Saw a child with mum trick or treating at 11:20pm (school night here)

[fmla]

I was about to go to bed. Noticed outside was a girl aged 5-7 wearing a Halloween outfit with several of those one off glow necklaces (that made me draw attention to begin with) with her mum. They were going to paths to houses and knocked on a couple of doors.

Who in their right minds will answer the door that time of night, unless you are expecting it - member of household returning back from work etc or ordering that very late takeout delivery?

Half term was last week here. It's not acceptable for a young child to be out that time plus some of the streetlights switch off at 11pm. It doesn't matter if its half term or not,

If the mum was working until, say 9pm, then she should arrange with DD's friends' parents to go round with them. If that is the case that she finished work, who looked after DD after school?

You might have seen posts where people were complaining about knocks on their own door. OP is complaining about people knocking on other doors though. She has no idea whether the person knocking knows the person at the door or anything about it.

No one knows that theyweren't either though!
This thread's daft as it's all just speculation. 😁

Personally I don't think it's appropriate to knock on people's doors at 11:30pm. People seem to be focussed on whether the kid should be out - but what about the people being disturbed by random people roaming around late into the night? A lot of people might already be asleep even so the effort is likely futile. Unless the area you're in it is somehow expected that kids would be going around late into the night. Certainly not where I am. Judging from people's comments here though seems it is acceptable to be inconsiderate :)

Yeah I thought similar. You never know do you. I guess you could have poked your head out with sweets if you had any left and asked if they were OK. But other than that you can't assume you know the story .

Taking the piss. I would not be answering the door at that time of night! WTF!

Nobody has said it is acceptable to knock on strangers doors. They probably know them though.

Actually quite a few posters think it's fine to knock if the child is SEN, has had an xray, is from a single parent family and all manner of reasons. Apparently those children trump everybody else's and it's fine to wake other children (who potentially might also have their own issues) late at night.

None of those people have said its ok to knock on a STRANGER'S door (Short of an absolute emergency where you need help)
Everyone has said that it's likely they knew and had arranged the visit anyway

They were. Before they latched onto the idea they might be visiting friends (despite house being in darkness) there were many posts saying "oh you don't know if there's a reason they have to take their children out late". I'm sure there wouldn't have to be a reason at all if they were just popping to (multiple) friends.

I really don't see how it's so likely they knew them anyway. I've already mentioned it happened to me and I certainly didn't know the people at the door.

The great majority didn't say it is fine even if strangers.

Just as well I said "quite a few" then! The poster I was replying to said nobody had said it was OK. I was just pointing out they actually had.

It's all been the same. Something may have occurred which meant they couldn't go out until late and then they only went to the houses of people they knew and had arranged with

OP was close enough to see what they were doing and yet they didn't knock her door which would imply they weren't knocking everyone's for a start

i can’t imagine people being up and opening their doors at that time. Maybe they were coming from a gathering or something?

I haven't seen anyone specifically say that it is okay to knock on strangers doors that late.

In my area doors are only knocked on if the houses are decorated so that could also explain the selective knocking. Nobody knows for sure. However, I had randoms knock at 10 and for me that is too late.

There absolutely are posts saying "perhaps the parent had worked late or the child has SEN" with no mention of it being at a door of somebody they knew. Seeing as OP had implied they were knocking at random doors, one would have assumed these posters would have made reference to whether that part was not OK if indeed they didn't agree with it.

My front door is around the back of the block I live at. Only those who have been down there will actually know where the doors are. Live in a two storey block of 12 flats in a long rectangular block.

The houses have doors on the street side.

That is that is how it works where I live. People take in the decorations when they've had enough of people knocking on the door too. This year i didn't put any decorations up for the first time and no one knocked.

Some people have a lot of decs though. I wouldn't assume they're going to remove them all at 8/9 or whatever to stop latecomers knocking. I would however expect people to be reasonable and realise knocking late is inconsiderate. Obviously I'm stupid to assume other people have similar levels of respect 🤷‍♀️

You win the daftest response on the thread!

Who on earth would answer their door at that time? I'd be tucked up by 10.30.

I might, to shout at the idiot disturbing me at that time.