<p>For the second time this week a child has rung my doorbell selling something. The young man today said, “My baseball team is selling Coke products, do you want to buy some?” No introduction as to his name, what team, and why there are selling the drinks. I have never seen this kid, so I have no idea who he is, but I assume he lives in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>I really am not a stickler for manners and etiquette, just the basics are fine by me; but I don’t know why the kids are not taught what to say if they are going to sell door to door. My 7 year old neighbor came to the door, told me her name, what she was selling and why; I knew all this information as we had talked about it earlier, yet she still went through her sales pitch. Yes, it was a memorized pitch, but hey, she is 7!!</p>
<p>People still let unattended little children sell things door to door? I haven’t seen this literally for a couple of decades. Call me paranoid, but would you let your kid do this?</p>
<p>The 7 year old was with her mother, the baseball boy looked to be about 13. We are in an established neighborhood of 100+ houses, and many of the kids come by to collect/sell for school, youth group and other organizations. One little Brownie Scout was here selling cookies bright and early New Year’s Day!</p>
<p>We never buy from them. We make our donations directly and dislike selling to support schools, sports… Especially don’t think young kids should be selling anything, anywhere. An exception- did buy a couple of 10 cent tickets to a play the neighbor kids said they were producing one summer years ago- it never happened and I never got a refund.</p>
<p>I only buy from kids I know, mostly neighbor’s kids (they always bought from mine).</p>
<p>My kids HATED selling anything but we always went to neighbors because we have no nearby relatives to sell to. I am so glad my own don’t have to do this anymore.</p>
<p>I make donations directly to the school when there is a fundraiser. Most everyone IN our neighborhood has kids…if we all bought, it would just be the same $25 going from person to person to person. </p>
<p>The only exception…I will buy girl scout cookies from girls who I KNOW. If a stranger comes, I tell them I’ve already bought from a GS friend. But I will buy them.</p>
<p>My kids are 21 and 25. I NEVER let them go door to door to sell the junk that typically was being hocked for those fundraisers.</p>
<p>I always hated when my kids had to sell candy bars for hockey or baseball. The result was me buying the whole darn box and then one by one shoving them in my mouth!</p>
<p>I sold Girl Scout cookies door-to-door as a little kid (with parental accompaniment), and am a pushover for other little kids doing similar things. I wasn’t a particularly good saleswoman, but I liked the idea that I was working to support an activity that was benefiting me.</p>
<p>The kid in the OP should have had a better sales pitch, but little kids are still learning. In that situation, I’d probably try to draw some info out of the kid myself. “Oh, how nice! I played softball when I was younger and it was lots of fun! What team do you play for? Are you raising money to go to a tournament?”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I can understand why you didn’t get the pitch you wanted. Even if I were with the child, I wouldn’t want to give out all that personally identifiable information - name, team, etc.</p>
<p>That’s why I think it’s a really bad idea for kids to sell door to door. Nowadays, one never knows.</p>
<p>If a child is selling in our subdivision, and the parents allow them to go door to door, then a bit of information shouldn’t be harmful; but you are right, in today’s times, even going to the door isn’t safe.</p>
<p>My subdivision has an average of 2.5 kids per family so we have tons of kids of all ages. When every elementary age student shows up for a donation for the jump a thon, I can not sponsor each of them, but I feel bad. The same for girl scout cookies; my family loves them so I use to try to buy a couple of boxes from each girl, but one year I must have had 6 girls come to my door! </p>
<p>As we have aged, I have decided to only buy from the kids I actual know, which isn’t many. My kids didn’t go to public school and almost ever family here sends their kids to public. Many new families have moved in and us older folks are few and far between. As I am only out where I would meet people when walking the dogs, my knowledge of the kids in the neighborhood is limited; the ones I know are friends with our dogs!!</p>
I wasn’t a particularly good saleswoman, but I liked the idea that I was working to support an activity that was benefiting me.</p>