Why is this such an issue?

Question

Why are so many parents posting about children escaping their homes? Toddlers?? Why is this even a thing? 
I worked in child welfare for years, and although I’ve heard of this, it was always older kids who were usually on the spectrum that escaped the home and wandered. 
Leave your kids with responsible adults. If the adult can’t stay awake with your child, don’t let them watch your child. 
Shut your door. Lock your door when you go. Even if someone is home. Put sensors on your door. These sensors beep whenever the door is opened. 
Not trying to shame anyone, but this blows my mind a bit. I’ve seen many, many posts over the last week about this happening.

Answer

Yep, my 1.5 year old can now reach the doorknob so I keep the door closed, locked and we have sensors on all our doors and can set an alarm if they are opened. I have a friend who ran over a toddler because the toddler escaped the house and ran between two cars and my friend didn't see him until it was too late. No way in hell I will let my toddler escape. I watch him like a hawk. I understand things happen and toddlers are fast, but get childproof doorknob covers. They're literally like $2 for a package.

Answer

I guess this is one of the things that you'll only understand when it happens to you.
Every situation (of an escaping kid) is different, so you can proof and safe your house as much as you want, an escape artist kid will find a way to get out.
I am now thinking of the youtube video of the kid crawling over 2 stacked babygates to get out of her bedroom, I am thingking about babies who crawl out of cat or dogdoors, I am thinking about myself at 3yo climbing out of our 1st story window,... I am thinking about myself at any age climbing our 2,5m gardenfence
I am dreading our now almost 9mo... Who also turns out to be a climber... To grow taller and more able.. I won't be able to leave him out of my sight. 
I think it's rather weird you're talking about kids on the spectrum, I personally think every kid tests out boundaries and it's up to said kid on how far they're willing to go to achieve their goal 
You know kids right.. Sometimes all it takes is to want to watch a flower on the other side of the road... 🙄 or they "just" want to pet the neighbors new puppy.. 
I had a kid from my school ringing my doorbell, when I was 6, he wanted to come and play with me 😂 he knew where I lived because I lived next to the school, he was my age but I didn't really know him, he wasn't in my class, I remember this because my parents were mad at me because I could have just asked to have someone over... I literally never invited him 🤣

Answer

So, it seems the info your missing is that NO parent can predict the exact moment in time when all of the follow coincides:
1: the child is tall enough to reach a door knob, lock, or worse, window. (Their growth rate is mind boggling, and faster than a busy adult mind can keep up with. This fact affects various parts of the families' every day life and poses one more of many distractions for parents).
2: the child understands how to use the door knob, locks, window. (They understand the point of these objects' existence long before they understand how to operate them themselves. Another point of fact that confuses & impedes parents ability to predict their children's needs, like when baby proofing needs updating).
3: variables only applicable to the individual family in question. I'll use my family as an example. I have an extremely sensitive 1 yr old and a climbing, escape artist 3 yr old. Until recently, the 1 yr old never cared why anything was happening, he just didn't like it, and and his cry reaches impressive decibel levels every day. The 3 yr old understood way too early that when his brother is upset/hurt (they hurt themselves all day long), I'm distracted & can't hear him, and that these are opportunities for doing things he is either not allowed to do or he's never done before. Since corporal punishment is something not used in our household & only one of us is typically able to be with both of them, teaching him better behavior is a long and, sometimes, excruciating process for us. He's essentially well behaved but toddlers are basically tiny explorers. Which leads to far too many incidences of bruises, cuts/scrapes, escapes and presents my next point.
4. The pandemic lifestyle conflicts with their natural energy and inquistiveness. After a year, most toddlers are probably so sick of the same four walls, so to speak. I know mine are. The 3 yr old pulls their step and chairs to the window so they can both stare at the yard longingly till we go outside 😑😂
Many parents are juggling more than ever with less help than ever. 
I'm just glad I didn't have to find out the hard way that my 3 yr old knows how to open the windows. He did it right in front of me and I just got lucky to be able to seize the moment and teach him no, and baby proof the windows. It never occurred to me that he would be able to do that so young that it would be such a dangerous problem. Maybe it should have, but toddlers are amazingly capable sometimes, too.
I definitely know some ppl are just irresponsible and shouldn't have kids, and I have not read any of the stories your referring to, but this is my experience and, as a welfare worker, I hope you keep these things in mind when looking at a parent. Some just need guidance and understanding (there is nothing that truly prepares anyone for parenting and it's so much more than the thousands of books on the subject), others shouldn't be trusted with themselves, much less children. 
2 days ago, I was playing toss with my 5 yr old cousin and in under a minute I completely missed granny taking the baby inside, a few feet from my right, where I thought I could still see them. Their house is right next to the highway, unfenced. I almost shit myself and vomited at the same time when I looked over and didn't see the baby. I ran around front thinking life was over before I thought to check inside. He's was fine, requesting candy.
All it takes is too many factors, often one being an innocent moment of distraction, at the exact wrong moment, and BAM. Life as you know it, over. This is a fear, some kind of understanding, that patents have to figure out how to live with, how to balance, every second of every day, so that it's not another distraction that lessens our parenting abilities. This may sound dramatic, but it's true, ever present, VERY REAL, and exhausting. And noone who's not a parent has a clue the parents they know are dealing with so much. It's just the way it is, because it's so hard to explain and can come out sounding like just so many excuses. Which is also stressful, tiring, and lonely.
Probably some of those parents were just irresponsible, but I'd bet there were also some who had the worst day of their lives.
 Sorry I'm so long winded right now, the subject really spoke to me lol.

Answer

Honestly, I try not to judge it.  I can see how it might happen.  Sometimes a child you never imagined could get a door open, suddenly does.  
When my first two babies were teeny, they were about 1 month old and 20 months old at the time.  I was in the living room changing the baby, and my 20 month old ran to the kitchen.  I didn’t think much of it, it was baby proofed and she had a little table in there with snacks she could grab when she needed something.
Then I heard the door open.  I was in shock.  I didn’t think she could REACH it yet muchless open it!  She had never even tried! I ran there in a panic and grabbed her.  I added a lock up at the top of the door then 
Luckily I was awake and supervising (and she was in a crib when I was asleep) but I recognize not all kids stay in the crib like they should and sometimes an extremely overtired or sick mom or dad doesn’t wake up the moment the children wake.  It is not the fault of the mother if she leaves her child with someone expecting them to be supervised and the person supervising fails either.  
I was very little when I learned to be super quiet to avoid waking my parents and sneak something I wanted.  I could have gotten outside if I wished too but I wasn’t that adventurous 😅
Now, if it happens frequently, or if the parents aren’t upset that it happened, and don’t make any changes, then I’d definitely have an issue.  My neighbor’s son constantly got out when he was little because she was sleeping in or showering.  She would just laugh it off when I’d see him in the street or something and bring him back.  THAT is when it’s a major issue.

Answer

This sorta happened to us once. My kid was 3 and we were getting ready to go on our nightly walk. There was some miscommunication and he thought we were ready to go so he headed outside, but we actually needed to grab our jackets or socks or whatever. So grabbed our crap upstairs then the kid wasn’t where we left him in the living room, so we were running all over the house looking for him before it dawned on us he might’ve gone outside alone. Sure enough there he was on the sidewalk in front of the house just waiting quietly for us. We were both home, both of us awake, both of us right next to the door 30 seconds before. Shit just happens sometimes.

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I went absolutely ape shit at my SIL this weekend 
My two nephews (5 and 2) were found luckily by her ￼ neighbour who is one of my friends and she called me to tell me they were playing in the main road on their scooters on their own and that she had them now and could I come and get them. 
We did and when we got to my SILs house she was fast asleep it took us 5 mins of ringing the doorbell 
These two boys had gone out her front door and the door to the block of flats and gone into the shed to get their toys and must of been out for a while and she had no clue . Bare in mind this was 11 o’clock in morning 
I was absolutely fuming , and she had no excuse just “oops they obviously didn’t wake me up” 🤬

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I wondered about this as well. I haven't had my baby yet so the reasoning could be over my head, but I have definitely thought of putting sensors on my doors that beep when they open just in case.

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It's happened where I live a bit too! It's incredibly sad. As soon as my oldest was able to open our front door we put a child proof door handle deal on it. Our security alarm also alerts us anytime a door or window opens. 
Sadly I just think a lot of it comes down to parents who just really don't care.

Answer

I don't understand either. We have a chain on the top that only we can reach and it's a short chain so even the cat can't slip the crack it's so small when the door is opened.

Answer

I don’t understand it either. Makes my blood boil.

Why is this such an issue?

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