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?

Not sure what the shitty face is for. No I don't answer the door to people I do not know or am not expecting.

Not RTFT. I would just have told him not that night and you need his address to check it is ok with his parents first, then go to see them next day and explain. If they don't recognise the danger in him knocking on random doors then tell his school or social services. After knowing the parents are fine, I would personally have let him play just one time to see how he is and send him home then refuse in future if he didn't behave. A child on our street can be a bit of a roaming waif these days; the parents are fine but struggling a bit with time and possibly money. The boy means well and plays ok with a little monitoring, and most importantly he always needs a snack in the holidays; it doesn't hurt to let him play occasionally.

But meeting his parents won’t let you be sure they are fine.
Most abuse is concealed.

you don’t have to assess his parents. Just report. The authorities do the rest.

@ThePumpkinPatch Yes, I am serious. No I don't answer the door to someone I don't know, even a kid.

Spate in my area of a girl knocking on doors, once opened her male friends waiting round the corner rushed the person and burgled the house.

Are you one of these people who thinks because it hasn't happened to you directly, that it doesn't happen or is super rare?

Nope

I agree with PP, I wouldn't answer the door to someone I didn't know and who I wasn't expecting. It's better to turn away someone in need than be assaulted/robbed/raped/killed yourself. If someone's genuinely in need and they don't get help at your door, they can always try someone else who is less concerned about their own safety.

In any case I've got a CCTV camera out the front so if someone was being chased by someone or something like that I might be able to capture the crime and forward it onto the police.

The first thing I would do, is tell DS6 that he’s not allowed to come to the door when Mummy or Daddy answer it, unless you call him to come.
We were never allowed to either answer the door, nor come to it, until we were in high school.
The theory was that only the adults open the door as it’s up to them who comes in, and that’s still something today, given the number of times we hear of people trying to gain access illegally…

So much oddity and coldness on this thread. And as for grown adults not answering the door to, or speaking to, an unfamiliar child ... or not answering the door at all, which is weird
Honestly, it's no wonder so much child abuse goes undetected.

In any case I've got a CCTV camera out the front so if someone was being chased by someone or something like that I might be able to capture the crime and forward it onto the police.

How very good of you, considering you wouldn't open up to anyone in need.

Don't feel any obligation to let this child into your or your child's lives.
You will never get rid without some kind of unpleasant scene. It's a very strange thing for a random 9 year old to be doing.

All the more to suggest the child is living in a dysfunctional and abusive household, then, and all the more reason to to alert someone.

I'm really shocked by the attitudes on this thread. If a child that was wandering around, knocking on doors and asking to come in and play, who then says something 'concerning' about his home life, I'd ask him where he lived, what would happen if he went home and where he went to school, at the very least, and I'd trying to work out the best way to raise a concern with the appropriate authorities.

Of course you don't have to let him play with your kid or come round all the time, but there is a middle ground between that and 'Ugh, random kid, not my problem'.

Mumsnet is fucking insane. There was a post a while back where someone wanted to call social services about a child because their mum had a mark on her arm that might possibly have been a needle mark, and there were hundreds of replies from people tell her to phone social services, phone the school, phone the NSPCC, you can't be too careful, look at what happened to Baby P/Arthur Lambino Hughes/Leiland-James Corkill etc. Now there's a kid who is CLEARLY vulnerable and all people want to say is that you shouldn't get involved and that he's probably a child criminal. Horrible.

I've reported it to NSPCC.

He's knocked on my house 6 times today, I've explained DS6 is to young to play with him and that I don't know his parents and he still keeps asking to come into my house to play.

Don't answer next time. Call 101. This is no more of an overreaction than other posters expecting you to offer your 6 year old as a play therapist and you act as a social worker.

And what did they say?

id of phoned the duty SW instead of above if your really concerned now.

it sounds like you have found out a bit about him but if you ask him about school and let them know what has happened it may form part of a bigger picture and their safeguarding lead can take it further if needed. Just email it as confidential for the attention of the safeguarding lead.

NSPCC are going to report it to the local SS and they'll investigate. I'm not doing anymore than that.

I'm not a monster but I have my own children I need to focus on, and it's upsetting DS6 having him constantly knocking. He was on the phone to his parents this morning when he first knocked (I didn't answer as it was 8am) and he told his parents I didn't answer so I'm guessing they keep sending him over. Something isn't right I don't want him in my house.

This is what I would do.

This is a safeguarding issue. Phoning NSPCC was the right action. The boy should not be knocking on stranger's doors, once let alone multiple times. If parents want him to make friends they should approach neighbours, not the child.