Door knocking

Gabriella flipping annoying isn't it.

The top half of my front door is made up of 9 glass panels and I'm surprised the glass hasn't been broken by people hammering on it.
I have now put a small but easily seen notice on the glass panel next to the knocker stating "Please use the knocker or I might not hear you"
It seems to be working.

But I do agree, manners have gone to pot generally. Eating habits are my big bugbear. Watching children in a restaurant kneeling on their chairs and eating with their hands, people wandering around the streets eating and drinking. This 'fashion' for always having to carry a cup of coffee and or water bottle. Why? I was never allowed to eat or drink in the street - or on the move anywhere come to that.

Perhaps if that dictum returned there'd be less obesity and less litter. (But that's another soapbox)

If there’s a bell, I always ring it, but if no one comes I wonder if the bell doesn’t work, so then I sometimes knock. If there’s a knocker I use it as they are louder. If someone is in but maybe upstairs or something I think they must be cursing my impatience!

I prefer the knock, wait and knock again brigade as it takes me a while to get from the back of the house to the front door. Knock once and leave and I'm not there in time and left wondering who it was.

Knock down ginger,was the name given to the game where I grew up,knock on the door,runaway and hide,and from a safe distance see who came out and shouted" bloody kids again,bugger off home".

Of course I was a good girl and never played this game

One of the tricks which children used to play was to tie a piece of string around the door handles (where there was one) of neighbours, then knock on both doors at the same time. You can picture the result!

Never heard of that in my life!

They probably are, but out of sight of home ignore them. Spent a painful half hour trying to find out who had hammered on a very imposing front door during a school trip; finally two very well-behaved little girls whose mothers worked in the school owned up, to the astonishment of the entire class and me.

I have a really nice, noticeably large black knocker ( ??that sounds weird) but people still tap with their knuckles without using it.

There are all sorts of reasons why people do not respond to a knock the first time

You're right MOnica and one of them is that if I don't want to open my door, I darnwell don't, however many times they knock.
Same applies to the phone.

I'm training to be a recluse.

I was taught not to ring if there was a knocker and still follow that. Funny how we carry on observing these little niceties.

I suspect RosieLeah and MissAdventure were familiar with “knock door, run” or the variously named equivalents!

There are all sorts of reasons why people do not respond to a knock the first time. They could be out of hearing, asleep, hard of hearing. I would usually do at least 2 knocks or rings before walking away. If I was expected but the door wasn't answered I might do more.

The one knock only and then walk away isnot part of any manners I was taught - and my mother and grandmother were always quite particular in that way.

Just because today's manners are not yesterday's manners doessn't meanthere are no manners, they are just different and I can certainly remember very bad mannered people from my childhood.

Just ignore him and he'll go away!

The older you are the harder some people knock, thinking that all elderly are deaf----which isn't always the case. Then you get the odd few that appear to knock with a feather.

I wouldn't dream of knocking more than twice between a pause. Some children are just born annoying and delight in hanging on the knocker and making a noise. I'd be telling them too !

I have an intercom, and adults buzz it all the time, without saying who they are or who's flat they want access to.

Shh! He's still asleep, and I'm enjoying the peace.

Long may it last!

I have one of those intercom things, not a doorbell. It rang the other day and a child asked 'can I come in?'. I have no idea who he was, and he hadn't rung the wrong bell...I checked his credentials. He obviously was bored and wanted to go into someone else's home for a change.

Sounds as if he (the grandson) needed to be woken up!
Where does this degenerate into “the absence of nice manners” or worse, “no respect for others and their property” RosieLeah ?

Oh yes, it was the kind of "open up! Its the police" type knocking, not the nice polite, rap with the knuckles sort.

No, dear they are not taught nice manners any more...or respect for others and their property.

Well possibly, but it depends on the circumstances! A person might be ill, in the garden, not have heard the first polite knock, have the telly on - a whole host of reasons to repeat smart knocking while not hammering!
(I think what you describe might be what Yodel couriers or Parcelforce posties are taught! )