mischief managed, part VII

I let the boys out the front door at a friends home after our meeting and pushed "unlock" on the keys while I hovered in the doorway chatting. Jack and Ben proceeded to open the car door, climb in, and "play" in the car. A couple of minutes later, I walked over and began trying to coerce them into their seats. It's like pulling teeth these days. They'd rather sit in the front seat, steal my sunglasses, or run circles in the back of the van (there is plenty of room for it). I set my keys down in the driver's seat and started to wrestle the boys into their seats. With Jack finally buckled in, I settled for Ben in the back row in Pete's booster seat with the seat belt shoulder strap through the lowest loop. It fit him comfortably enough, so I backed out of the van and closed the sliding door. I went to open the driver door, but found it was locked! The sliding door I just closed was also locked, and a quick glance around the car confirmed that all the doors were locked, with my keys sitting conveniently on the driver's seat. I hadn't noticed that Jack and Ben had pushed the lock button on the door during their "play" time in the car before I even put them into their seats. The high's today were in the the mid-sixties and the car was in full sunlight.

Then came the fun part. Jack was buckled securely in his five-point harness car seat and could not get out. Ben, on the other hand, easily escaped Pete's booster seat/seat belt combo in the back (so much for that idea) and was up in the driver's seat fairly quickly. This was good luck! So I thought. Surely Ben could simply push the unlock button on the door, or the keys, or pull the lock up on the door, or just open the door from the inside (since they have no trouble opening it from the outside). That turned out to be easier said than done.

I spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince Ben to open the door. I asked him nicely, pleaded with him, begged him, signaled to him, gave him specific directions over and over. He went back and forth to the driver's and then the front passenger seat playing and I continued trying to persuade him to do something that would unlock the door. Ben, in turn, smiled, waved, laughed, and seemed otherwise oblivious to the fact that I was extremely frustrated. He gave the minimum effort to try to do what I asked, and then found something to play with. This continued for a while, until he picked up the keys from the driver's seat and put them in the ignition. He turned the keys just enough to start the electronics in the car. He found a case of DVD's in the console and, after dumping several on the floor of the car, chose "Elmo's Sing Along." He put the movie in, and opened the drop-down screen on the ceiling of the car. All the while, I'm still trying to get his attention and convince him to unlock the door. He would pause, make an unproductive effort to push on the lock (even though I continually said "pull!"), smile, and wave, then go back to watching the movie. By this time, the movie was playing and the sound was on full-blast so that I doubt he could hear anything I was now yelling at him. Jack was contentedly watching Elmo, oblivious to any trouble. I was growing extremely frustrated.

Ben seemed to taunt me by coming back to one of the doors and looking at me as if he wanted to help, but was completely clueless about what to do. I yelled loudly, "Pull the button up, please!," "Open the door, Ben! Pull the lever right here!," "Please push the unlock button here!," "Mommy can't get in, you have to open the door, please pull up on the lock!" Over, and over, and over.

About 15 minutes in, I gave up on Ben and decided it was time to call Pop-A-Lock to come open the door. My friend called and they told her it would be about 15-20 minutes before they would be there. I was extremely frustrated that my luck with Ben was rather pointless and was also worried about the heat in the car. I did not want to wait another 15-20 minutes. I noticed that the driver door was not completely latched, and thought it would be worth a try to use the old "coat hanger in the door to pull the lock up" trick. Because of the small space in the door, it worked like a charm. I got in the car, buckled Ben in his seat, turned off the movie and was on my way. But not without a great deal of frustration!

Lessons learned: Three-year-olds don't know how to unlock the car. Teach the boys how to unlock the car door from the inside. Never let the boys play in the car. Never put the keys down in the vehicle. Keep the keys in my pocket at all times.