IT’S natural to feel the need to take extra precautions when you’re looking after your children alone.
However, one mum is being trolled for how far she goes to ensure her safety at home.
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Karolina, known as karolina.my.motherhood on TikTok, has shared the steps she takes to keep her family secure.
In a video on her TikTok page, Karolina revealed she “always does this when home alone”.
To start, she signals to anyone outside that the house is occupied by leaving her trainers outside the front door.
She then double-locks the doors.
Next, she uses a blanket to cover the glass section of the door, preventing anyone from peeping in.
Karolina also tapes the letterbox shut, ensures all the windows are closed, and draws the curtains.
She then secures the back conservatory door by shutting and locking it, before wedging it shut with a chair to stop it being opened from the outside.
Moving to another door in her home, she attaches a coat hook to the side of it and wraps bells around the door handle and hook.
This way, if the door is opened, the bells will jingle.
She also balances an empty tealight candle on the same door handle and places a pen on top of it.
If the door were to open, the pen would fall, and the bells would ring, creating an alarm.
Finally, she adds a doorstop alarm, which sounds if the door is pushed against it.
But despite justifying her precautions as safe for her when she is alone with her child, many other TikTokers disagreed with her techniques
Some took to her comments section to share their thoughts.
One wrote: “That’s a great way to give your kid anxiety as they get older.”
A second added: “I understand that you may have your own reasons for being extra cautious but this will end up making your child very nervous.
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“Perhaps talk to someone about your fears.”
However, another person said: “I grew up with my mum never locking the doors and now I’m a full adult and get anxious when doors are unlocked at night so it’s not how you were raised.”
But someone else suggested: “I think you should move out of that area.”
Five savvy mum hacks to save you a fortune
ANY parent knows just how pricey it can be to feed the kids – especially if they’re a fan of branded, expensive products. But there are a few hacks that can help save you money, as mum-of-two and Fabulous Digital Senior Reporter Sarah Bull explained:
Batch cook
This is a hack that lots of mums, including myself, swear by. One thing I like to do is batch cook a tomato sauce – hiding a load of vegetables inside, including carrots, peppers and onion. Once it’s cooled, pop it into an ice cube tray to freeze. Then you can pop out the portions and bag up – ready to use for anything from a pasta sauce to a pizza base.
Home Happy meal
You’d be hard pushed to find a kid who doesn’t like McDonald’s. But with Happy Meals now priced at £3.89 each, it can be pricey getting them for your children – especially if you’ve got more than two. But why not try making your own home? Keep the packaging from your last trip to McDonald’s and cook up some chicken nuggets and fries in the air fryer. Pop a budget toy in a little bag and serve with a Fruit Shoot for a budget-friendly at home Happy Meal.
Make use of leftovers
If you’re savvy enough to plan things in advance, you can make use of leftovers to keep your kids sustained for another day. If you make something like pizza, for example, why not make enough for lunch the next day too? Lots of kids actually prefer cold pizza, and it’s especially useful if you make packed lunches for yours.
Get the kids involved
Not specifically a budget hack, but one that I’ve found always helps encourage kids to eat things they haven’t tried before. I’ve cooked things like fajitas, and put the ingredients all in different bowls, before getting the kids to make their own. While I’ve put out their favourites – like chicken, cheese and cucumber – I’ve also popped pepper and lettuce in a bowl. And, much to my delight, they both sampled that in their fajitas. What a score!
Ditch the brands
One thing that can make shopping much more expensive than it needs to be is going for branded products. We always used to be a family that swore by Heinz ketchup, refusing to go for anything else, but with the price of that shooting up, we’ve swapped for supermarket own brand ketchup and saved loads – especially considering how much of it we get through. If your kids are less than willing to make that swap, why not put the unbranded product in the branded product’s packaging and see if they notice the difference?
