What Would You Have Done?

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
We have access on line to convicted sex predators living in our neighborhood. About a year ago a young kid maybe 8-9 knocked on my door selling coupon books for his little league or whatever. I bought one and he was gone. Later, I thought "was he alone, did his parents know what he was doing?" I thought if he or another kid comes by I am going to ask those questions and if he is alone then he should go home until his parent (s) can accompany him. I have often felt guilty knowing the number of bad guys living in this area. I would never allow a child to go knocking on doors of strangers.
 

Life is what it is. It is not your business to try and decide how independent a young kid should be. I was very much on my own, a great deal, from the age of eight, on. I had a few odd encounters, including one with a known sexual predator (who propositioned me), that resulted in my Mom calling the cops and me looking at mug shots at the station, but I still did what I wanted to do, including being out and about in my neighborhood.

You cannot protect kids to a 100% extent. Any protection, or guidelines, must come from parents. If the parents aren't involved in parenting, and there are in-your-face manifestations of the same, then the proper authorities should be notified. However, you need to rein in your desire to be some Grand Inquisitor to every kid that comes knocking at your door.

FWIW, convicted sex offenders are everywhere. They are on lists, as you mention. However, those who register have "paid their dues/done their time" and they need to be left to live their lives, too! The ones who are NOT on lists, and probably live a few doors down from you, are the ones you should worry about.
 
This came up on talk radio one morning. The show host brought up a good point. His point being, since he was a mid/age fit male [his] first concern wasn't molesters, his first concern was thieves . He felt [as do I] that there should perhaps be a list of x-cons period?! Why not make us aware of all the bad people in our neighborhoods ? Lets face it recidivism seems to be the norm after all.
 

fmdog44 said:
We have access on line to convicted sex predators living in our neighborhood. About a year ago a young kid maybe 8-9 knocked on my door selling coupon books for his little league or whatever. I bought one and he was gone. Later, I thought "was he alone, did his parents know what he was doing?" I thought if he or another kid comes by I am going to ask those questions and if he is alone then he should go home until his parent (s) can accompany him. I have often felt guilty knowing the number of bad guys living in this area. I would never allow a child to go knocking on doors of strangers.
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I think you should go directly to the kid's parents and give them the info about the predators. It's possible that they don't know. What they decide to do is then up to them. Perhaps you could also advise them to pass the information around to the parents of the kid's friends.
 
JaniceM said:
I think you should go directly to the kid's parents and give them the info about the predators. It's possible that they don't know. What they decide to do is then up to them. Perhaps you could also advise them to pass the information around to the parents of the kid's friends.
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We have a website showing the addresses and locations of the predators nearby. If a parent out their is allowing their child to go out their and NOT check the website then that I criminal but even knowing where the bad guys are letting a young child wander around alone is dumb. It takes only a few seconds to grab a child.
 
I wonder, how many children have actually been "grabbed" by a neighbor when the kid came knocking on the door? I've never seen or heard of such a case.

Seems to me the kids are actually in more danger these days just by being in school or out on the street as part of a crowd. Or maybe being online and therefore easy prey for predators who pretend to be kids themselves and set up "play dates."
 
Sunny said:
I wonder, how many children have actually been "grabbed" by a neighbor when the kid came knocking on the door? I've never seen or heard of such a case.

Seems to me the kids are actually in more danger these days just by being in school or out on the street as part of a crowd. Or maybe being online and therefore easy prey for predators who pretend to be kids themselves and set up "play dates."
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How many children disappear every year? How many murders are committed inside homes?
According to the FBI, in 2017 there were 464,324 NCIC entries for missing children. Similarly, in 2016, the total number of missing children entries into NCIC was 465,676.
 
I've heard that pedophilia can never be "cured". A person with this disorder may or may not actually molest children.

Doing the time after being caught molesting a child in no way assures this person will never harm another child. That's why there are sex registries.

It's a different world than when we were kids. Disturbed people seem to have gotten bolder.

I don't think kids should be going door to door selling anything or for any reason.
 
go to kidslivesafe.com and enter your zip code to view how many sex predators live in your area. There are 1,306 living in mine and I live in a very nice area!
 
We have some pedophiles living in our area. Their names and addresses can be looked up online. From my very limited understanding of this, I believe that most of them use the Internet to attract kids. I don't think they are sitting like spiders in their webs, or lions in their lairs, waiting for a victim to come knocking on their door so they can snatch them. Most of the kids who are their victims are not selling Girl Scout cookies.

Seems to me that parents would do better by limiting, and carefully monitoring, their kids' online access. Maybe don't let them have an email address until they are teens.
 
I get kids sometimes selling things door to door for their school, etc., like candy bars, girl scout cookies, magazine subscriptions, etc. When I was a kid in the early 60s, I had to beg my mother one time to let me go trick or treating with my friends, she let me go with them in the afternoon for 2 hours, and read me the riot act before I left. Don't go into anyone's house or apartment, don't stand right in their doorway, never go alone, always with a friend, etc.

I personally wouldn't let my young child go door to door these days, although many times they do and it's incident-free. Ultimately, it's up to the parents to use their own judgement on these things and make their kids aware of possible dangers. I don't think they are ignorant to the possibility of their child being approached by a bad person either ringing doorbells or walking to school or the park. Way back in the olden days, my mother drilled it into us not to trust strangers or go in or near anyone's car, etc. Nowadays is much worse, or at least we hear about it more.
 

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