How would you react if a burglar entered your home when your children are present?
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Anonymous
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In our extended area there have been a couple of nighttime robberies, which prompted me and my husband to discuss what we would do in such a situation.
We told our 11 year-old daughter to hide in a corner of the attic if she hears something suspicious, and not come out until she sees either of us and thinks it's safe. The entrance to the attic is in the closet of her room. Otherwise we have an alarm system with door sensors, window break sensors and outside motion sensors. Of course, Ring cameras, too. However, we are very cognizant that this equipment at most gives us a 30-second heads-up, and will not stop a burglar. If ever burglars enter our home, and my daughter is asleep upstairs, I personally know that then it is a situation that I have to manage. I would try to distract the burglars, give them our valuables, and focus on staying calm and keeping my daughter out of danger. Should it ever get very bad, I would not hesitate to sacrifice myself in order to save my child. My husband, by contrast, says that if he ever notices burglars in the home, he would immediately leave the house through the nearest exit, taking his phone with him. He says that he could help our daughter more if he calls the police and hides somewhere until then. I told him that it would take at least 10-15 minutes until the police arrives, and until then our child could be murdered. This is why in such a situation it would be his responsibility to do something to protect her. Besides, you cannot be sure that the police will really put their own lives in danger. Still, that didn't change his mind. What would you do in such a situation? |
Anonymous
| Get a gun and practice using it. It’s your job to protect your family. |
Anonymous
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OP here. We have thought about getting a gun, but decided against it, for the following reason: in the past six months at my daughter's stressful elite private school three children committed suicides (unrelated to each other), each of them with the gun of their parents.
Besides, if the gun is kept fairly secured and hidden, there might not be enough time to get it. |
Anonymous
Really? Which school is this? |
Anonymous
| The school is in California. |
Anonymous
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I've thought about this, OP.
For the most part, burglars are interested in money, not killing someone. So, I would tell DD to lock herself in the bathroom. We don't have that luxury because our master bathroom door doesn't lock, even if it did, it's super super easy to break it open. It's one of those pocket doors, which I hate. I would just give the burglar whatever they wanted in terms of belongings. Now, if they are intent on hurting someone as well, that's a different story. I'd also lure the criminal away from DD so that DD could escape. If DD were in her room, the only way to escape would be to jump out of the second story window. She might break a leg, but she'd be alive. |
Anonymous
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Keep your doors locked.
Do not open the door when someone knocks. Get a dog and an alarm system. |
Anonymous
Right, so you can mow down your DH when he gets home early from a business trip. Guns do way more harm in these types of situations that good. There is very good hard data on that. Home invasions, with intent to harm people, are INCREDIBLY rare. Accidental firearm deaths are not nearly as rare. Suicides too. |
Anonymous
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BANG!
Call Servepro for cleanup. Sleep like a baby afterwards. |
Anonymous
You are smart. People with guns in the house have much higher rates of suicide. Why? Because they are successful the first try. |
Anonymous
| Have thought about this. My husband (Army vet) would shoot them. I would try if I were alone. Live in Maryland - hope we would not be prosecuted. But the political situation is nuts these days, so who knows. Would rather go to jail knowing I defended my kids. |
Anonymous
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I've thought this through, sadly. We also have a full house alarm system and a big dog. If someone came in at night, I would grab my children and hide them in my walk-in closet behind the hanging clothes (they hang low) with a cell phone and put them on 911. They would be instructed not to leave that room no matter what they hear happening outside. The only time they should come out is if me or my husband tells them it's ok or if the police are there.
This would buy them some time while my husband or I confront the intruders and the police show up (prob about 10 mins). |
Anonymous
Odd. You’d think a string of three suicides at the same school within 6 months would be covered by the media. |
Anonymous
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Most home break ins are crimes of opportunity.
Unless you have the hope diamond in your closest, most burglars are looking for the easiest house to hit and the fastest escape. As a PP said, get a dog. A big dog with a big bark. A barking dog is enough to have them move on to the next house |
Anonymous
This is why I hate that my husband insists on having one. By the time he awoke from his sleeping stupor, opened the safe, put together the gun, the burglar will be in his face saying give me that gun. Idiot. |