we are a closed door for sleeping family, but grace just recently started this fear of the dark thing and is now sleeping with a super bright night light AND still wants her door open. it drives me crazy because i get home from work after she is in bed and have to tip toe around (the bathroom is right next to her room).
i remember my whole family sleeping with our doors open as kids and don't know how my parents dealt with it.
owen goes to sleep with his door open (his preference and not worth fighting) but i shut it when i check on him before going to bed.
bryce and keegan go to sleep with their door closed.
it is safer that the doors are closed...fire wise according to my husband. they each have a fire detector in their rooms since they do sleep with their door closed.
We are an open doors family, everyone. We do have tall babygate still on the boys door and will probably until we move off campus after Koda's disappearing act last winter.
The boys have listened to the same lullaby CD all their lives playing as background noise. I think that is why they don't wake up much. Well, that or growing up on a college campus has built a higher tolerence for general ridiculous noise.
On a side note, train tracks ran through a lot right behind ours when I was a kid. It would literally shake the walls. Yet, I never heard it, and my window faced the tracks. Kids sleeping over... whole other story :)
My kids have the door pulled shut, but not latched. For some reason, Bill thinks it isn't safe to have them latched shut. Not true, Sara? I need to have something to explain to him about that. But I think he also thinks they can't get out on their own if the door is latched-and that is true of Kate because her door is hard to open, but Anna's is fine. (we put in new doors, but not pre-hung because the moldings on the pre-hung doors are too wide, so we had to just get doors and make them fit-Kate's just doesn't fit as well because NOTHING is level is this POS house.)
Anyway, they have nightlights, but I discourage that. Kate doesn't need one, and Anna will turn hers on sometimes, but then she will stay up and play because she can see in her room, so I go turn it off. She doesn't seem to "need" it.
It is hard enough for us to tiptoe around (our floors creak something fierce) with the doors pulled shut-if they slept with them open, I would be miserable and we would constantly wake them up!!!! But i know I slept with my door partially open forever (and the bathroom light on in the hall) and IHNI how my parents dealt with it either.
This all reminds me that I need to go to the fire dept and get those window stickers that let them know there is a child in that room.
ETA-my door is the same-pulled shut but not latched. But that is because my doesn't latch atm, lmao. That door had the worst fit, and Bill just hasn't gotten around to fixing it.
-- Edited by Supafly on Wednesday 9th of September 2009 09:38:08 AM
My kids have the door pulled shut, but not latched. For some reason, Bill thinks it isn't safe to have them latched shut. Not true, Sara? I need to have something to explain to him about that. But I think he also thinks they can't get out on their own if the door is latched-and that is true of Kate because her door is hard to open, but Anna's is fine. (we put in new doors, but not pre-hung because the moldings on the pre-hung doors are too wide, so we had to just get doors and make them fit-Kate's just doesn't fit as well because NOTHING is level is this POS house.)
Anyway, they have nightlights, but I discourage that. Kate doesn't need one, and Anna will turn hers on sometimes, but then she will stay up and play because she can see in her room, so I go turn it off. She doesn't seem to "need" it.
It is hard enough for us to tiptoe around (our floors creak something fierce) with the doors pulled shut-if they slept with them open, I would be miserable and we would constantly wake them up!!!! But i know I slept with my door partially open forever (and the bathroom light on in the hall) and IHNI how my parents dealt with it either.
This all reminds me that I need to go to the fire dept and get those window stickers that let them know there is a child in that room.
ETA-my door is the same-pulled shut but not latched. But that is because my doesn't latch atm, lmao. That door had the worst fit, and Bill just hasn't gotten around to fixing it.
-- Edited by Supafly on Wednesday 9th of September 2009 09:38:08 AM
do not get the fire dept stickers. kidnappers watch for those.
i will have to ask john about the latched door situation. honestly i think i would just have a talk to them about fire safety and shall there ever be a fire if they feel their door and it is hot tell them to finish shutting it all the way.
Our bedrooms in the house were upstairs and we were in a room off the kitchen in the evenings so everyone slept with their door open. Actually, until recently, I used to close Josie's over so Charlie's constant yelling at bedtime wouldn't wake her but she started crying if we closed it so it was open.
At the apartment, their room doesn't have a door right now so it is open.
The great thing with my kids is when they are asleep, they are asleep. Nothing wakes them up so we can be normally noisy when we go to bed and don't really have to worry.
Elizabeth sleeps with her door open and so do we. It is safer, fire wise, to sleep with the doors shut. Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon here. Once E is sleeping we are not ever loud enough to wake her. She seems to naturally wake up during the night after we are all sleeping, so I don't think it has much to do with noise.
Mason has always slept with his door closed. He has a sound machine running in his room with white noise anyway, since his room is on the street side of the house. He insists on sleeping with the light on, not just a nightlight.
jake doesn't want his closed so I leave it open until he's asleep but then I usually pull it to. that is so that John doesn't wake him in the a.m. with his loud banging in the kitchen getting ready for school.
she has two doors....one leads to the stairs and that one is closed. the one leading to the bathrom is left open and she has her light on a dimmer. once she is asleep, i go and turn out the light and shut the door all the way. the bathroom is a jack n jill and i am right in the next bedroom and the doors opening/closing are noisy so I leave the door to my bedroom open.
Kids bedrooms are upstairs and open to a landing, which our bedroom also opens to.
Kiera has a HUGE window in her room and I think it scares her that something might come in that way, so she usually wants her door open. I try and close it a little, but it doesnt stay (swings open on its own- I hear that putting a towel over the door will weight it down to take care of that if you dont have time for a quick fix). Our deal is that she can have the door open, but if she is talking, not going to sleep, etc, then I come back upstairs and close the door. 99% of the time, the threat is enough. Sometimes I have to threaten to close it once or twice (I am a softie on scared of the dark issues) and then she will settle down. Once she is asleep, she is OUT! I will then shut it if we are hanging out upstairs or I worry that Rhys might wake her though.
Rhys goes down, we shut the door behind us when we leave. Whichever of us comes to bed last opens his door so we can hear him if he gets up in the night.
Our last house, the master was downstairs, kids was up. I miss that...
oh yeah, and each kid has a night light (for Rhys its more so I can see than for him). And there is one on the landing leading to the bathroom. (Kiera gets up and goes potty her self in the night sometimes).
For those that dont have them is it just happenstance? or was it a conscious decision not to have one? Just curious.
doors opened a crack here. they have ACs in their rooms, so i need to keep the cold air in. in the winter we keep the same method though, so no one wakes each other up. the layout of my house is great though - no one ever wakes each other up.