The Locked Door

It started with a locked recipe box, moved on to a large box with a combo lock. Neither was successful in keeping little fingers off the permanent markers and other contraband. This was annoying, but livable. The real wake up call came when we discovered that the family lock boxes with their impressive safety features should have come with a warning "not safe from nosey kids." We decided to take drastic action and put a padlock on the utility/exercise/office/storage room. A locked room made Christmas a breeze. This was the first time in years our second looked surprised on Christmas Day. We can now keep certain sweets and other food stuffs in the house for longer than a day, and parental treats like Propel Zero for workouts are now routine. If you would have gotten away with it except for those meddling kids, lock the door.