Door open or closed?

I'm curious what your 'door' situation is. We've never had the door open (probably because the dog would want to sleep with the kids and they don't want that) for them at bedtime - what's your situation and how did it start?

 

The kids' bedrooms are right outside the TV room where DH watches TV & I am on the computer. So.. it is closed. Helps with light too.

 

QUOTE(JicJac @ Jun 20 2009, 12:11 PM) [snapback]1361947[/snapback]
The kids' bedrooms are right outside the TV room where DH watches TV & I am on the computer. So.. it is closed. Helps with light too.


same deal here - although my kids sleep with their light on right now...

 

We close it most of they way so they don't hear us watching TV if we're staying up, but if we all go to bed together the doors are open. It really doesn't matter!

 

Closed. We would wake them up otherwise. Plus, for fire safety, you are supposed to keep bedroom doors closed at night.

 

Ours is open, because they like it that way & it's not a battle I have chosen to fight at this point. Drives my husband nuts, though, because he's a firefighter & is constantly reminding me it's safer for it to be closed, but they throw a fit so ardon: . Sometimes, I close it after they go to sleep, when I go to bed, if I remember.

 

I have always closed the kids' doors at bedtime. We close ours too.

 

I didn't realize that about the doors - we have ours mostly open because we can hear them that way and we would BROIL with the heat on in the winter - but I did NOT realize that!! (I like the cross breeze in the Spring and Summer as well!)

I guess we need to rethink having OUR doors open partially...

 

Their doors are closed. :good: I'm always scared they'll hear us walking around, talking, whatever... so it's closed.

 

open most of the time. It is a punishment to have the door closed and on really bad nights I have to go and hold the door closed (no lock) until they settle down in their beds.

Cindy

 

I voted door open. We leave it open just a crack.

 

The kids' doors are all closed at bedtime and naptime. We do still use monitors for K&K, though.

Our door is open at night, because the cats like to come and go. They'd sit outside and yeowl if we closed it, but they don't want to be trapped inside, either -- their litter box is downstairs.

 

QUOTE(Stacy A. @ Jun 20 2009, 08:51 AM) [snapback]1361989[/snapback]
Closed. We would wake them up otherwise. Plus, for fire safety, you are supposed to keep bedroom doors closed at night.


Ditto. Their room is right off the main living room.

 

Always open here. The only time we've closed it is when we were staying with my friend who has a big dog. The dog would probably never even come in, but the girls were afraid of him, so they let me close the door.

Any other time, it provokes huge fits if I try to close it. Our house is small and I know they can hear/see us, but I think they like that. Having it closed seems to panic them. Like PP said, not a battle I've chosen to fight.

 

The kids doors are closed at night and have always been. I was always afraid we would wake them, so we've never had it any other way :unknw:

 

Always closed. We would have to walk right by their door to get to ours and they would see us. We keep our door open because we don't use a baby monitor (our door is right next to theirs) and because our cat would cry at our door all night if he couldn't get in or out.

 

I voted open, but it is only a tiny crack (like an inch or two) not completely open.

 

Closed. And I never realized it was a fire safety reason to do so. I will definitely keep it that way now!!

 

For the first 3 years, we always had it closed. If it was even open a crack, they would never sleep, just wait for me to come around the corner. Then, when we moved them to twin beds, I had to keep the door open so I could 'see' them. With the door closed, they would get up and turn on the light for a party. Lily sleeps with the door closed.

 

Depends upon your privacy ... whats you like !!!

 

QUOTE(Stacy A. @ Jun 20 2009, 04:51 PM) [snapback]1361989[/snapback]
Closed. We would wake them up otherwise. Plus, for fire safety, you are supposed to keep bedroom doors closed at night.

This is why we keep our childrens doors closed also. Sometimes my daughter will complain and want it left open so we will leave it open a crack and then close it once they are asleep. Our bedroom door is open though because I can't sleep with it closed and I usually get up during the night so it's easier to have the door open then to try to find the knob and wake up my dh doing it.

 

We've always closed the kids doors' to block out the light and the noise. We sleep with ours open just because light/noise are not an issue when we go to bed. We'll have to start shutting it - hadn't thought about the fire issue!!

 

My twins' still share the same room. We kept the door closed ever since Justin started climbing out of his crib. We think about safety of not wanting him to walk out of the house or get into something that we haven't thought of before with them. We have a child proof that goes inside their bedroom door so they can't get out until we get them. We still use our tv monitors as we have 2 of them for each bed post. It give us a peace of mind that they are okay in bed. But I love how I can pull up the blanket on them and give them another kiss when we go to bed. They must know I come in there to check on them because they would open their eyes half way and then back to snuggling.

 

QUOTE(ThreeLittleSnowflakes @ Jun 22 2009, 09:28 AM) [snapback]1363662[/snapback]
We've always closed the kids doors' to block out the light and the noise. We sleep with ours open just because light/noise are not an issue when we go to bed. We'll have to start shutting it - hadn't thought about the fire issue!!

I know. I hate that we have to leave our bedroom door open a crack for the cats. Otherwise they scratch at the door all night and no one gets any sleep.

 

I'm the other!
Though I was really tempted by "open".
We took the door off the girls room because it allowed us to but the bed on one wall where the door would otherwise need to be. So closing it is not an option. Fire is not an issue for us, there is very little in our house that can burn (there is no wood in the structure at all, tile floors, and only a few wooden furniture pieces). Earthquakes are an issue and the door could get jammed shut if the house shifted in a quake.

 

They were closed as babies due to our fear of noise waking them (their rooms are upstairs on the hallway/balcony that overlooks the living room). A year or so ago, they started getting scared of the dark. We tried night lights, table lamps, etc, but what it really boiled down to - they wanted to be able to hear us downstairs as they fell asleep. They've always had white noise machines (air filters), and screen doors on their rooms (to keep the cats out, not the kids in), so we let them keep their doors open a few inches and this is what they prefer and fall asleep the best this way. The white noise machines keep all but a murmur of sound from reaching them, enough so they know we are there, but not enough that they can follow the conversation or TV show.

Yes, I've heard (here) about closed doors and fire safety. However, I need them to feel safe and fall asleep at night, so we go with that. We have smoke alarms all over the house, in their rooms and ours as well, and check the batteries, so I've done what I can do to keep us safe, alert us to a danger ASAP, and allow the kids to fall asleep comfortably in their own rooms.

At our bedtime, I lock the cats in the kitchen for the night (they wander and howl otherwise) and open the screen doors and leave the kids' doors open a few inches. Our door is always open. The air conditioner will not work properly otherwise - the sensor is right outside our room, so if you close all the doors, upstairs and down, the cold air never gets down to the sensor to cycle the AC, the rooms turn into iceboxes, the AC runs all night, and our power bill is outrageous. Nope. Open doors as much as possible here.

eta: end parentheses

 

Ours are cracked (inch or two) until we go to bed and then I close them. I like them closed so they don't wake each other up. My husband is also a firefighter and says we should keep the doors closed; however, we don't close our own. The kids are upstairs, our bedroom is downstairs and we don't use a monitor. If they don't mind them closed, then I would definitely leave them that way.

 

Every door in our house is kept closed at all times. Interior doors are made so that they take a long time to burn, most 2 hours. This is so that you have time to get your children out before it spreads to the rooms. It is so important to save your family and your home to keep doors closed.

Sorry to be so preachy, my sister lost a child and her home because they always kept the doors open.

 

QUOTE(alankford @ Jun 23 2009, 05:16 PM) [snapback]1365412[/snapback]
Every door in our house is kept closed at all times. Interior doors are made so that they take a long time to burn, most 2 hours. This is so that you have time to get your children out before it spreads to the rooms. It is so important to save your family and your home to keep doors closed.

Sorry to be so preachy, my sister lost a child and her home because they always kept the doors open.


I'm so sorry to hear about your sister's loss. But the cause of the fire was the reason she suffered that loss. It's not fair to say open doors caused it we don't know if having the door closed would have given her enough time to get everyone out, there are too many other factors envolved.

 

QUOTE(Meximeli @ Jun 23 2009, 01:23 PM) [snapback]1365424[/snapback]
I'm so sorry to hear about your sister's loss. But the cause of the fire was the reason she suffered that loss. It's not fair to say open doors caused it we don't know if having the door closed would have given her enough time to get everyone out, there are too many other factors envolved.

True, there are many factors involved. But, they have done a ton of studies on burning houses that all say the same thing - keep the doors closed! The hours or even minutes that a closed door may save you could be the difference between life and death. I just want to be as safe as possible. Like I said, I HATE that we have to leave our door open a crack and wouldn't if there was any way to avoid it short of getting rid of the cats.

 

This q is funny to me, because it has changed for us. When my twins were younger, we would close the door and open it in the morning when it was time to get up. Now, that they are in beds, they refuse to have that door shut. Which is fine with me, because I hate having my bedroom door closed. My little guy still has his door closed, mostly to block out the noise by the rest of us. He goes to bed earlier than the twins.

 

Our is closed with a child safety lock on the inside because I don't want my son waking up in the morning and wandering the house. This way, I hear him on the monitor and go get him in the morning. He's never seemed to mind.

 

We keep 'em closed. We have dogs and I know they would go in and wake them up. Plus their bedtime is 2 hours earlier than we usually turn in so I know the noise we make at night (doing dishes, TV, other doors opening closing, etc...) would wake them up, too.

 

I had never heard that you should keep your doors closed for fire saftey but I just did quick internet search and that information is EVERYWHERE. Wow, I will be closing all the bedroom doors from now on. I'm so glad I read this thread!

 

QUOTE(Stacy A. @ Jun 22 2009, 09:41 AM) [snapback]1363681[/snapback]
I know. I hate that we have to leave our bedroom door open a crack for the cats. Otherwise they scratch at the door all night and no one gets any sleep.


ITA!! I told DH I'm going to get a cat door for our bedroom door!