Door to door solicitations with a twist…

[Sneezyone]

My neighbors sent their kids, roughly 10 and 7, ALONE, to solicit donations for Crisis Pregnancy Centers. I saw them in the street when I got back from a meeting but they hit me up about 30 min ago so obvs noted my return. Granted, I live directly across the street and mom may be watching but…?? I praised their advocacy efforts and haul but declined to participate. 

Listen, people can advocate all they want, but these two babies should not be out, alone, advocating policies and programs that they clearly (based on their pitch) do/did not understand. Is this a thing people still do in your area? How/why is this appropriate?

Edited March 19 by Sneezyone

[Spryte]

Not appropriate. On so many levels.

[Clarita]

A few years ago I had kids hit me up for a "donation" to their ski vacation. I was confused an inquired no it's not for school, no they weren't on some ski team, they were just going door to door asking for money for a family vacation. I didn't recognize them as living near me either and mom was in the car  as her kids asked for money to fund their family vacation... I guess in my case at least they understood what they were doing?

I find having kids go door to door doing these sorts of things inappropriate. I realize some people think these things build character or teaches kids important life lessons, but I don't understand it at all. Yes I do find it weird that we make little girls sell cookies which are made by a large corporation.

[Sneezyone]

Just now, Clarita said:

A few years ago I had kids hit me up for a "donation" to their ski vacation. I was confused an inquired no it's not for school, no they weren't on some ski team, they were just going door to door asking for money for a family vacation. I didn't recognize them as living near me either and mom was in the car  as her kids asked for money to fund their family vacation... I guess in my case at least they understood what they were doing?

I find having kids go door to door doing these sorts of things inappropriate. I realize some people think these things build character or teaches kids important life lessons, but I don't understand it at all. Yes I do find it weird that we make little girls sell cookies which are made by a large corporation.

GOOD GRIEF, YES! At least the GS are in public locations nowadays with parent oversight and supervision. Asking or expecting someone the age of a typical BS/GS to explain this issue is absolutely nuts to me.

[HomeAgain]

I'm going with borderline inappropriate.  A safe neighborhood, with an ambitious 10yo leading the direction is different than two kids being sent off meekly to wherever.  This might be the older kid's idea. 

We get the occasional kid coming by.  Usually a scout or kids looking for school donations. Most of the time I take a few minutes to talk it out with them and see what they know.   Today we had our own weird solicitation.  Dh and I were a little on edge by the black SUV that slowed its roll down our street and checked out our property clearly.  That was followed by a white car 10 minutes later who hung a little bag on our front door.  Inside was a pair of socks and a card from the local realtor, promising if we went with them we'd get rates that would "knock our socks off."

Ha.

Ha.Ha.

Never mind we have no intention to sell.  DS14 is thrilled he has a new pair of bbq grill covered socks, though.

[Arcadia]

Years ago, a kid was doing door to door panhandling in my neighborhood. His father was nearby. A few people called the non emergency police line to do a welfare check on the child. Turns up the father and son were staying in emergency housing nearby. The father was given a warning. Few months later, it happened again and police was called. 

[kbutton]

It has dropped off in our area, but we live in an ideal neighborhood for kids to sell door to door as a fundraiser and have encountered them in the past. We sold scout popcorn this way and did very well. We stayed with our scout, but he was under ten at the time. Many people told us to be sure to come back every year that he was scouting.

 

[Bambam]

I've seen some bizarre fundraisers before but that is very strange to send those young children out on that mission. 

My favorite was a family soliciting funds to replace their electric car battery. They had the funds, but they wanted to use those for a vacation, so they were asking for donations to replace their battery. Hard no, folks, it is called being an adult and spending that money on needs vs. asking folks for money. So sorry that happened (battery failure), but that is life.  IMHO. 

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, HomeAgain said:

I'm going with borderline inappropriate.  A safe neighborhood, with an ambitious 10yo leading the direction is different than two kids being sent off meekly to wherever.  This might be the older kid's idea. 

We get the occasional kid coming by.  Usually a scout or kids looking for school donations. Most of the time I take a few minutes to talk it out with them and see what they know.   Today we had our own weird solicitation.  Dh and I were a little on edge by the black SUV that slowed its roll down our street and checked out our property clearly.  That was followed by a white car 10 minutes later who hung a little bag on our front door.  Inside was a pair of socks and a card from the local realtor, promising if we went with them we'd get rates that would "knock our socks off."

Ha.

Ha.Ha.

Never mind we have no intention to sell.  DS14 is thrilled he has a new pair of bbq grill covered socks, though.

Mostly, I agree. It is a safe area, broad daylight. It’s just that *this* issue is so fraught. I didn’t think it appropriate or helpful to probe their understanding of the issue/ask. Their pitch was ‘save the babies’ and as soon as I heard it, defaulted to…nope…they’re not prepared for nuance or discussion, nor is it my place to undermine what they’ve been told. Some kids their age might be and I might have even gifted something. It felt manipulative. Mostly, I was outraged that these kids were sent out to shill for adult issues/priorities.

Edited March 19 by Sneezyone

[SKL]

I don't see the "door to door, 'alone'" problem if these kids are your neighbors.  (They are not "alone," they are 2 kids together, which significantly reduces an already minimal risk.)

The topic is not one I'd send my young kids out to discuss in the community.  Though I feel the same way about people dragging their little kids to any protest about things they can't understand.  Like the former friend who knitted a cat hat and made a vulgar sign for her small kid to wear/carry at the women's march (and proudly posted it on social media).  Gross.

[HomeAgain]

14 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Mostly, I agree. It is a safe area, broad daylight. It’s just that *this* issue is so fraught. I didn’t think it appropriate or helpful to probe their understanding of the issue/ask. Their pitch was ‘save the babies’ and as soon as I heard it, defaulted to…nope…they’re not prepared for nuance or discussion, nor is it my place to undermine what they’ve been told. Some kids their age might be and I might have even gifted something. It felt manipulative. Mostly, I was outraged that these kids were sent out to shill for adult issues/priorities.

Oh, I think you misunderstood!  I absolutely do not mean debate them!  I mean things like,

"This sounds important to you." And letting the conversation get carried a little more.

"Where did you hear about this?" And letting them talk some more.

You start to see motives and who is pushing them to solicit donations, and it gives you more of a chance to talk to your young neighbors, not at them.  Going door to door is hard.  Kindness isn't.  You can absolutely respectfully decline anything you want, but it is worth it to see why they're out there in the first place.

[Sneezyone]

5 hours ago, HomeAgain said:

Oh, I think you misunderstood!  I absolutely do not mean debate them!  I mean things like,

"This sounds important to you." And letting the conversation get carried a little more.

"Where did you hear about this?" And letting them talk some more.

You start to see motives and who is pushing them to solicit donations, and it gives you more of a chance to talk to your young neighbors, not at them.  Going door to door is hard.  Kindness isn't.  You can absolutely respectfully decline anything you want, but it is worth it to see why they're out there in the first place.

Honestly, I felt really uncomfy saying much of anything other than ‘it’s wonderful to see you supporting a cause you care about and you've really done well!’ 

Questions I would ask an adult related to where the money is going (specific local facility or national campaign), how it would be used, other connected entities or parties etc., these two obviously couldn’t answer. 

The whole pitch was stop abortions and save the babies. That’s it. I, obvs, think it’s a lot more complicated than that. 

We’ve participated in things like blankets for babies w/out issue but this just made me feel some kind of way.

[Faith-manor]

This is skivvy. 100% inappropriate. The subject matter is too complicate for children, it is making them into little pawns in a public policy debate that they are not mature enough to participate in, and at that age should not be hitting people up for money without an adult right there. If the adult wants the money, they can stop being a coward and come ask for it.

Poor kids! I have to wonder what that mother was thinking.

We never have anyone younger than about 13 come ask door to door for anything, and when they do, it is the local band kids. We do not have any scout troops in our town, and 4H has different methods of fundraising that do not require this type of soliciting. Thank goodness. I do support the band kids though because funding is so low for their program. One year the band director didn't even have a supply budget and was handing our reeds and valve oil paid for out of his own, bizarrely under-paid pocket.