“The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.” – Henry Ford
I’m sorry if no one has ever told you this before, but you are the only one responsible for your safety. Not a doctor, a cop, or a firefighter. It’s you, chief. When you get married, you’re now in charge of the safety of both of you. When a kid comes into the picture, guess what? You’re up to take care of that tiny life, too. Can you handle that?
Your family needs to know that when they go to sleep at night that you’re going to crush the bump in the night. So I’m going to share with you some knowledge that every man needs to protect his home. These are the bones of The Secure Dad Layered Home Defense Strategy.
Discipline
You’ve got to put in the work to protect your family at home. The days of unlocked doors and safe neighborhoods are gone if they really ever existed in the first place. To best counter the threat of a home invasion, you need to commit to taking care of the basics.
First, lock your doors and windows. I don’t care how much your home cost, what your HOA fees are, or if your neighbor is a cop – take the basic step to make sure your home isn’t easy for thieves to enter. I’ve seen tons of security footage of criminals approaching a front door and the first thing they do is try the doorknob to see if the door’s unlocked. Why? Because enough people in 2022 still don’t secure their homes.
Also, if you have an alarm system be sure to pay for monitoring and arm it when you’re gone. Don’t buy the system and cheap out and not activate the monitoring features. A loud noise isn’t enough to scare away intruders anymore. And if you don’t arm it, then the best alarm system in the world is worthless – and it’s your fault.
Deter
Most people think that home security doesn’t start until the bad guy breaks in. This is just plain dumb. But if you believe this I can’t totally blame you because alarm company commercials have conditioned us to think that way. But that’s how their systems work, nothing happens until the bad guy strikes.
So let’s be smart about this, the best weapon we have as men to protect our homes is to deter a criminal from targeting us. This way we can win a fight before it even starts. You may have a delusion that you’ll become Chuck Norris in a home invasion, but chances are you won’t. Your best bet is to make your home a hard target and sleep peacefully.
A simple way we can deter a criminal from selecting our home is to add light to our property. Using your existing fixtures, add dusk-to-dawn bulbs that will turn on at night and off during the day. Simple, right? By adding more light to our property, we can take away dark hiding spots and communicate to a thief that your home is going to be hard to get into.
Fortify
When I talk about fortifying your home from an invasion you might think about adding bars to the windows and a moat with sharks with lasers. While I won’t say that won’t work… your family may not like living in a shark-defended prison.
Since doors are the most popular ways burglars enter homes, a simple start is to reinforce them. An easy upgrade is the door hardware on your door frame. Get a security strike plate and attach it to the frame of your door with 2 to 3-inch screws. What most people don’t realize is that when a baddy kicks down a door, it’s the frame that fails, not the door or lock. Also, consider adding a door jammer to brace the door shut.
Defend
This is where most of you thought we’d start, defending your family from a home invasion. But see what all we’ve done before this point? My layered home defense strategy that I’ve been teaching you keeps you from groping around in the dark in your underwear looking for the bad guy. If it comes down to physically defending yourself in your home, things have gone really wrong and you better give this all you’ve got to keep your family safe.
Defending against an intruder will be as unique as your home, your attacker, and your abilities. Work hard to get self-defense training and firearm training so you can learn how to handle your business. The only real security you have in this life is what you bring to the table and how you can use it.
There’s a lot more to this layered home defense strategy than just what I’ve shared here. You can learn the whole thing with my book Home Security: The Secure Dad’s Guide on Amazon. To help you beyond this article you can download my Home Security Quick Start Guide. It’s yours absolutely free because I want you and your family to be safe and enjoy the life you’ve built together.
-Andy Murphy, The Secure Dad
About the author: Andy Murphy founded The Secure Dad in 2016 with the mission to help families live safer, happier lives. Andy works to help Protector Parents secure their families at home, online, and in public. To get a boost on your home’s security download Andy’s free Home Security Quick Reference Guide.
