Neighbour outraged I ignored the door

[Scrumbler]

For context I've lived in my home for 6 years, I have a baby and we get on with our neighbours very well usually.

Yesterday someone banged on the door a few times and I ignored it. I never answer my front door because everyone who I'm expecting use the side door. We get a lot of cold callers and religious people who knock alot so I will never answer it.
Today I see my neighbour and his son has a bandage on and I asked what happened, he'd had an accident yesterday in the street, my neighbour said his wife knocked on my door at the time for me to call an ambulance because she's panicked and left her phone in her house so I said I'd heard the knocking but didn't know what it was.
He looked at me completely gone out and then asked me why I'd ignored her. I explained I obviously didn't know it was an emergency or I would have course answered. But he told me I was selfish and slammed his door as he went in.
I carried on taking my shopping out of the car and then his wife comes out asking if I'd ignored her! I told her I don't answer that door and didn't know it was an emergency but she just went mad shouting how horrible that was and asked what kind of person doesn't answer there door.

I know their probably still shook up but I didn't know what had happened.
To clarify, their child seems fine from what the dad told me before he found out I'd ignored the door and turned out to be a very minor injury. I feel awful it happened but I didn't ignore them on purpose knowing they were needing an ambulance so I think they've been a bit over the top.

This went well I see 🙄
Just to answer a few questions. I don't have bailiffs or debt collectors I'm avoiding, I don't think it's an axe murderer on their way to get me and I don't actually have strong opinions on whether or not people should answer their doors. I just don't answer to people I don't know. My parents never did it and now I'm here doing the same.
I'm not downplaying the boys injuries, his dad told me it was minor and he they thought it was a broken bone but it was just hurt, no significant injury. I don't need to downplay something I have no blame in.
In hindsight I should have lied or not said anything but I didn't expect the reaction. They know I don't answer that door, they always use the side door if they want me and know that's why I'm never the neighbour they get parcels delivered to for them.
There were no blue flashing lights or screaming, I didn't ignore an emergency on purpose. If someone was banging on my door to tell my my house was on fire I'm sure there'd be more urgency.
Also no I don't answer it on Halloween either to answer that one.
I feel awful they were in that situation but by the time I'd have got the dog out of the room and into the kitchen so I could leave my baby in the moses basket to get to the front door she would have gone anyway. It wasn't as if I ignored several minutes of someone almost knocking my door down. It was quick and not urgent sounding enough for me to think about it again.
I don't want a ring doorbell or a peephole. I just don't answer my front door.

Why are you interfering in other peoples lives so much?!

I'm in London and the only time I don't answer the door is when I think it's debt collectors 😂

Super odd

This! It's not normal behaviour

If you genuinely never answer the front door then YANBU, they sound like drama llamas.

But I think you might be telling porkies as I just don’t buy that you never answer your front door to deliveries. Delivery people will inevitably knock on the front door, regardless of instructions to deliver to side door.

@HufflepuffRavenclaw and @faffadoodledo they're always filming round here. I often get letters from location scout through my door but I have never been successful yet. It's tragic because I could do with the money and would be thrilled if someone replaced the windows.

They filmed a Jackie Chan movie two streets away and it was like a carnival. Jackie signed autographs but Pierce Brosnan, who was also in it, stayed in his trailer.

They also made a BBC show where Hugh Laurie was a dodgy politician here too. His screen girlfriend lived in one of the 1960s flats at the end of my road. It looked really good from the outside. I think the interior was a studio. I don't know the person who lives there so don't feel able to ask how much she got but I hope it was a lot.

In hindsight I should have lied

You should never feel the need to lie OP, not least to us.

Even though we might think your behaviour was strange and antisocial and your excuses like always using the side door and being afraid of Jehovah's witness less than convincing, there is no need to explain yourself.

But thanks for starting this thread. it's been a while since the last one from someone who hides behind the settee when someone knocks on the door.* *

But thanks for starting this thread. it's been a while since the last one from someone who hides behind the settee when someone knocks on the door.

I actually found the 'fuck you and the horse you rode in on' attitudes expressed towards fellow humankind who may be in dire need of help on this thread pretty upsetting (not talking about the OP).

I thought my cold, dead heart was incapable of feeling such emotion after 15 years in the trenches of MN, but there you go. You learn something new about yourself every day. .

@limitedperiodonly oh my god, I know you were trying to be snide on purpose, but your comment gave me actual flashbacks to this constantly hovering self-appointed social police mum on a "nice" suburban street I used to live on. It's exactly the same bizarre smugness! I got actual de ja vu - I wonder if you might actually be her?!

@limitedperiodonly

But no one should let anything, not even the call of nature stand between them and normal social interaction like opening the door when the neighbours call.

Not anything?? What if I'm in a job interview? Or plastering a wall? Or mid-shag?

@limitedperiodonly Does your name start with L?

You didn’t answer the question, did you know it was your neighbor who was knocking (banging you said) on your door? If you did, then that’s why they’re upset.

I really don't mind being called weird. I'm very socially awkward and get a lot of anxiety around people. I've been called weird a lot from being a child so it's not gonna hurt today.
But the reason I don't answer the door unless I know who it is is purely down to my parents who did the same thing.
And to answer another question, yes most of the time if I'm in that room I would try and look out of the window sneakily to see who it is. However I wasn't in that room and like I said above, by the time I'd get the dog into the kitchen to be able to leave my sleeping baby in the moses basket to get to the living room to see who it was, I assumed they'd be gone. When the knocking stopped I forgot about it.

What a surprise!

In that case Op, I’d just go over to the mother and explain that you truly did not know it was her at the door or you’d have opened it. She is probably upset because she thinks you knew she was at the door but ignored her and because her son needed help, that really upset her. A little chat will go a long way to resolving this.

😂

Your neighbour should have knocked once, accepted you weren't going to answer and then sorted out their own problem.

I'm bloody glad my neighbour who once knocked on our door in the middle of the night kept knocking, and glad that my parents answered the door, otherwise we all might be dead. Neighbour's "problem" was that he could see that our roof was on fire. Like someone else, 've also had a knock on a door to tell us go evacuate due to a gas leak. If your house burns down or blows up because you refused to answer the door, please don't blame anyone but yourself.

All these people with houses on fire, do you not have smoke alarms? I can't even burn a slice of toast without having to grab the broom to shut the thing up.

@Scrumbler I am not sure why you return to the boy’s happy outcome. The whole reason for his mum’s panic is that it could not have been known at the time. This is not to deny that possibly she could have been more thoughtful, but nothing freezes your brain like worrying about your DC

As a mum yourself now, presumably you want your DC to grow up to be happy, effective and comfortable in the world. It isn’t too soon to begin thinking about how you want to model that.

So many people saying it’s weird not to answer your front door. I disagree and often ignore it if I am on my own and don’t know the person. Friends and neighbours can ring on phone if urgent. What if someone is on a call/on the lav/feeding a baby/showering/ill in bed/ cooking … it’s not always so black and white. How do you know if someone lives in a safe area?

Most people would use their own phone to ring an ambulance and if OP wasn’t available they could have tried another neighbour. There was no excuse to call her selfish and be so rude. Maybe a get well card for the child and a verbal explanation that you didn’t know it was her would restore good neighbourly relations?

And that's the reason why people take batteries out of smoke alarms.

Hence not being altered

@rubberduckiee you’ve hit the nail on the head.

The self righteousness is something to behold.

I would LOVE to be on the whatsapp group for that street.

Not answering the door is odd in my opinion.

however that is besides the point, your door, and your prerogative as to whether you answer it or not, I may consider it strange, but still, yanbu.

@takealettermsjones NOTHING! There are old people breaking their hips, children being maimed and houses burning to the ground every minute of the day and you should be alert to all activities outside your door at all times and drop everything to answer the door OR YOU ARE AWFUL.

Can the neighbours whose doors never get a rest from these insane people please start a thread. I want to know how many hide behind the sofa or draw lots to answer the door because Hyacinth at 23 saw a leaf blow across the yard and needed to alert them immediately.