I once found a child and a dog running loose in the street. The little boy was clearly told not to talk to strangers and ran home. I stayed with the dog until the mom came looking for it a few minutes latter. She was aghast to learn that the child had been out too. She had put special things on the door to keep the kid from opening them but he defeated them. All she did was go to the bathroom. Yes the result could have been tragic in that case too since there were multiple child sex offenders living in the area but as you say “kids do sometimes escape”.
I would want to know a whole lot more about this situation before forming any opinions.
I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old. 2 year old daughter figured out how to defeat the doorknob cover about 6 months ago. She showed the 4 year old and now we are trying to find other knob covers or a way to stop it. My son, at 1 year old, wanted to go outside. So he went to the door and tried to get the lock open, but he couldn’t reach it. So he ran to his room and got his step stool and carried it over to the door, did the bottom lock, and was straining for the top lock when my wife walked out of the kitchen, saw what he was doing, and stopped him. Kids are smart, and there is no way to stop them other than restraints or hovering over them every second of the day.
I had my daughter, just turned two, take off on me one day while I was changing the diaper of #2.
She ran downstairs, opened the door, and ran out into the front yard in seconds. I saw her take off in the house, but what do you do with an infant on a changing table? You can’t leave him alone. I grabbed him and covered him up and raced downstairs as fast as I could but she still beat me out into the yard.
She never did that again. I took several steps to prevent any further occurrences.
It’s like those childproof pill bottles. If an adult has a problem with one, never fear, just hand it to a kid. The kid will have it open within half a minute.