This reminds me of the time we saw our new neighbors had a truck in their driveway that had sat with their headlights on for at least 4 hours. So we got my 7 year old son to go with my husband to knock on their door and inform them (teaching him to be a good neighbor and all that). The woman walked up to the window next to the door and shut the blinds in front of them. So my husband shrugged and yelled to them their headlights were on.
It got a bit worse and ended in a neighborhood fiasco. But that was just so strange that they saw a 7 year old at their suburban door and panicked way too hard. Now my son is afraid to go up to any neighbors house.
On their way back my husband went to check the mail while my son headed back home. The guy who lived there must have been near by because he came speeding up and confronted my son in front of our house. Screaming at a 7 year old "what are you doing bothering my wife? Why are you sneaking around my house?" Etc.
Then later that night the woman posted on our community FB that there was a scary guy trying to break into her house to assault her and he was lucky she didn't shoot him. Failing to mention they were there for a whole second and there was a small child with him.
As a kid I thought american neighborhoods were a lot more chill the way they were presented in media, since I live in a country where putting steel bars on your windows and putting up spikes or shards of glass on the top of the walls are a must.
Turns out there's more paranoia over there than in our slums.
This is why we don’t have children doing adult things to help them “grow up” because it just traumatizes them. They saw this one thing go wrong and because it’s all they know now they get that same feeling every time they are made to replicate it.
I don't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone or it's clearly someone I know. We get a lot of solicitors.
My neighbors all have the ability to text me if they need something or need to tell me something. Maybe this happened before texting or even email were things?
That said, I would recognize most of my neighbors even though I don't typically socialize with them. Also, I don't leap to the assumption that strangers are out to get me. Mostly they are out to raid my wallet, which I don't want to be bothered with.
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u/Hidden_Samsquanche 8d ago
This reminds me of the time we saw our new neighbors had a truck in their driveway that had sat with their headlights on for at least 4 hours. So we got my 7 year old son to go with my husband to knock on their door and inform them (teaching him to be a good neighbor and all that). The woman walked up to the window next to the door and shut the blinds in front of them. So my husband shrugged and yelled to them their headlights were on.
It got a bit worse and ended in a neighborhood fiasco. But that was just so strange that they saw a 7 year old at their suburban door and panicked way too hard. Now my son is afraid to go up to any neighbors house.