The door was stuck.
My two sons (3 and 1 at the time) had locked themselves inside the bathroom, and the stakes were high: the younger one had an ongoing problem where he would hold his breath and pass out if he got too upset. He got upset a lot, but one of us had always been there to bring him back around. What would happen if he passed out inside the locked bathroom..?
“Don’t worry, boys, we’re right here”
I used my happy voice, and tried to explain to the older one how to put the key in the door and turn it. It didn’t work. A few more tries, knowing that there was only one other option.
“Go stand in the shower, boys. It might be noisy but that’s ok, Daddy is going to get the door open.”
Wham!
I kicked as hard as I could, but the door didn’t seem to notice.
Wham!
I thought this was supposed to be a quick job, a couple of hits with a shoulder or a foot, and the door falls down, right? I’d seen enough action movies and detective shows to know about these things.
Wham!
The movies were wrong.
Wham!
Was I going to be able to do this?
Wham!
I braced myself against the furniture and aimed both feet at the door handle.
Crack!
That sounded promising.
Crack!
And expensive.
Crack!
We were in. The door was cracked, but intact, and no one had passed out – in fact, the boys thought the whole thing was funny. I was glad, but wasn’t quite ready to agree. My wife went in to show them how the lock worked, to help make sure this would never happen again. She shut the door, and locked it. She showed them how to turn the key. It didn’t work. The lock had been broken the whole time. There was only one other option.
Wham!
Wham!
Crack!
Crack!
It wasn’t any easier the second time. But I did learn something that day: TV reality is not reality.
A note to my readers: For the last few years, I’ve been working on a side project that’s a bit different from what I usually write here. It’s actually a gift for my children, but I’m going to share it with you as well, hopefully within the week. Stay tuned…
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