To not answer door to neighbour

[Koalababy]

It’s 8 am and neighbour has rung my doorbell twice already. Have no idea what they want but I don’t feel like answering the door. They probably know I’m in which is why they keep ringing the bell but AIBU to ignore until I feel like it?

SteveBrexit

Only on MN are people always at home and never too busy to answer the door.

I'd got the exact opposite impression: that only on MN do people never answer the door unless they're expecting someone (and even then they'd like an early-warning text or something, so they don't have the trauma of people actually ringing the bell or knocking the door).

My old neighbour used to knock at all sorts of random times to moan about nothing in particular. The neighbour kids keep playing on my tree. I’m going to put a fence in, I can take it up to your path if you like? (Err no. That’s MY land your claiming!). Sometimes stood and talked utter nonsense. Half the time I couldn’t understand what was being said and just smiled politely and nodded. Most memorable time was when she came to door chewing on a boiled sweet. Mid sentence she started choking and I asked if she wanted weather. She continued to cough and splutter then spat sweet on my doorstep. Complained about the neighbours dog barking. Just total randomness.

RE: contacting neighbours instead of paramedics my neighbour's grandkid's this a few days when she'd fallen. They'd seen me walking to and from work in my care uniform and assumed I was nurse. Obviously, I went to her.

She was in pain and unable to get up with minimal assistance, therefore all I could do was call and ambulance. I sat on her bathroom with her for 5 and half hours waiting for the ambulance.

If those two kids had been taught to ring 999 instead of fetching a neighbour the ambulance would have been there within half an hour but as soon as they involved another adult (i.e someone to keep gran calm and watch out for their welfare too) the call became low priority.

@Bluntness100

It’s quite normal on mumsnet not to answer the door. In fact it’s the fashionable thing to do. You fit right in. The more your behaviour is isolating and anti social the better.

In fact if you opened your window and shouted fuck off at them you’d be applauded.

You forgot to mention the recommendations for revenge knocking every day until they move house and give you back your right to freedom.

Before DS I wouldn't answer the door at that time, unless it's postie. Now when the bell goes he squeals with delight at who it could be so whoever knocks can hear him.

Yeah it's weird.

I wouldn’t answer either. Knowing our neighbours it would 100% be a complaint.

@IamtheDevilsAvocado

As long as you're happy your roof isn't in fire

I know this is a joke, but it actually happened to us.

The exterior of our three storey house was being painted, painters had gone home. I smelled a vague smokey smell but put it down to some recently made toast.

Knock on door ‘Did you know your house was on fire?”

Passers by had noticed smoke coming from the top floor. Fire brigade arrived, closed road and put out the fire. Helped by the painter’s scaffolding surrounding the house. Painters had been stripping paint and left it to smoulder.

Just as well I answered the door.

Don’t blame you!!

Cheeky bastard knocking on the door at 8am - I’d still be asleep! Have already had 2 knocks this morning but I knew it was deliveries so just ignored (I know they knock once then leave on the doorstep).
I’m lazy!

Someone knocked on our door at about 7pm the other night and we all sat there looking at one another in shock a la The Royle Family “who could that be? At this time?” etc.
It was the next door neighbours to tell us their dog was in our garden so I guess it was a good job we answered or he’d have been stuck there all night!

I saw this thread a couple of times and thought, d’you know what, I’m not going to post on it.

I dont have a door bell and cant hear knocking from my bedroom so not an issue I face.

Honestly my neighbors have no reason to knock normally, so it probably means something is wrong (the only twice the neighbor has knocked was once when they had a gas leak and once when they where picking up a package that was delivered to us by mistake).

Also who would ring the bell at 8am for a non emergancy anyway?
And why would you assume it was a neighbor without answering?
(I would assume some type of workman asking us to move our car of the road or explaining they are turning the water off or something which happens more frequently)

@Nme8961

Who are all of these people whose first reaction would be to knock on a neighbour's door in case of an emergency....

considerate people?

If my house was one fire or like my neighbor I had had a gas leak etc... once I cleared my family out of the house and alerted the correct authorities I would alert the neighbors because they would be in danger too and possibly unaware - isnt that what any decent human would do?

folks are always knocking on our door.

previous house was as the alarm was going off in the local Postmaster's house and they were away...dh was local ish bobby (although off duty!)

this house:

we had the crazy neighbour moaning about the rabbit, he was a complete Houdini and had escaped his run a couple of time and she decided we were deliberately putting him in her garden to eat her flowers.
Across road neighbour who strimmed her fingers off, we were out
Ambulance for right at the end of the road, it was dead of night and only lights they could see were in our house as DS1 was up late
and most recently, only DS2 was in and the end neighbour had stepped off the ladder a step too early after dealing with his guttering...he's only 90 !! His wife was in a flap and he was telling her not to call the ambulance and trying to get up!

Always getting knocks at the door for parcels as it's all house names rather than numbers here and the delivery guys are hopeless doing their best ...I don't take the parcels in though otherwise how will they learn?

oh and another...chimney fire at the back, neighbour was on her own and had no idea what to do!

My postman regularly turns up at 8am (sometimes a bit earlier). Isn't that normal, and do people just not accept their deliveries if it's 8am?

I don't think 8am on a weekday is particularly early for most people. I'm not sure why so many think it's an unholy hour.

When my parents used to go on holidays without me and leave me home alone (from age 16/17ish) our nosey bossy busybody of a neighbour would immediately start keeping knocking at the door to ask where i'd been (if my car had moved) or what i was doing or what the noise was. (i was up to nothing at all - they just wanted to pry).

One day when i was in the shower they were ringing at the door and then went round the back and leaned over the wall and banged on the back door with a stick.

I got out the shower and went ballistic!! I stormed downstairs in my towel and burst through the bead curtain over the back door (door open) into the back garden screeching at the top of my voice WHAAAAAT? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT NOW !!!!!

They were . She stuttered one of her usual stupid pointless reasons for banging on the bloody door and never did it again

30 years ago. Clear as yesterday

@RaspberryCoulis

Well according to a post on here last week, you might be LITERALLY TAKING YOUR LIFE IN YOUR HANDS if you open the door, it's the absolute height of reckless behaviour.

I think people who won't open their door are weird.

I think people who won't open their door when they have identified the caller is their neighbour are utterly fucking weird and utterly fucking rude too. HTH.

Phoning and knocking are outright rude concepts in general if theres not a legitimate need for it... its the equivelant of walking into a persons home where they are busy or relaxing and yelling 'talk to me RIGHT now' - I mean you are litrally banging on their house demanding a chat.

Just because you want to talk doesnt mean anyone owes it to you (and they definately down owe it to you instantly) and esspecially not if they are busy or just dont want to talk.

How entitled to think they have to

@TrialOfStyle

My postman regularly turns up at 8am (sometimes a bit earlier). Isn't that normal, and do people just not accept their deliveries if it's 8am?

I don't think 8am on a weekday is particularly early for most people. I'm not sure why so many think it's an unholy hour.

nope my postie comes at 1pm.

I hate when you get a delivery from another company and it says it well be delivered between 8am and 5pm or some rubbish because then I have to be up and waiting all day (and half the time they never show up... Im looking at you Hermes).

This is a very outing post, but when I was a teen the neighbour knocked on the door and nobody else was in, so I answered.

They said "do you know your dog is on the roof?"

He'd climbed out the skylight in my bedroom and had got stuck (and he was not a small dog!). I assumed he was asleep somewhere and wouldn't have noticed for some time.

also, in non covid times 8am is right in the school run.

YANBU. We don't have a doorbell and you can't get to the door in order to knock (2m high gate and walled garden).

At 8 during lockdown we would be too busy getting ourselves and disabled ds ready for the day. Probably wouldnt even hear them!!

Bentoforthehorde
We sometimes get a bat in the kitchen in summer and the door is open. The nearest castle is about five miles away x2.😄
We have bats in our loft. We don’t live in a castle.
We live in a Victorian three bedroom cottage.

My friend is the Bat Protection Officer for the county and was really excited to hear we had bats as we weren’t on her map!
Every now and then I arm myself with a tea-towel and have to pick them out of the kitchen window. The kids used to love it if they got to see one up close. The two eldest and their friends lay on the village green opposite and counted them coming out, we had a hundred and twelve that year.😁

OP I wouldn’t get up if I was having a lie in. If someone knocks on the front door I would get up as all the people we know in the village use the kitchen door. The front door is a heavy oak door with three locks so we know it is a stranger.
I once had a knock on the kitchen door about midnight( I had been bf baby) and when I put the light on two, young policemen were standing there and apparently they watched the colour drain from my face. I was really shaky when they opened the door as DH was flying out to the North Sea that evening. Once they had reassured me about no accidents with helicopters they sheepishly asked directions as they were looking for a house and my lights were on. I told them never to knock on the doors with two of them at night after I gave them directions.

Will be back to see what they wanted😄

I think many of us want to know if...

It was a moan.

Fire

Flood

Parcel

Etc.