Born in a Barn? Not in our house

My mum used to ask us all the time if we were ‘born in a barn?’ when we left doors open.  We have the opposite with N and it drives me mad.

We generally leave doors open, especially when it gets to winter because we have the Aga on at one end of the house attempting to warm that end, and the wood burner in the living room, heating up the other end.  Obviously if you close the doors in between, then the heat doesn’t flow (and it makes the living room like a sauna once the fire’s burning well).

I’m also not a fan of closing doors internally because it’s just feels so enclosed, and dark when you walk through the house and all the doors are shut.

But it doesn’t seem to bother N.  He goes round shutting doors behind him left, right and centre.  Even if I tell him to ‘leave the door open’, he’ll still shut it.

I think he particularly likes slamming doors (hope he grows out of that by the time he’s a teenager) which I can kind of understand.  But I’m also never sure what he’s up to the other side of a closed door.  It’s never sensible to fully trust a toddler.

Night times are the funniest.  I say night time, but it’s really morning.  We pull his door to once he’s gone to bed so we don’t disturb him, but also so we can hear if he wakes in the night.  But in the morning when he wakes up (or even on the rare occasion he gets out of bed at night), he’ll creep out of bed, open his door, then pull it quietly to again behind him before coming in to see me.  It’s as though he thinks there’s still someone sleeping in his room or he wants to keep that room dark.

Strange child!

What are you and your children like with doors?