What would YOU do? Random kid knocked on my door...

[probablythemostrandomAIBUever]

I want to know what other parents would do, because I've never dealt with this before in my 12 years of parenting!

today a random kid knocked on my door, asking a random question and as I was answering him my DS6 came out and said hello.
Random kid then said he was nearly 9 and wanted to make friends with DS6. So they stand and chat at the door, random kid doesn't really know what to say to ds6 as he has immature social skills so he's a bit younger than his age (suspected autism).
Random kid then discloses something not nice about his parents. (Which is worrying!)

Then random kid asks to come in and play.
I said not tonight (trying to be kind!)
And he says okay I'll come knock for DS tomorrow.

Never met this kid. Doesn't go to my kids school.
No idea who his parents are or why he's out at 8pm. Not comfortable having a random kid in my house who I don't know from Adam, or his parents.
What do I do if he returns?
DS6 isn't allowed out to play as no street smarts and I don't want a random kid in my house. Or am I being a overly paranoid mum?

Phishy wasn't talking about your post, but the OP.

I wasn’t talking about you Zone. Do you make everything about yourself?!

Lol, no I not the op, she can return to her own thread.
I am a poster who can, count and can differentiate 3 counts of random from like 10 counts of random

"What would YOU do? Random kid knocked on my door... 67
probablythemostrandomAIBUever · Today 20:04
I want to know what other parents would do, because I've never dealt with this before in my 12 years of parenting!
today a random kid knocked on my door, asking a random question and as I was answering him my DS6 came out and said hello.
Random kid then said he was nearly 9 and wanted to make friends with DS6. So they stand and chat at the door, random kid doesn't really know what to say to ds6 as he has immature social skills so he's a bit younger than his age (suspected autism).
Random kid then discloses something not nice about his parents. (Which is worrying!)
Then random kid asks to come in and play.
I said not tonight (trying to be kind!)
And he says okay I'll come knock for DS tomorrow.
Never met this kid. Doesn't go to my kids school.
No idea who his parents are or why he's out at 8pm. Not comfortable having a random kid in my house who I don't know from Adam, or his parents.
What do I do if he returns?
DS6 isn't allowed out to play as no street smarts and I don't want a random kid in my house. Or am I being a overly paranoid mum"

10 randoms

oh Jesus Christ give me strength 😂

This 😞

Perfect!

Doesn’t even look like a real word now 🥴

How can you possibly know that he is in no danger? Either behind closed doors at home or the next time he knocks on a stranger's door?

Please report contact his school to at least report that he is knocking on strangers' doors at 8pm and asking to be let in. And also the not-nice worrying detail about his parents, even if you do not think it is warranted. Sometimes it's the smaller pieces that when pulled together, reveal the true picture.

Are you certain he’s not in any danger?

Could the “disclosing” information be a cry for help?

8/9 is a baby. Not some criminal.
well gosh almighty that’s a very wholesome and ungrounded view of 8-9 yo
i can assure you a minority of 8/9 yo are not babies, and they are capable of dysfunction. However at 8/9 they’re below age of criminal responsibility , The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old. So at 8/9 cannot be charged

No-one can confirm he is not in any danger as no-one knows what goes on behind closed doors in any home.

The facts are this little boy is out in the street alone after 8pm and had disclosed something worrying in the few minutes he has been chatting to you. That is worrying and if you ever have any suspicions something may be off you should always report! Quite often there will already be prior concerns and if genuinely mistaken and no worries at home then at least you know you done the right thing.

This poor little boy has probably identified you as a safe person to talk to. You don’t have to encourage him to play at all but you should do the bare minimum and report what he has said as it may well be the tip of the iceberg.

How many dysfunctional 8/9 year olds do you know, then? Must be rough in Zone 2.

How many? Multiple professionally through work

What did he even knock on your door and say in the first place? This is all so strange! Depending what he disclosed it may warrant a report to someone, but seeing as you won’t say we can’t advise you 🙄

If he disclosed something concerning about his home life, I wouldn’t do as @De88 suggests as it may make things worse / difficult for him at home.
Do any neighbours know him?

I’d have asked a lot more questions and I’d have made sure he was returned home safely. I wouldn’t be able to sleep worrying about him tbh, I’m genuine worried about him right now, that’s so upsetting to me to think a little eight year old boy is wandering around knocking on strangers doors and is having trouble at home, I hope someone helps him. We as a society have a responsibility to protect children, it’s very concerning to me that this happened, he sounds very vulnerable.

I’d have asked a lot more questions and I’d have made sure he was returned home safely
What would you have done?

@probablythemostrandomAIBUever

Never met this kid. Doesn't go to my kids school.

Apparently he is quite rough with other kids so not a suitable friend for DS.

I'm confused by this! How could you possibly know he's quite rough if you 'Don't know him from Adam' as you put it?

All of us have a duty to safeguard children. I agree that it's very odd for a child to be knocking on doors and disclosing worrying information about his parents. It sounds like a possible cry for help to me. You say you know who the child is and he's a bit rough with others. Could be a reason for that.

If you go onto your local authority website there are contacts for reporting a concern about a child. Most local authorities have a number to call for advice rather than just reporting to social services. Please consider calling for advice as it may well be lots of calls have been made about this child and yours will add to the picture. When people ignore stuff like this, this is when you get all the horrible stories in the news about how abuse or neglect went undetected.

Like hyperbole?

What?

I'm 37 and when I was about 10 I'd ask random kids to play, and make new friends by doing so. (Appreciate that times have changed though). What I wouldn't do is knock on a strangers door - even if knew there was a kid in that house - unless it was a close neighbour and i was familiar with their faces. So, whilst the asking to play is not really concerning, the knocking on your door (if you've no idea where this kid came from) is. Stranger danger and all that.
I would ask him when he next knocks where he lives and say you wanted to check with his mum, but really I'd be advising his parents what he's doing and say that your child is a bit too little to play with him at the moment.
Perhaps the mum doesn't know.

This, exactly. It’s a cry for help.
Also
Apparently he is quite rough with other kids

Children interact with other children the way their parents interact with them. So if he’s rough with other children, it’s because someone has been/is being rough with him. Did you know that the top two risks factors as to whether a child will become a bully are child abuse and sibling abuse?

And looks like Zone is not even going to apologise for her misunderstanding.