroom by himself (unless you are on the verandah).