To not answer the door if I don’t know who it is?

Honestly I didn't for a second consider it a risk, and I think it's quite sad that some would. The vast majority of people are good.

Given it was during covid and we weren't sure why she had been sick, I did consider the risk to the people in the house and popped a mask on, took all the rubbish away etc.

@BarbaraHoward it was a risk though but yes your choice to take it.
Not sure I would over puke in the car.

I do think there is a difference between completing ignoring the door and calling out "who is it?" before opening.
I was taught as a child (1980s) that you should either have a chain on if you are opening the door or if you don't have a chain to ask who it is first.
So people not answering the door to unexpected knocks isn't exactly a new concept.

I think that's a slightly disproportionate reaction, don't you?

Aside from the fact that I was a middle aged adult rather than a small child, I guess I shouldn't have married because of the thousands of women killed by their husbands. Or had children with a man because of all the children abused by their fathers. Or driven along the road in the first place because of all those killed by drivers who are drunk or speeding.

Careless, careless me.

I definitely get this fear, the other day we had a food shop coming in the evening but I'd kind of forgotten about it and the fear that went through me when the doorbell rang was horrible.
But the only time someone unexpected has rung our doorbell in the evening was to tell us that my cars handbrake had failed and rolled into their car which was not fun!
I would usually still open the door, but the only unexpected people are door to door sales people or the postman.
Perhaps get a ring door bell or similar so you can see who's there and even talk to them? You could ask why they're there etc.

The not answering the door thing is the thing that most marks out the MN population as being out of step with the rest of the world. I do not know anyone outside MN who consciously ignores their doorbell or a knock. This strange behaviour makes me realise how disconnected from the actual world many MNers are and that their life experiences and the associated advice provided should be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. 'I'm too busy being important' to open my door while sitting on MN answering threads about not opening the door. It's a parallel universe.

@BarbaraHoward I'm glad your situation turned out ok but remember Holly and Jessica the two girls from Soham who knocked on a door because one had a nosebleed......
Apologies if that upsets anyone.

Is this serious or satire.

we learned something new today. No one should ever open the door to anyone they don’t know in case they have acid thrown in their face.

Like I said, MN is a very strange place.

The people who choose not to answer the door are not responsible for this. Everyone has the right not to answer the door. So in that case people are expected to answer the door every single time, night or day in case there is a situation like this?

One Christmas Eve I answered the door to a young woman I did not know, she was shoeless, cold and scared. She was the victim of domestic violence and had been randomly knocking on doors. No one else had answered. She did not know where she was. We called the police and found an emergency shelter for her. She could have been dead by morning. Then people say on the news, why did no one do anything?

It is. If I was coming in and I met a person who needed help of course I would help them, if I answered the door when expecting a package and it was someone needing help I would help them. A random knock I would not answer nor would I knock on anyone’s house unless it really was a life or death situation. Last resort type of thing.

YANBU. I don’t answer the door either unless I’m expecting a parcel or if the Post man needs to hand me anything. Even then I still check who it is before answering.

My daughter doesn’t really visit I go to her as it’s just easier. If she was to visit she’d phone first to check I was in. If it was my sister my nephews would shout through the door “auntie spider”.
Just random unexpected knocks though no way do I answer the door.
I also don’t answer my phone to unknown numbers or numbers I don’t recognize.

But perhaps whatever you would need help for, I would consider less urgent than an sick, upset small child. It's all subjective.

But if you knocked on my door in need of assistance, I would help if I could, regardless of whether I would've asked a stranger in your shoes.

It's nice to be nice.

Look, OP, it's perfectly alright, even when frowned on ...
😉

Not for a child puking I won’t.

I agree with you there but I was taking about tge person knocking rather than the person answering.

Well tell that to the poor bloke he answered the door and got acid thrown in his face.

Because you think you will miss out on something if you don’t and that need is too great so you HAVE to.

No, I choose to.

Most people don’t require a ‘life and death situation’ to open the door.

Just remember that some day you may well need the kindness of a stranger, whether life or death or otherwise.

So I actually take that back, I was assuming for others on the basis of how I feel. I should not have said it was wrong but it would be wrong for me.

That was a nice gesture to send the chocolates. I just would never dream of knocking on a stranger’s door if my child had been sick but then again, I would hate the interaction plus I would assume they wouldn’t like it because I don’t which wouldn’t be the case because it’s obvious some people would not mind.

It doesn't need to be life or death, sometimes people are just happy to help.

(We did send them chocolates afterwards, but given we had to just guess their address on Google earth who knows if they got them.)

Nah, that is not a life or death situation to knock on a stranger’s door to ask for cleaning products. Drive on a find a shop.