What's your plan?

Home invasion. It is happening alot here at the moment. Basically every day this week I've heard it on the news of people being victims of home invasion. It is a massive, massive fear of mine. Especially being the wife of a night shift worker, meaning I am home alone at night, almost every night - with 5 kids.

Even the photo gives me the creeps when I know it's not real. I can't have the mindset that it won't happen to me. It might, it might not but I would rather be prepared to know what I can do than have it happen to me and not knowing how to protect my children.

First things first, I make sure that my doors are locked at ALL times. Including the deadbolt. I believe those chains that allow you to open the door partially are a load of crap. If you can have a peephole, USE it! Lock your fly screen door too if you have one. ALL THE TIME. Home invasions can happen at any time of the day! Having security screens on your windows is a good plus and if you have an alarm system, make sure the warning stickers are visible.

I sleep with my mobile phone under my pillow and I have important numbers on speed dial. I have a baseball bat down beside my bed. My eldest children know to try and escape the house without being seen and go to the neighbours(who are my in laws) and to be noisy outside their house to wake them up. My only fear is that they can't get out, all our bedrooms open into an open space, it's very hard to sneak anywhere. I thought that I could just get all the kids into one room and barricade ourselves in, but how do I do it with kids so young who don't understand why Mama is dragging them out of bed(plus I don't have enough hands to carry 3 sleeping toddlers).

It's not very nice to think about but every family should have a plan on what to do if this happens to you so that you can do your best to prevent any of your family member and yourself from getting hurt. My heart goes out to the victims of these home invasions and I have no idea how people can do this to others. They truly are evil beings.