Closed Door, Opened Door Policy

This is something that the Chief noted about the differences in both our family...philosophy. It started with our bedroom doors.

See, the Chief notices that the bedroom doors in our house aren't closed (when empty) or locked (when occupied). 'Course, the only time a bedroom door is closed is when the aircon is on, so that the room gets cold. Otherwise, mum has this thing about keeping the doors (and windows) open 'for ventilation'.

Not that we found any need to ventilate the room, since we're only home at night when the room isn't so stuffy or such. In fact we've done quite well with our room in James Blyth Court without much airing (well yes we did have the windows open a slight bit once in a while, but that was because it was much colder outside and was our only aircon.

So. Bedroom doors open or unlocked. See, maternal conditioning is a fine thing in many different ways. Enough reminders for someone to do something and sooner or later you'll see it done without telling, just so that you don't have to keep telling. Ahem.

This essentially means that even when we're in the room doing anything, anyone can (and do) barge in. Quite honestly we're used to family members just opening our door followed by immediate conversation, heck, our mornings are usually started by mum coming in while we're still sleeping to steal clothings or our towel to make up the laundry quota, then our dad to wake us up (supplementary to our mobile alarm), then mum again to do vacuuming or whatnot chores.

In contrast the Chief's family practise a stricter privacy policy. Door remains shut (most of the time) and locked, with family members knocking and waiting for permission to enter. Cor.

Now this does sorta spill over to other things we do.

We've had friends over to the house before, although not frequently because the telly's normally taken up by the parents which means all videogaming and DVD Nites have to be done elsewhere, which leaves us househosting for boardgames generally.

The Chief meet up with friends outside. Not many know where the Chief's place is - rarer still those who've been inside. Well then again there's rather a number of family members staying together, much akin to those rich Chinese families in them Chinese television series, so a gathering of friends would be much easier outside.

You'll realize that this makes our presence there much more noticiable.

Well even the Chief says that we're a relatively much more open fellow, shy violet that we are.

Wonder what everyone else feel about their privacy settings. Then again, we adher to the Open Door policy because we're staying home with the family. Who knows how when we stay out (a long time more, probably...)