would you allow a lost child into your house?

[buzzlightyear21]

grrrr i didnt want to sign up to mumsnet its far too time consuming, let alone if you can comment.

anyway, i need to know this. would you let a lost child into your house?

I think i'd grab a biscuit and sit outside on the doorstep wiht the kid, looking out for their parents and call 101.

If you went inside, you wouldn't see their parents looking for them would you?

Why did you sign up if you didn't want to?

Does the stray child have a gun to your head?

Watermelon, that 41 that you saw was the amount of posts on the thread, not the amount posted by the OP. It will now have increased .

Watermelon that made me laugh haha

If it was a nice day and the child was an older child and not too upset I would outside.

If it was cold and wet, a very young child or visibly distressed, I would bring them in, distract them with the tv whilst I called the police

"Please help me with my dilemma but I don't really want anything to do with this forum"

Completely unanswerable without context though

No definitely not I would wait out side my home with the child wile on the phone to 101

You can be accused of anything more less even trying to take the child and you would have no way of protecting yourself

My friend tried to help a lost little boy in shopping centre the mother approached and accused my friend of trying to kidnap her child

No, I wouldn't. I would stay with the child by the pavement, hoping a parents came along, while I called the police.

My mum used to give me 50p and tell me if I got lost to knock on someones door, ask to use their phone, and give them the 50p to pay for the call. She also advised me I should look for telephone wires to the house, to know if they had a phone line or not before bothering them.

There is so much wrong with this I don't know where to start.

Unless very very cold outside or child injured I wouldnt bring them in. (My dad once had to take in an injured child who had arrived at his door after being stabbed) If I did have to bring them in I would do it after calling the police/while on the phone to them and if possible with another adult present. If the child was not in need of actual shelter but just lost I would stay outside with them and call the police then let them handle it.

If it was a seriously little kid then yes, but call 999 (sod queuing up for 101 under these circs) as chances are the parents would have already called (or would be about to) and the dispatchers would be just waiting for this call to reunite them.

Older than about eight? No chance. I'm far too cynical to believe sob stories that may be a means to get in my house and nick something

Depends on situation, age, state of child (distressed, hurt etc) and weather. I wouldn't leave even a lost teenager outside if the weather was filthy! (Mind you - we now have four dogs, one is roughly the size of a donkey - I wouldn't feel threatened unless the kid whipped out an Uzi . . .).

Oh

I'm not even a newbie! The shame!

Nope, but I would keep them safe outside and call the police after making all reasonable attempts to find out who they belonged to from the spot shouting loudly.

A couple of years ago there was a teenage girl being bullied by a load of other teens in our town. I grabbed the girl, literally, and took her into the nearest bank, my logic being that there were cameras there and I could not be accused of doing anything untoward!

Depends. If they were looking just lost I would stay on doorstep with them and call police.

Once I had called police if it was raining or darks etc I would take inside but leave door open incase parent came by calling , so child isn't frozen.

If they were injured, then yes I would take inside to throw some blankets around them and keep warm. And call police of course.

My grandmother ( and grandfather) once had a baby left on her doorstep ( 20 years ago). She said she took baby inside, wrapped in extra towels and called police. Police took 3 hours to arrive! ( she did live fairly remote to be fair) So in the meantime she also gave baby cooled boiled water off a spoon. Luckily baby was fine, they found it around 8am and it was thought it wasn't outside all night, just a few hours.

If the weather was bad, otherwise I'd stay outside with them

(the was to the OP not the previous post!)

Well, yeah. After I'd calmed them down (if they were distressed) asked them a few questions about where their parents are/were (if they're able to answer) and after checking there were no parents in the immediate vicinity so that it warranted it.

Of course I would. Wouldn't you?

No further thoughts then op?

Well you're in now buzz.
YABU for signing up to a website against your own will.

Oh, and welcome to Mumsnet Buzzlightyear.

We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave.

Depends on context, I'd be more likely to stay outside with them though as a safeguarding thing which is sad as I'd be safeguarding myself not the kid!

When I was a teen my parents let in two very frightened older teens who were being followed by a couple of girls and being threatened. They had been running down the street and saw us in the garden and ran down the drive sobbing and begging for help. We let them in and a minute or so later two girls followed them down the drive and started banging on our window. They legged it when dad went out though, don't think they realised it was a strangers house with a bloke in there! The scared girls used our landline to phone home and both my parents drove them home, they didn't want to phone police as apparently it was just bullies from school :(

In Year7 my DS was 'persuaded' by a mate to walk a 'different way' home even though I was picking him up from a prearranged spot. He got lost, mate dumped him and he didn't have his phone. An amazing couple found him walking past their house and immediately realised something was wrong. Invited him into the front garden and discovered he had my number in his planner, the wife rang me and the husband sat in the front garden with him until I arrived. I am, to this day, grateful for their actions.