The Door Encounter

The Door Encounter

Sandy turned the knob for Allie’s room, wiggling it a bit, then realized it was actually locked. Thinking Allie locked it by accident, she yelled through the door, “Honey, your door is stuck. Can you open it for me please?”

“No,” came the voice of her five-year-old.

“Honey! It might have locked accidently, all you have to do is come over and turn the handle again.”

“No,” Alley said again, “You can’t come in here.”

Panic hit. Sandy didn’t know why Allie didn’t want her to come in, nor that Allie even knew the door had a lock. But dozens of things raced through her brain as she stood there locked out, with Allie telling her she couldn’t go in.

Taking a deep breath, she said, as calmly as she could, and in as friendly a voice as she could manage, “Of course I can, you just need to unlock the door. Do you know how to unlock the door?”

“Yes…”

“Will you unlock the door now?”

“No…”

“OK,” Mom said, “I will go get some tools and take the door off. But then you won’t have a door to your room, I can’t put it back. Tommy will be able to crawl in and play with your things anytime he wants.”

“No!” came an alarmed voice.

“Well if I can’t open it, and you can’t either…

A click, and then the door opened. “I was trying to grow it all back before you saw it…” Allie said, holding her breath and closing her eyes. Her hair was badly chopped.

Mom just looked, and then took Allie in her arms, “It looks perfect, I can fix it,” then, “Don’t ever do this again!”

Allie took a big breath of relief, thinking, once again, that she will never, ever, understand grown-ups.