Before becoming a home owner I lived in a variety of apartment buildings around town and through most of that we had a storage unit for the surplus of belongings that come with a growing family (aka "mostly junk"). We would move the belongings from time to time based on need, cost of the unit, proximity to where we lived, etc. During one such occurrences we were in the middle of moving to a slightly larger place and I went to pickup a bed frame for Dave's "big boy bed".
Dave stayed with his mom and Alexander, still a toddler at this point, came with me. I entered the code for the front gate and pulled around to our spot hoping out to open the unit's sliding door. I left the engine running as it was hot and closed my door to keep it cool for him. I was standing just a couple feet away when I heard it. The power locks engaged and I rotated around to see a grinning Alexander staring back at me. He had recently figured out how to get out of his car seat and to my horror how to operate the locks.
I walked back to the car window and asked him to unlock it. Instead he went to the nearby diaper bag to extract some snacks. I tried the carrot and stick approach offering him rewards and then when that failed promising to spank him if he didn't unlock it. He just ignored it all. I debated with myself that he understood the situation (how could he at his age I thought) but he certainly seemed to be operating as though he was in control and knew it. I stepped back into the storage unit to avoid the direct heat and collected the items I had came here for setting them near the back of the car.
"Ok buddy, let's go see mom and Dave now"
"You want to go get some ice cream?"
"Let's play a game and see who can unlock the car the fastest!"
"Daddy's hot Alex, let him in please"
"You better let me in or your in big trouble"
Still nothing.
At this point an elderly couple rolled up nearby to visit their unit and assessed the situation. She came to one side to talk to Alex and keep him distracted (although I don't think he cared) since he jumped into the back and laid down. The husband retrieved a wire hanger from his unit and helped me twist it and feed it in through the door frame. After some effort and a whole lot of sweat we were able to push the unlock button. I thanked them and collected my son from the back returning to him to his car seat with him sleeping the whole time. From that moment on I've always kept the keys with me, a window down or an adult in the car.
7/28/2021