DEAR ABBY: I've been living with my boyfriend for several years, and he has this habit of not locking the front door. Is this a guy thing? I have told him repeatedly that I don't feel safe when he does this, yet every other morning I wake up and the front door is not locked!
I feel like a broken record. His response is: "I'm here. Nothing is going to happen." He also doesn't lock the balcony door. Even though we are on the second floor, I still hate coming home to doors in the apartment that are unlocked. It makes me feel vulnerable.
Am I overreacting? How can I talk to him about it without sounding like a nag? -- AMBER IN TEXAS
DEAR AMBER: You are not overreacting. Your boyfriend appears to be operating under the delusion that he is a superhero. Too often we see reports in the news about yet another tragedy, after which a neighbor appears on camera saying, "I don't understand it. Things like this don't happen in our neighborhood."
Because you haven't been able to convince him to change his ways, the solution to your problem is to take the initiative and lock the doors yourself.