Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Hysteria.
Hysteria? I was expecting Common Sense… Please knock on someone else’s door.
Sorry. I had to get that out of my system after reading this story. The summary, or cliff notes version is this:
A woman is at home with her two children. A delivery driver (UPS maybe or FedEx? It doesn’t say) rings the doorbell to the house and doesn’t get an answer.
What would YOU do?
Nothing? Me either. Not the case here though. After getting no answer at the door, the driver calls child protection services.
That’s basically the whole story.
The people of the internet lost their damn minds…
I didn’t do an official count but the reactions seemed to be equally mixed with about half of the people applauding this driver for calling attention to a situation where children may have been in danger and predicting that had the mom actually been incapacitated, said driver would’ve been hailed a hero.
And the other half outraged about invasion of privacy, parent shaming, peeing at the wrong time and possibly going to jail etc.
I found some of the comments to be so very… passionate… about a situation where no one knows the real story.
More upsetting/disturbing to me than the story were some of the comments:
“First of all she was too freaking lazy to answer a door or get dressed? That is just pathetic. Second when lazy wouldn’t answer the door the driver knew the kids were there so anyone would reasonably assume they are either alone or something had happened to the adult there thus making them alone. The driver was 100 percent correct. If people don’t get involved that’s how you end up with dead and abused children.”
-Worst Case Scenario on top of extremely judgmental.
“Sometimes welfare checks and CPS go hand in hand.Some people use their welfare money to buy drugs and not buy food for the home…even if it’s in a card form.They will find someone they trust to buy food in return for cash(to buy drugs, cigarettes, liquor).Cash money for the same purpose.Those kids could have been found in an unclean, unsanitary home and fetching for themselves…never know. The system needs to drug test people that get welfare aid…”
-Obviously misguided as to the term welfare check.
“Nope this was a waste of time. I don’t answer my door 90% why because only strangers knock on my freaking door. I don’t want to talk to people about their religions, about what they are selling this week, or why the hell they ignored my trespassing signs. I do however answer the door for fedex, and ups.”
-The Other Side of the Coin.
“If u read it correctly She said 3 cop cars showed up and the driver had called CPS . NOT that CPS showed up at her door!! What and who gives u the right to automatically ASSUME this was a welfare check?”
-Very Concerned with the distinction between the police and CPS.
What I don’t understand is why people haven’t asked the two most important questions that matter…
My first one being, how old are the children? From the picture, they certainly look old enough to dial 911 if needed.
Second, how did the driver know (or think he knew) the kids were home alone?
In my opinion, the author(s), I’ve read two articles about this same story by two different authors and neither of them provided enough information for anyone to be judging anything.
Giving people the benefit of the doubt, it’s nice to think that people are looking out for each other. That people want to help, are checking on children and alerting people who have the authority to investigate a situation that may be… dangerous.
On the other hand, I certainly don’t want to live in a world that thinks I’m “lazy and pathetic” because I don’t want to get dressed by -maybe the entire day. Not because I’m lazy, but because I don’t feel good a lot of the time. I have trouble, on occasion, getting dressed. I also have anxiety and I don’t want to have to worry that the cops are going to show up, interrogating me because I didn’t answer the door for a stranger!
Can we all just agree to maybe use our heads and common sense a little more before we start pitching fits and throwing punches?
Striving For Sanity 