Banning Bathroom locks since 2011

It's 2:43AM and I'm blogging. In fact, I've been blogging for the last 20 minutes but my brand new laptop which happens to have a very large touch pad accidently deleted everything I had written-don't ask me how because I have no idea. If the last two hours are any indication of how the rest of my day is going to be, I think I'm just going to pull the blankets over my head and hibernate in bed for the next 24 hours. Seriously.

It all started when I heard my sweet little boy crying in his bed from night terrors. I went into his room to comfort him and settle him down. Once I knew he was peacefully asleep again I started to leave his room when something caught my eye. The bathroom door (which is in PJ's room) was closed but the light was on inside. I went to turn the light off, and this is where my night went down hill.... can you guess what I discovered?????

My son had locked us out of our bathroom.

This may not be horrifying for, lets say, people who have multiple bathrooms. Or perhaps people who don't have toddlers which need to go potty throughout the night. Or maybe those that have husbands or boyfriends who are conveniently handy and able to deal with such situations. But for me? I live in a studio apartment with a single bathroom (which I am locked out of). I have a toddler who needs access to said bathroom and whom I can't simply tell to "hold it!". My man is thousands of miles away and unable to assist me in this situation (physically). So basically, this is a nightmare. Did I mention it was around midnight when I made this discovery?!

I tried to stay positive and get the door unlocked. I mean, really, how hard could it be anyway? I get a wire hanger and try to jiggle the lock loose, no luck at all. I keep trying for 45 minutes, still no dice. It's getting later and later and then Dave called me. In true Nikki fashion I just freak out. I mean, what if I needed to use the bathroom? What if PJ needed to use the bathroom? How will I get ready for work in the morning?! I'm such an emotional wreck at this point (an overflow of other events from earlier in the day too) and I don't think I've ever been more thankful for a bathroom! Dave calms me down because he's the most amazing person ever. Even though he wasn't physically able to be here to fix it for me, he was there for me emotionally and that is all I could ever ask (it was creeping up on 2AM at this point).

So I pull myself together and keep messing with the lock. Fifteen minutes later I see the screws on the door knob and think that it would be genius to just try to remove the door knob all together. Wrong. Taking out the screws just made the door knob loose and I couldn't remove it (lesson learned).

FINALLY I decided to do what I should have done all along. I googled how to unlock a bathroom door from the outside. Amazing how wonderful the internet is. In two seconds I found the solution (with picture examples to boot!). I needed a long little flat head screwdriver and my hopes took a dive again when I realized I didn't have one. But wait!! Mr Beneigh got me a super awesome fully loaded tool box for Christmas...which was inconveniently out in my car. I walk all the way out to my car, dig through the tool box, find a tiny flat head screwdriver, and come back into the apartment. In the middle of the night!!!!!

Two hours, an emotional meltdown, a loose door knob, and a trip out to the car later I got the bathroom door UNLOCKED. Funny how easy it is to do with the right tool and some useful information from google.

 

Success!!!

You can see where the knob used to sit prior to me taking the screws out...

PJ and I are going to have a serious talk in the morning about this lock.

It's 3:11AM now and yeah, I over reacted. It's just a bathroom for crying out loud and being locked out isn't the end of the world. But hey, this was a first for me. And I still couldn't be happeir to see the inside of that damn bathroom....