Popped to work this morning to clear the post. Left the "children" 17,16,12 alone in bed with a note strict instructions not to kill each other in my absence.
Came back and the 12yo was reading a booklet. Thought nothing of it. Until I tidied up - he had a Watch Tower and a .
So I said - where did this come from?
16yo says - some woman at the door, she asked if you were in, I said no, I couldn't understand her (heavily accented Southern American), she kept going on about world violence. She asked if I wanted something to read, so I said yes to get rid of her.
So she clearly knew he was "a child" by asking for his mother.
Later, I went up to the mall with 17yo and BHF chuggers were out. Anyway, 17yo says, "those Jehovah people were here last week, giving us (us being him and his mates that range from 14-17) cards, telling us to go to church.
I do realise the 17yo probably hasn't quite imparted a verbatim conversation but the gist was there that JWs were targeting children in a shopping centre and giving information on their church and services.
Come to think of it, I've been on the Mall when the BNP have a stall up, targetting school children as they wait for their bus at the end of the day.
I'm not sure exactly what the British Heart Foundation were after, subscriptions maybe? But again they were clearly targeting teenagers, stepping in their path with a clip board. They were in a line, so if you tried to side step one, another would magically appear in front. I'd go so far as to align it to 'kettling'.
Fair enough, my children will discuss this sort of thing with me BUT vulnerable children wont necessarily have that sort of relationship with a parent and could get caught up in a church or political party (not sure what long lasting damage the BHF could do as any DD or SO signed would be invalid under the age of 18 anyway)
Personally I think it's absolutely inappropriate to be peddling religious, political or even charitable pamphlets an aiming to recruit minors.