Friday Fun: Lockpicking

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As I recently posted on Instagram, I bought my family a lockpicking training set. Lockpicking is an essential skill that every child and parent should know. From accidentally locking your keys in the house to ensuring our children have the skills to escape a bad situation, lockpicking literally opens doors.

Obviously, some folks are uncomfortable with the idea, because the skill is amoral – it has no intrinsic morality, good or bad. We could use our lockpicking skill for great good (escaping a kidnapping) or great evil (breaking and entering).

Lockpicking training sets come with a set of the actual picks, but also include transparent acrylic locks. These are fascinating tools; they’re common locks like padlocks, door locks, etc. but instead of metal, they’re see-through plastic. It’s a great way to teach kids (and ourselves) how these seemingly complex devices work.

The set I bought includes a padlock; I also bought other locks for additional practice.

One other thing you’ll find as you start picking locks is that in the beginning, it takes FAR longer than you expect it to. We’ve been conditioned by movies and TV shows to expect to wiggle a pick for a second or two and have the lock magically pop open. When I first learned lockpicking, a straightforward padlock took me close to 45 minutes. It’s a good opportunity to remind kids (and adults) that what you see in the movies isn’t always an accurate portrayal of reality. No one wants to see James Bond working on a four-way, 24-tumbler lock for 2 hours.

Please remember to use your powers for good.

Disclosure: all product links in this post are Amazon affiliate links. I earn a small but non-zero direct financial benefit from any purchases you make. Thank you for supporting my blog!

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