Can my parents lock me in my room?

[Rayanne]

I wanna know if it's ok for my parents to lock me in my room. I got in trouble cause I spit a pea cross the dinner table at my brother cause he kept kickin me under the table and wouldn't stop. My parents grounded me for a week but one nite a friend needed my help and I snuck out of the house to meet her and my dad totally freaked out on me when I got home. He said I was grounded for a month and then the next morning he put a frickin pad lock on the outside of my door!!! They let me go to school but the rest of the time I'm locked up and they won't even let me out to eat they just bring me a plate. I have an attached bathroom so that's ok but I feel like an animal in a cage. I'm totally scared cause our apartment building has been on fire twice already this year and if there's a fire I'll burn to death in my room cause the door is locked and we're on the fourth floor so to high to jump. Can my parents really lock me up or should I call the cops?

[retdetsgt]

It would probably be illegal if they left the apartment with you locked up. If they are there, no.

Here's an idea. Why don't you quit acting like a little jerk and do what your parents tell you to do. I bet if you started behaving, your parents would take the lock off. They are just responding to you, not the other way around.

[Rayanne]

They leave all the time while I'm locked up. So can I have them arrested?

[Citicop]

They leave all the time while I'm locked up. So can I have them arrested?

Maybe.

You'll succeed in getting yourself removed from the home, placed into foster care, and bounced around inside the system until you turn 18.

So if you are doing it to "get them in trouble," you want to think carefully about your clever plan.

[TEXASCOP]

Well, if they fear you are going to sneak out again then they may be in their right. We had a case like that and the dad had cleared out the kids room to literally nothing but a bed and a desk. He made his son slowly earn back all of his property, and yes he was locking him in the room. Guess what, that kid started making better grades in school.

[retdetsgt]

I used to do the opposite. I took the doors off of their rooms for a few days. That was worse.

[scott715us]

They leave all the time while I'm locked up. So can I have them arrested?

No. Grow up. You think you have it bad now, wait till you get into the real world. Somehow I see myself or one of my counterparts giving you a ride in the not too distant future.

[Samuel]

So they "lock you up" with a computer and internet access???

[Rayanne]

So they "lock you up" with a computer and internet access???

Well I need a computer and the internet for most of my schoolwork so they can't take that away. I still have my TV too and everything else they just don't want me around THEM like I'm not good enough to be part of the family and to be honest I don't WANT to be around them anymore.

[Legoate]

I used to do the opposite. I took the doors off of their rooms for a few days. That was worse.

I did exactly the same thing to my son after he slammed his door a couple of times. You would have thought I killed him after the entire weeks worth of whining....Funny, I've only had to do it once.

[Legoate]

Well I need a computer and the internet for most of my schoolwork so they can't take that away. I still have my TV too and everything else they just don't want me around THEM like I'm not good enough to be part of the family and to be honest I don't WANT to be around them anymore.

Then you really don't have it all that bad do you.

[Kimble]

Well I need a computer and the internet for most of my schoolwork so they can't take that away. I still have my TV too and everything else they just don't want me around THEM like I'm not good enough to be part of the family and to be honest I don't WANT to be around them anymore.

You can't always get a good feel for what a person behind the keyboard is like in real life, but sometimes it takes just a few sentences to get a real sense of someone's personality is like by what they say and how they say it... yours is coming through pretty clearly, and you can either heed the advice already given above or ignore it and continue being locked in your room (and I bet I already know which you'll chose).

[mobrien316]

Yes, they can do it.

If your dad starts hitting you with a baseball bat, call the police. Short of that, do what they tell you to do and if they discipline you for not listening, try to learn from it.

[retdetsgt]

I did exactly the same thing to my son after he slammed his door a couple of times. You would have thought I killed him after the entire weeks worth of whining....Funny, I've only had to do it once.

It was a daughter that I did it to. The look on her face when I took it off was priceless. In was a one time thing here too. Silly girl thought she had a constitutional right to privacy, I guess.

[chewy]

God, what happen to the good old days when parents could just smack the kids around to keep them in line? I never seriously misbehaved because I knew it meant a beating!