AIBU to not answer my door when I'm not expecting anyone

[Torchlight86]

Am I the only person that does this? I live alone with my young son and all my friends know that if they come to my door I won't answer unless I know it's them and know they're coming! I wouldn't say I was super paranoid but I do always thing of consequences of things and do maybe over think things like I've seen in the news, people pushing their way into your home, I remember a while ago in the news a woman opened her door wth her baby in her arms and someone threw acid in her face, random attack,

A while ago an old friend who lives in my village was walking his dog past my house and knocked, it wasn't late but was dark, my curtains were closed so I couldn't see who it was, I wasn't expecting anyone, so I didn't answer, he messaged me later on and was actually pretty pissed off, I explained obvs I didn't know it was him and would have answered had I know, but he thought I was stupid for being cautious and seemed to take it personally even though it wasn't! 🤔

I'd be interested to know if other people do this? It just seems like common safety sense to me!

I never ignore someone knocking at the door, they might have something important to tell me. My dog barks and howls like the hound of the baskervilles if it's a stranger so I always feel safe.
Last week someone knocked at 10pm because he could hear a cat yowling and scratching at the garage door when he walked past. There was a kitten inside with a collar on, poor thing was really distressed. I phoned the owners and it had been missing for 6 days.

YANBU not to answer and you should definitely check before opening your door
However, YABVU not to check who it is - might be an emergency.
Everyone should have a solid outside door, that noone can see through, with a peephole & chain.

I'm glad my young neighbour answered the door one evening, some years ago:

I was away and my late mother, then a sprightly lady in her 80s, had a sudden internal hemorrhage and was very confused. She was outside, fell, crawled to the nearest door and hammered loudly.
My neighbour called the ambulance and probably saved her life.

That knock could also be the police / fire brigade notifying you of bad news, or clearing the houses because of some dangerous emergency like a gas leak or armed criminals.

I do agree bigchocfrenzy but unfortunately the way my house is there isn't really a way of seeing outside, I'm very confident i could distinguish between a normal knock on the door and a urgent emergency knock, I'm also quite sure if i was in danger and someone was knocking they would call out or I could look out my top window and see police cars/fire brigade, I know my neighbours on both sides as well so I'm sure they would call me if there was an emergency!

My neighbour said mum was hammering like gangbusters, pushing the end of her stick back & forth against the door and she was quite nervous about opening it, but - thank goodness - checked who it was.
Her peephole showed legs in boots & jeans lying on the ground, but not that it was an old lady - could have been a drunk or even a trick. So she left the chain on to look, very cautiously, to see if someone was hurt.

I don't think mum was verbal

Sounds like you're mum was really lucky to get to her door, thank god!

I would imagine in that situation I would be scared but I would definitely investigate further as obviously I know it could be someone in trouble, my mum and dad only live down the road and like I said I know my neighbours so I would probably call one of them who could be out their door nearly as quick as I could, at least then if it was someone sinister I could open my door reassured that someone else was on their way!

Our bay window overlooks our front door so I always check before opening. If it's someone I don't want to open the door too, charity, clipboarders, Bible bashers etc, I just don't open it, even if they've seen me, don't care, my door, I choose.

A friend of mine had an unexpected knock on the door at 10PM. Fortunately she did answer it. It was a passer-by informing her that her roof was on fire! Quite a lot of damage done, but thanks to that knock on the door everyone got out safely.

Up to you. Your reasons are not unreasonable, especially if your friends know. Though if your friend didn't realise, I could see why he might be a bit unhappy.

I answer the door whenever. People do sometimes (not often) call unexpectedly - plus we get a lot of deliveries. I can easily see who it is thought the window. And to be honest, our front door is always open anyway if they really wanted to come in!

If someone called unexpectedly late in the evening, even someone I didn't know, I'd think it was much more likely it was someone needing help than wanting to do any harm. I've never come across anyone who has been assaulted opening their front door tbh.

I'm the same. I'm alone with my child here, and everyone I know would contact me before coming over.

I don't have a moat and portcullis so anyone who desperately needed me to open the door could just call through the letterbox.

The reasons AlcoChocs, BigChocFrenzy and Watto1 give are precisely the reasons why I do answer the front door.

We don't live in a rough area where we are likely to get dodgy characters knocking on our door. It is far more likely to be a friendly neighbour asking us to keep an eye on their house while they are on holiday or one of DD's friends. So, in our case it is friend not a foe.