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ccoker wrote:NEVER open the door to someone you don't know
period, end of discussion
instruct every member of your family to do the same

I had a scary thing happen years ago...
wife and I were in the backyard, our son, about 4 at the time goes inside for a minute to get a toy...

a few minutes later a man comes around to the the fence and calls for us...
announces that he's with the cable company and that he was just letting us know that he had rang the front doorbell and that our son opened it for him...

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This is what I worry about. Daughter is nearly 4 y.o. Doorbell rang several months ago (it was UPS, IIRC) and before I could get into the living room, she was already up and at the door, unlocking both doorknob lock and deadbolt.

She got quite the stern lecture for that.

So about a month later, doorbell rings again (delivery service again, this time bringin' my knives). She minds about unlocking the door, but darts to the window and flings aside the curtain: "Daddy, there's a man here!"

This one's gonna be a handful.....

We put locks that require keys from the inside on the doors after my son let himself out, around age 4.

If you have that kind of lock, you must always carry the key or hang it on a hook at adult height next to the door. Otherwise you could get locked in in case of fire.

- Jim

Venus Pax wrote:A few years ago, I had a man trying to get me to open my door.

He said that he "uh, made deliveries in the area.". Yeah. sure.

I finally told him to leave whatever it was on the porch and I'd get it later. I called the cops promptly.

About every 3-6 months, we get a guy "offering" to paint our address on the curb.

He always launches into the same story ("I'm so-and-so, I painted your curb last time"). Either the last guy who lived here had such rugged good looks that this guy is confusing the two of us ( ), or his story is memorized, a la Office Space: "Good evening Sir, my name is Steve. I come from a rough area. I used to be addicted to crack but now I am off it and trying to stay clean. That is why I am selling magazine subscriptions."

Anyway, every time he comes by I tell/remind him that I'm not the guy who used to let him paint my curb ("That was the last guy who lived here"), that I'm not interested, etc. And he acts a little put-out, but sucks it up and walks (wanders?) off.

Well, the last time he came by, I wasn't home, and my wife answered the door..... then made the mistake of going outside with him. :smacks head: She said she wanted to put herself between him and the kids.

So I asked her if she thought that glass/polycarb door (the storm door) was going to do the kids much good if Mr. Friendly Painter Guy decided to stick his paint-scraping knife in her neck. "Um, probably not?"

He didn't get outrightly/overtly scary, she said, but he did get a little huffy after she told him no on the painting job. And then tried to "argue" with her about it (manipulate is probably a better word). "What if you ever have to call the ambulance for one of your babies...... Your husband always lets me paint the curb, etc, etc, etc."

She did get a little firm: "Well, he'll be back in about 30 minutes (:smacks head x 2: say something shorter, like 10..... 15 at the absolute latest!), you can come back and ask him then."

He never did come back by. That was a couple months ago, and I'm still waiting so we can have a little talk about all that.