By golly! Teach your kids!

Executive Member Joined: Jan 16 2008 Posts: 280

WOW! Ithought it was only MY neighbors. They do it constantly. I'll never forget, when my neighbor came over to me one day and said "why didn't you answer the door when my daughter knocked"? (I was then in middle of supper and I usually don't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone) Before I had a chance to answer , she said " and don't tell me you weren't home, my daughter peeked through the blinds and saw you all sitting there". WHAT NERVE! since then we keep our front door blinds tightly shut and I made sure to tell her kids why.

Gold Member Joined: Nov 27 2008 Posts: 1635

Diamond Member Joined: Nov 11 2007 Posts: 3791

Posted: Mon, Aug 02 2010, 5:16 pm Post subject: re: By golly! Teach your kids!

Life's Great, I hear you.
But it is very hard to break kids of this. They can't resist knock knock knocking and ringing doorbells.

I would get annoyed. Definitely. But I would be able to be understanding if it is a kid by himself who just couldn't help it (kids with sensory issues especially have trouble not knocking and knocking). But I would get very annoyed if the kid was accompanied by an adult and I heard that the adult said nothing to the kid.

I think I should be grateful that they like knocking. A couple of adults in this neighborhood just help themselves and open the door if I don't come in time. I HATE that. Evil or Very Mad

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Say, Think or Do One Thing Now to Bring Moshiach!

Posted: Mon, Aug 02 2010, 5:27 pm Post subject: re: By golly! Teach your kids!

My feeling is this: If you belong here, just come in. If you don't, go away. If you just come in and act like you belong, then you do.

I do try to keep my door locked even during the day, but my kids unlock it.

If you come in early in the morning and I am still in my pjs, it's your problem if you don't prefer to see that.
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"Often the things you worry about don't happen but other stuff does."
- Amother

Gold Member Joined: Dec 24 2009 Posts: 2433

Can I tell you a secret? In our last apartment the landlord was kind of absentee and wasn't really on top of maintenance things. In the FIVE years I lived there the only time we had a working doorbell was when we put in a wireless one from home depot (and then every time the next door neighbors changed the channel on their TV or someone pressed their car alarm it went off - LOUDLY). It broke relatively quickly. If someone wanted to come to our house they had to:
1. Call from outside
2. Call in advance
3. Yell up to the 3rd floor and hope we heard them

Since we moved we are totally not aware and caught off guard when the bell rings! My husband was shocked the first time a tzedaka collector rang a door bell - it had been a few years!

So the answer is disconnect your door bell!!! Laughing

Posted: Mon, Aug 02 2010, 8:28 pm Post subject:

I don't understand why a child doing it would bother you more than an adult? That baffles me.

I expect an adult (misulach or not) to behave properly and have derech eretz. Children are still learning.

Adult neighbors who don't want for me to come and just enter my house upset me greatly. I had one who was upset that she couldn't get past my baby gate to come upstairs when I told her I wasn't available.

I was sitting in my nightgown pumping. Did she really want to come upstairs and see that?

I am so glad she moved.
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Liba, mommy to Zlata Tova 5/6/98, Tziporah Faiga 1/12/01, Esther Rivka 7/13/04 and Avraham Chaim 7/2/2006

Gold Member Joined: Jul 21 2010 Posts: 1728

Gold Member Joined: Nov 17 2009 Posts: 1389

bh for my neighbors. no one in my neighborhood would DARE come into my house without knocking first. generally they call before coming as well. and then they knock a couple times and if there is no answer they go home. gotta love out of town communities.....

Posted: Mon, Aug 02 2010, 8:48 pm Post subject: re: By golly! Teach your kids!

I don't know if this would work by you, but this is what we do in our neighborhood.
We have signs on our doors.
For example:

Don't ring the door after 6:00 p.m - children sleeping

Please knock don't ring, baby sleeping

If you write something politely with a cute picture then it won't sound rude.

Posted: Mon, Aug 02 2010, 8:48 pm Post subject:

Posted: Tue, Aug 03 2010, 4:11 pm Post subject: re: By golly! Teach your kids!

I was just going to post a thread asking if it's disgusting of me to ignore the door sometimes, but then I saw this thread! Sometimes, it's just not a good time for me to answer the door - I am in pajamas, working, giving DS a bath... I always feel guilty ignoring the knocking/doorbell ringing - especially when they know I am home - there is music playing or it's my neighbor from across the hallway who saw me come home etc. I know they should not keep on banging the door down, but from the other side, is it terrible manners for me to ignore them?