DEAR ABBY: I hope it's not too late to offer a suggestion to "Looking for Privacy," whose in-laws copied their house key and used it as they saw fit. DO NOT key the locks on all your doors alike. With an attached garage, I changed the lock on only the garage side door and gave that key to my in-laws to keep. However, they do not have the key to get into my home from the garage; I leave that door unlocked only if I EXPECT them.
Sound controlling? Perhaps, but I realized that if my mother-in-law had no qualms about barging into our bedroom and jumping into our bed (so we could all snuggle and watch TV), there were no measures too extreme to ensure our privacy from some people. The intrusions into our privacy forced me to face the fact that this type of situation only gets worse with time. I love my in-laws, but any attempt to gently discuss this type of subject resulted only in wounded feelings. Some people just don't "get it," so do what you have to do. -- MRS. JONES, ANYWHERE, U.S.A.
DEAR MRS. JONES: No need to apologize or to discuss it. Your thinking is A-OK.