One of Those Things

Something I feel I need to get off of my chest and make a mini-rant about, is the insistence of certain people that we lock our doors when they leave. Yes, after my insightful post a few minutes ago, I'm posting a rant. I'm hoping, however, that someone can give me some insight on this.

We have a relative who when walking out the door insists that we make sure to lock our door after he leaves. Unfortunately he is not the only person who does this, another friend of ours has taken up the habit of reminding us to lock the door. I keep having to resist the urge to say "Really? Well, I was planning on actually propping the door open and putting up a neon sign that says 'ROB ME PLEASE!' I mean, after all, we do live in Dallas, right?"

Keep in mind that I used to live in a rural area where we never locked our back door at night, and in fact left the door to the porch wide open during the summer so the night breeze would cool off the house and the cat could get to her litterbox. Probably not the safest thing to do but we never had a problem. However, I am not naive enough to think I could get away with that in Dallas. I'd be crazy if I did. Every night we go through the apartment and make sure every lock is locked, we rarely open the windows and make sure they're locked tight when they're closed, and we make an effort to bring in notices left on the doors so any passerby would know we're alert. I make sure my car is locked while in the locked garage and make sure there's nothing in sight that would tempt a would-be burglar (yes, even in the garage). Call me paranoid but don't call me stupid. I do all in my power to be a responsible renter and don't leave opportunities for would be house thieves.

So the insistence of these people that we lock our doors I find rather insulting. Why do these people insist on reminding us to lock our door when they leave? Is it really because they think we are that stupid? Or do they feel a need to be our "mommy"? I can understand why the first person reminds us to lock our door, he is used to living with someone who tends to forget these things, but even so I still feel that my intelligence and common sense has been insulted when he does. Of course there are many other things he does that bother me, but things like this just make me want to rip my hair out.

I'm not a child, I do have the sense that God gave me, and I don't set myself up to be a victim. Same goes for Sean. Perhaps this reminder is this person's way of trying to exert control over us or perhaps he just has no tact. Oh well. Not much I can do.