Kids and Screen Doors

What is it with kids and screen doors?  They should never occupy the same place at the same time.  The screen on the door to our cottage has been ruptured outward so many times that I have lost count.

Of course, the same has been true of our screen door at home, but it got so much more use that it didn’t seem as ridiculous that it had to be fixed seasonally when the kids were young.  On one of those repair jobs, I watched carefully to see how it was done.  Armed with this knowledge, I have personally repaired the cottage screen door repeatedly.

Grandkids pushed it out the first time, and I’m not sure how many other times.  Then there was the occasion when my elderly father-in-law fell through it badly scraping his fragile skin.  I thought I would be pro-active the next time, so I purchased a heavy duty metal mesh panel and positioned it across the frame at the height where little hands might push or older hands might reach during a fall.

Sigh….the heavy mesh is now pulled loose from the metal frame.  This morning my husband also noted that the screen on the lower portion of the door has been kicked out.

No matter….the season when the screen stays intact will be the year when my husband and I sit here alone in the silence waiting for the sound of a slamming door.