Comment by Lerc
2 hours ago
When you say leave the door unlocked, do you mean while you are in the house or away?
I encountered this when someone was talking about where I live as being the kind of place where you could leave the door unlocked. Everyone thought that seemed overstating it because you'd only really do that if you were going out for a few minutes. We were quite shocked to hear they were talking about locking the doors while they were home. None of us had even considered that as a meaning even though it was the norm for where they came from.
It seems like there are about four different options - Leave it unlocked all the time, even if you’re gone for a while - Leave it unlocked all the time, except for when you leave the house for more than a few minutes - Leave it unlocked when you’re home and locked when you’re not home (Maybe another option here for locking when you’re sleeping?) - Leave it locked all the time
Personally I default to the latter because that’s how my idiosyncratic anxiety feels comfortable, even when I’ve lived somewhere where I would be able to hear people coming a mile off. But I know people who default to the first option even in a place where some of their neighbors default to the latter. A lot of it comes down to personal preference rather than environment, I suspect.
The norm (I think?) where I am is lock it if you’re out, and at night.
If and when you open it during the day, leave it unlocked (and perhaps open if it’s a nice day) until one of those two things happen.