yes, I agree why answer I never do. If I don't know them I don't answer thats simple. If the kids our outside windows and doors open to watch them. Its a scary world now days. Very scary.
That is too scary! It makes me nervous just letting my oldest play on our back deck when it's closed off and I'm not DIRECTLY outside. We have some shady characters and not so nice neighbors that live around us, and I worry about letting him play outside alone. If someone comes to the door and its just me and the kids, I usually just crack the door and peek out to see who it is. Since we don't have a peep hole in our door or anything, i think it's the safest way to answer the door. lol
MEg and keep yoru foot behind the door so they can't push in so easily and see if there are more people there with you. My kids knew not to open doors with out me home , one time I had a dentist apoint ment emergenncy or something they would not let me take kids to and my oldest was old enough to baby sit. They stayed home and actually opened the door ........... To a police man! He tried to run my name to find out who I am for more info etc because I reported hearing a baby crying early in the morning and someone left a stroller at the end of our street. They got in trouble for letting even a police man talk to them too! Funny but these days you can't trust anyone at all not even the cops!
I have two good-sized dogs. Whenever I open the one door, my dogs are right there with me, and I will reach down and lock the screen door as they talk to me. Also, I've noticed that often when people come to the door, they step back away from the door. I assume that's to not be quite as imposing. We have a very small front porch, and they actually step OFF of it. Last summer we had several break-ins in the area. A guy came around trying to sell security systems. The front door was open, and when he knocked, both dogs were there right away making sure he knew about them. When he told me what he wanted, I just laughed and said, "You just met my security system...." I honestly believe they're the only reason we weren't broken in, as the kid who they caught doing it was a neighbor and knew we had the dogs!
About 2 years ago, in our old house... which was up a 1/4 mile very steep and very rugged (most of the time if it was raining and all winter long you NEEDed 4wheel to get up it) driveway and unseeable from the road, there was a knock at our door. I look out and there is this very old, very frail woman... she was a Jehovah Witness and was there to try to drop off literature. There was another woman driving who looked just as old and just as frail. I was very disgusted that a church would allow.. and in fact encourage and require... someone who was practically defenseless to go out to such places. Who knows what kind of people would have been behind that door that she knocked on... and had I been the "wrong" kind of person I could have easily made sure those old women were never seen from again. I did have a really good looking guy knock one time.. he was out hunting and the deer he had shot had come onto our land and he was asking permission to track it through our woods... and much as I hate hunting, I let him because the thought of a wounded deer in my woods was much worse to me.
Dude... so I'm sitting her by my dinning room door responding to this thread, and someone knocks on my diningroom door! the kids are right here, the windows are open and they can see in.. I simply picked up the baby and said come on to the others and we went to my room..lol. It was a man and woman with a little boy.. people I have never seen before but I believe they had some religious literature in their hands and he had some sticking out of his shirt pocket (yes it's very open here..lol). How crazy is that?
I complain often of our small town and how I wish we had more. Then I read things like this and think you know I really do love this small town. I love living somewhere I can leave my front and back door for that matter open and run to the store and never think twice. A while back we had a couple registered s@x offenders move in to our town, well between the police station reporting it to the town and the local paper running there pictures, addresses, and place of employment enough times they moved within a month. The wonders of a small town in the middle of now where.
I do the same...but I only have one medium sized dog. But I always lock the screen door as someone is talking...if I answer the door at all. I think it is rude to come knocking on doors anyway. I especially think it's rude when people do it as it beginning to get dark. That is probably why I HATE going door to door passing out church information..our church does that once every Sunday night. We have had break-ins..during daylight hours. A few on my street. They only hit homes where no one was home. So creepy to think the guy doing it knew I was home...he also probably knew I had a dog. I was told that a dog is a huge deterrent. The houses that were broken in were homes without dogs. I'm sure that isn't the rule...but it may help a bit.
I KNOW the dogs made a difference for us! The neighbors diagonal behind us were hit, Rachael's best friend was hit (and that was the one that got them caught, btw!), the house two doors down was hit, Phillip's friend was hit. During the day, when no one was home. They would kick in a back door. They caught a 13yo kid who lives on our street and use to play with our kids. But you KNOW he was part of a group that had adults with them! I've been told that even if you don't have a dog, you should keep dog bowls and toys around. Then if someone from out of the neighborhood is checking things out, he'll notice and won't take the chance.
My step mom has done the door to door thiklike that and I worried about her in some areas, but she feels she has to do it. I understand that but am really happy when someone younger vounteers to go with er sinc eI live so far away. (btw she has three strong men for sons and a daughter who live near by)
It seems that daytime break-ins are becoming common with both parents at work and the kids at school. I'm wondering if not answering the door when you are home with your kids could be more dangerous since it could be criminals checking for empty houses. I was wondering if it might be useful to have a door hanger or sign that says something like "Homeschool in progress. Do not disturb." that would indicate someone is home but not answering the door. Or, would this alert someone to the possibility of a woman home alone with her children?
Mom2scouts I was thinking the same thing. That if it is common in some of these areas with daytime break ins if they are checking to see, and when no one answers then they note it is an empty home.
I actually wondered the same thing. In fact, once I took my two little ones and the dog on a walk....then the thought hit me that someone may notice I left and break in while my older two are at home. Maybe that is a paranoid thought...but it was one I could not ignore. I went back home right away. Now, if I take my little ones on a walk, I am not gone long or go a distance...and I leave the dog at home. If I plan on walking around a lot or over to a few stores near me...I take everyone and leave the dog. It's not full proof...but it's all I can think of. I hate the thought of leaving my 12 year old home with my 10 year old..or just my 12 year old..while the rest of us walk to the park or something. I never thought much of it until we had daytime break ins. It's been awhile since the last one...but not quite a year...I don't know. Just trying to keep the kids as safe as possible.
I don't answer my door if I don't know who you are either. We get tons of door to door sales people. A few times I've had to get short when they've caught us with our front door opened. The other day the guy said, "but I'm not selling anything" we were eating and I said, I don't care, I don't want to be bothered. I have a No Soliciting sign that runs in 2 inch letters down to the top of my door bell. You can't miss the thing! We had an incident last year with our insurance agent though. We thought we had some roof damage and he was going to come out and check it to approve or deny it. We tried to set up an appointment but he said he didn't "do" appointments and it would be between 1-3 weeks before he would come out. Time went by and I forgot about it. Almost at 3 weeks it was mid afternoon and I was cooking and the radio was going, the girls were playing. The front door was shut, but the windows opened. I heard a knock and ignored it like usual. Normally people get the hint and go away, but he kept knocking and ringing the bell. After a few times he yelled, "I'm your insurance man!" I asked, "what company?" To check him and he gave the right one. Once inside he got all huffy with me for not opening up sooner as he's on a time schedule. I told him a phone call before would have been nice so I could have seen you coming. He said he didn't have time to make calls before every house and besides he can't call while driving. I told him once the car was parked in front of my house you could have called. He was rude and nasty to us from that moment forward. Our claim was also denied, I'm sure that had a lot to do with it too.
It is probably good that you went ahead and answered. I have had the same girl from Southwestern at my door the last three mornings before 9 am (I am usually still in my jammies anyway) and I haven't opened it. It is obvious we are home since my kids are screaming at the top of their lungs that "Someone is at the door mommy!!" I am hoping she gets the hint. Can I put a sticky on my door that says, "No, no and no"?
I don't have to worry about this now. I live on 200 acres and my driveway is around 1/3 mile long and you can't see the house from the country road. I have lived here one month and the only two people who have knocked on my door without me knowing they were coming were my uncle and my mail man. My mail man wanted to stop by and say hello since we graduated high school together. When I lived in the burbs for 8 years I NEVER EVER opened my door to anyone I didn't know. I go to the door and quietly tell my dog to speak and he'd scare them off. One time when we first moved there my husband answered the door and the guy tried to sell us meat out the back of the truck. It was a bad situation and the guy wouldn't leave. My husband told he he was either gonna kick his a%$ or call the cops if he didn't leave.
The doorbell rings. All four kids stream towards the door, peer out the windows, and scream "Mommy! The doorbell!" at the top of their lungs. We don't get a lot of sales people, though. Mostly it's the UPS guy dropping off a package for my dh's work, and he never sticks around. My kids have let people from church in the house - close friends - while I was in the shower. They got in serious trouble for that, in front of said friends. I apologized to friend and said, no offense, I just don't want them letting people in the house. She's a mom and said, no problem, I totally agree. They don't do that anymore.
Didnt read all the other responses.... I would just say, "Thank you so much for thinking of me and stopping by, God only knows I was in need of some adult conversation, but I really need to get back to reality here, thanks for stopping by and have a nice day!" You could always throw in a, while looking back into the house, "shut up, you'll get fed when I feed you". Kidding!
My husband has a business where he goes to people's homes every day. Sometimes when he is ahead of schedule and needs to wait for the people to get home. Usually he just sits in his car waiting. On a number of occasions a neighbor comes out to the street making their presense known and takes down his license plate. The neighbor usually has a cell phone in their hand. They just want my husband to know that they are watching him. On a few occasions they have knocked on my husband's car window and ask him what he is doing. He then shows them his business card and says he has an appointment with so and so at such and such time. I too don't open my door to people. We have a window close to the door and I will talk through the open window. Our business phone is at home and I must answer the phone 24/7. I used to say that I was not interested when sales people call and then hang up. Now I just hang up without a word when I realize it is a sales person. If it is a local sales person, I will politely say I am not interested. I always need to hear what a person says because it might be a business call. Some business callers sound like sales people.
