To speak to my neighbour about her cherry knocking granddaughter

[Jannerite]

On Friday night around 6-ish/6:30-ish there was a knock at the door. It woke my 5 month old nephew up, who wasn't feeling well and had just nodded off - he was staying the weekend. My mum, who I live with, went to answer the door, nobody was there. Obviously it was cherry knocking (for anybody who doesn't know, or uses another phrase, it's the act of knocking on somebody's door and hiding so they're left with nobody there when they answer). Most people have done it in their teens.

My mum came in to the living room a bit miffed at it. I just laughed. 15-ish minutes later another "knock". I answered. I waited. I heard a giggle - obviously girls. No boy would laugh like that. My neighbour's granddaughter and two friends then rounded the corner and were "shocked" to see me stood outside my house and then proceeded to get into a conversation with me.

There was about 5 knocks on Friday night. One knock yesterday. And another not long ago. My sister saw the girls knock tonight. She said it was 3 girls.

I am almost 95%, if not 100%, sure that it is my neighbour's granddaughter. I've spoken a few times with her, and get on pretty well with her. I'd say she's probably in her 50s. Would I be unreasonable to go knock on her door and have a word with her the next time there's a knock on my door?

RazWaz that's exactly what I thought the thread was about

It was 'chappy' here.

OP, you are not being unreasonable to have a word with your neighbour... they probably have no idea what's going on.

Like many kids we did this. Once the man came running out and caught us. English was not his first language , and he yelled
" go way, I chop your fucking neck off""
We ran, and has hysterics imagining the implement that would chop of Just a neck.....

We called it ring-the- bell-and-run-away. Yes, the lack of imagination was just one reason I had to leave Essex

Just adding another variation. It was called bomb knocking when I was in primary school (south cheshire). If you google that phrase it apparently means something much worse, nearly everywhere else.

We called it chap door run. One trick was to put the empty milk bottles on the long door handles so it would smash on the doorstep when the door was opened.

I never played it as a kid, because my mum and dad would have knocked seven shades of shite out of me if I was caught.

I would definately have a word. I would be very disappointed if my kids did it. As you never know who you are bothering..elderly, disabled, a new parent trying to catch a nap. I never did it my parents would have thrashed me if I had.

BITCAT Read the OP's post at Mon 23-Jan-17 18:41:56.

I think
It's so long as you don't make a big deal of it - or you could speak to the granddaughter directly and explain that whilst you know they're only playing it's bothering the baby and could they stop. They will deny it but it will stop.

We called it rat-tat-ginger (love all the different names for it all over the world). I've had this recently, spread over about a week. Very annoying as I work from home and also receive regular parcel deliveries so have to answer the door. However, I live at the end of a single-track lane. It's a no-through lane with only 3 houses. One neighbour is in her 70s so pretty sure it's not her! ;-). The other side has 2 kids. Hmmm... I wonder who it is? They weren't even coming up the path. They were just leaning over the wall and banging.

I laid in wait and opened the door as they did it. They fell over in their haste and surprise... teehee

Ahh ok I see its been resolved good on grandma.

It's called 'knock down ginger' here too. It's a real struggle for me to get to the door due to mobility issues, so I'd be really pi**ed off at this.

I once made the mistake of leaving my mobile no. on a note on the front door in case I couldn't hear the doorbell (I was waiting on an important delivery), and some kids thought it was really funny to keep ringing me at all hours saying stuff like: 'parcel delivery here' 'pizza delivery here', etc.

They weren't cunning enough to hide their number though so I sent a text saying: "please don't keep doing this" and when it didn't stop I sent another text saying that 'nuisance calls were against the law and that I'd pass their number onto the police'.

I received a text back saying that they'd tell the police I'd bothered them first. When I pointed out that it would be obvious that they were lying just by looking at my call log they texted back apologising profusely and promised not to bother me again. I didn't reply and had several more texts begging me not to get them in trouble. I let them stew for a bit before texting them back that as long as I received no further calls or texts I wouldn't inform the police. Hopefully it was lesson learnt.

We called it "playing chicken" up in Scotland!

I have no idea why!

Black and white rabbit when I was a kid.(Manc) No problem with it now - more bothered by nuisance cold callers who have often woken my baby dd.

Top granny.

Knock and run, we called it. That's Yorkshire for you. Call a spade a spade.

I would call it knock down ginger, or ding dong ditch. I live in the South East, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it in real life, so I'm not sure where I got these names from

In German it's called Klingelstreich, which means "bell prank" - not quite as inventive.

Haha, no! The Germans certainly call a spade a spade!

Postman's knock or knicky knocky round here.
My brother and mates used to tie thread to my grandads knocker on the side door (he had a sweet shop) and pinch the sweets in the shop while he was answering it.
I'm sure he knew but played along.