So, I’m sitting here conflicted.
About an hour ago my wife and I are sitting in bed. We hear this knock at the door. We looked at each other, thinking who could possibly be at the door at ~11:15pm. I have a 3 and 1 year old sleeping in bed and my dog is going wild. I ignore the knock and then they start ringing the door bell. My dog continues to lose his shit.
At this point I’m livid. My wife is looking at the door camera while I’m on my way to the front door and I hear her say something something “they’re laughing and think it’s funny”. I pull the door open and they start singing a Christmas Carol. It’s about 4 males and 2 female teenagers (probably around 17 or 18 years of age). As they start singing, I put up my hand to ask them to stop (and they do), and I say “do you know what time it is?”. Then I sort of go off on a tirade, “it’s 11 something at night and I have small children sleeping. You guys need to get the fuck off my door step and get lost”. One of the wise guys cracks some sort of joke and I say this isn’t fucking funny or something to that effect. I have to hand it to one of the little shits, about 5 minutes later he doorbell ditches me. That took some nuts.
Anyways, it’s an hour later, I’ve driven around the damn block for the last 45 minutes because my wife thought I was over the line and an apology is in order, “They were excited to sing to you, and they are just kids and didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
AITA?! I think I could have toned it down with the cussing. Maybe even just told them I was not interested, but damn it, in the moment I was annoyed that it was past 11 pm and if I didn’t answer during the their first knock, why ring the door bell.
Anyways, let me have it. If the consensus is IATA, I’ll post to my community Facebook and try and locate them. Maybe even invite them over for hot coco so they can sing to my wife and kids.
omg who thinks 11:15pm is an acceptable time for caroling?? your dog and kids were sleeping, those people were completely out of line.
NTA. totally inappropriate for that time at night no matter any good intentions.
NTA they did that on purpose you know. They aren’t dumb. They knew it was far past the time to be going door to door, it’s why they kept trying when clearly you weren’t planning to answer. I bet they figured it’d be funny and they’d be able to lean on Christmas as an excuse if someone got angry.
Christmas is my favorite holiday. I have caroled most of my life with different groups over the years.
I have never in my life knocked on a door anywhere near 11:15pm to do so.
The only thing that comes to mind is that it was a prank.
NTA
I’m the first person to say let’s be nice to the neighborhood kids and make allowances for juvenile foolishness, as long as it doesn’t cause harm. We were all that silly and impulsive at one point.
But those stinkers knew what they were doing. And if, by some stretch of the imagination, you had possibly owed them an apology, that obligation ended when they ditched shortly after.
Just let it go.
NTA! There is no acceptable reason to be ringing someone’s doorbell that late at night unless the house is on fire or something! The fact that they came back for a ding dong ditch confirms it, they were just trolling. These kids deserved to be cussed at but they probably didn’t even care! They are happy they got a rise out of you. They are lucky you didn’t call the cops!
NTA – NO one should knock on your door past 7pm unless you know them or are expecting them!! No Apology needed!! I would have been doing a lot of swearing too!! Plus, they could have been home invaders! Do NOT open the door to strangers!
NTA
They knew what they were doing. They’re lucky all they got was a telling off.
NTA. Caroling is best done in the afternoon and early evening. It is a rare home where 23:00 is an acceptable visiting time.
You were far kinder than I would have been.
NTA!!!! tf they doing at 11 at night???
NTA. At many homes in the United States, if a doorbell rings or there’s a knock that late, the occupants answer with a firearm in hand. While one would hope the person wielding the gun is of sound mind and has the proper training for handling a firearm, that’s an awfully big gamble for some teenagers trying to have some fun. Whether one opposes or favors stronger gun control, it’s probably a good idea to warn teens to assume homeowners are armed.
NTA — I’d be shocked to learn that they weren’t being intentionally obnoxious, given the hour. Teenagers gonna teenage.
NTA
” I’ve driven around the damn block for the last 45 minutes because my wife thought I was over the line and an apology is in order, “They were excited to sing to you, and they are just kids and didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.”
Your wife is 100% incorrect here. There are certain times in life where people deserve the full on nuke behavior. When you think it’s a good idea to knock on a complete stranger’s door… Then proceed to ring their doorbell when you don’t get an answer, you deserve to get screamed at and swore at. This is a lack of respect deal here and they got what they deserved.
NTA. If somebody knocks on my door after ***10***pm. It had better be important… After 11? It’d better be an *emergency*.
Based on their actions and reactions:
Knocking *and* ringing the doorbell at a late hour,
‘wife saw them laughing on the door cam’,
continuing to act like something was ‘funny’ after you expressed your annoyance,
coming back to ‘ring and run’…
Even if they didn’t know about your sleeping babies, I’d wager that they were attempting to disguise a prank as caroling. Add that they disappeared afterwards and the likelihood increases.