Do you automatically open the front door yo a knock or bell ring?

For the last 30 plus years I have been able to see who is at the door before opening the door and at night we have a very bright security light that illuminates them.

Our front door is large and thick. That is how the built them in the mid 18th century, so no peephole. We may get a cctv camera as the front door is not visible from the road.

We have a porch beyond our main door so I can actually see who’s outside . If we didn’t have that we’d definitely have a video doorbell.

I've got security cameras anyway - courtesy of bad neighbours doing things like trespassing in my garden (of which I had a LOT when I first moved here and there was one that used to do so on a virtually daily basis!). That stopped when they realised I'm not "some little woman who can be pushed around", but instead a "far from daft - person" and had been used to being treated as a "person" since around the 1980s/my 30's.

So I often spot someone is coming to visit me some way off and can decide accordingly - as I've seen who the visitor is. The set-up here is such that there's a pretty high chance anyone coming up the road might be for me anyway and I can usually tell if they're a regular visitor to one of those neighbours.

Add that I can open a sitting room window if I want to to talk to them and I could keep my porch door locked if I wanted to and talk to them from inside my porch.

Workmen here joke about just how fast I lock one of my outside doors when they come into the house - and I tell them it's because I used to live in a city centre and house right on the street...so I automatically do so usually. Add in those bad neighbours.....and yep.

I just hurl myself behind the sofa.

Always have, always do.
Many years ago, about 9.30 ish one summer evening, all my young children in bed, hubbie was driving my parents home, bell rang.

Two youngsters (about 15 o 16 year olds -both so much bigger than me), were on my porch asking to come in to use my phone (years before mobile phones). They told me that they had been chased by a gang of skinheads, and needed to phone their parents. In my head I went through a scenario where I was telling the police I had let these two into my house, etc.etc.
I asked for the telephone number of one set of parents, then left them on the porch and went back in to make that call.
Yes, they were telling the truth, and I brought them in to wait for parents to turn up. They told me they had tried umpteen front doors and I was the first one to answer.

Many years later, after I was retired, one November dark night my front door bell was run at 9.00 pm. I was too curious NOT to answer, opening my front door, and it was a Community Policeman trying to ensure that we 'oldies' all knew how properly to lock our doors and windows. I was furious with him coming at that time of night, especially as when I first opened the door and saw him on the other side of the porch door in his uniform, it brought back a total recall of the time so many years earlier when a policeman had called to tell me of the death of my youngest child!!

Following day neighbours were all saying about someone ringing their bells so late and none of them had opened their doors. I made a formal complaint to the local police station and did receive an official apology = evidently they had not realised that he was going house to house so very late, and he did not realise how frightening he had been by ringing front door bells of elderly people so late.

I keep my front and back doors locked all the time . If someone knocks I look out the window to see if there's a delivery van.
I also have a NO COLD CALLERS notice on my window near the front door. that doesn't always stop them from knocking.

Sparklefizz

No, I don't automatically open, I always check.
I used to be married to a police officer so I do the sensible thing.

I also keep doors locked during the day, dating back to one bathtime with the children years ago when my husband suddenly loomed in the bathroom doorway and said "I could have been anyone. You didn't hear me. Keep the door locked."

I always look out of the window if someone's at the door, and once it gets dark, I go upstairs and call out from an upstairs window.

I'm married to a retired police officer. He just opens the door and he'd ask me what was going on if I started running upstairs and calling out the window.

No, I haven't got the time or energy for that I just open the door.

Crossstitchfan

crazyH

No, not always. I may sound mean, but I have one neighbour/friend who knocks almost daily. There’s only so much I can listen to, her family (widow, no children) who don’t visit, all the young men in the pub, who want to date her (she is 85). One wants to whisk her off on a cruise. Maybe I’m jealous, but I’m just about tired of hearing the same old, same old …….so , I don’t answer her knock, 4 days out of 7 😂

I think you’d be justified in reducing that to one day out of seven! You must have the patience of a saint!

Silly me! I meant increase it to not answering 6 days out of 7. If you don’t want this person’s company, you don’t need to accommodate it!
I had a male colleague once who kept calling on me. He and his wife had become friends of my husband and me. He and I both worked shifts at the same place so he knew when I was off. If my children were at home, they would warn me if they saw him parking the car and we would all hide behind the sofa! If they weren’t, I was on tenterhooks that he would come. He could see into the lounge from the front so knew I was there. It was a nightmare.

My late best friend who once worked as a call-handler for the 999 team kept a policeman's hat on a stand which was visible from her porch door. Then she married a fireman and his hat went next to it.

Rosie 51 I live in a safe, quiet residential area. My front door is always locked, not just closed. At the turn of a switch five deadlocks are put in place. I don't have a back door as such, French doors to the patio. Always locked, unless I am actually in the garden. From the front it isn't obvious how to access the back of the house. The high back gate is locked too.
If doors aren't locked and the house is burgled, I doubt the insurers would pay out.

I never open my door until I've had a quick look out of my bay window,as we often get window salesmen, Jehovahs witnesses or my moany neighbour knocking. I'm going to get a ring doorbell to save me having to get to the window to check who's there

When people say they keep their front door locked do they mean with the deadbolts engaged? My front door can't be opened from outside without the key, so it's just kept shut during the daytime and only deadbolted at night or when we're out. My backdoor is right round the back of the house having passed the kitchen window to get to it so although it can be opened from outside it's only locked at night or when we're out. I do answer the door to any knock in the daytime except if I've spotted groups of Jehovah's Witnesses when I've been passing the upstairs landing window. At night I'm more cautious if I'm alone, otherwise DH answers.

Absolutely not! We live on a farm ideep in the countryside, quarter of a mile down a drive from the lane. The drive has an electric gate. I would have to be expecting someone before they got as far as the door or else I'd be extremely suspicious!!

If I'm not expecting anyone then I don't answer.

I'm a female, 6'2, well built and physically able to fight someone off so I can handle myself if I have too but I always look out of the bedroom window, if it's a neighbour or someone I know then I'll answer but if a total stranger then I don't!

My friend lived beside a wood and one night about midnight a man rang the doorbell. He had been up in the woods with a lady friend and she had fallen probably drunk.They managed to help her down and an ambulance was called.

Keeping doors locked is the wise thing to do.
Many years ago the parents of one of my friends were working in the back garden. They had left the back door, which was on the side of the house, unlocked, for convenience.
Some time later it was discovered that all the lady's jewellery was missing! An opportunist thief had obviously seen the pair working in the garden and taken the opportunity to enter the house unnoticed.

Our house is off the street, built in what used to be a pub car park. It has an entrance door which is hidden inside a small conservatory, or at this time of year, greenhouse. The majority of callers miss it and walk round to the front where we have sliding patio doors. I have never felt the need for a doorbell.
We do have external security cameras though.

Reading through here has redoubled my happiness in my home.
It wouldn’t occur to me to be afraid of who might be at the front door or that they could be a threat.
Not entirely naive having lived elsewhere but wow!

If you live alone, it's quite a good idea, even in the daytime, to call something like " Okay, Sam, just answering door!" as you open the door.

I check the CCTV monitor before going to the door.
If there is a delivery van at the door it is obviously something I am expecting but other callers don't always get answered.
The other day a group of people rang the bell several times, after a few minutes one stepped away from the door and waved at the camera. How did they know I was sitting watching them ? 🤔

When I was a child our front door stayed open all day with just the inner porch door closed which had glass panels. There was a long flight of steps up to the front door and we lived on a steep hill so we didn't get much passing footfall. Our neighbour accross the road would waalk in unannounced and our next door neighbour walked in calling her characteristic "Ooh-Ooh"! When mum got older and lived alone, she started to close the front door but only locked it during the evening. Her back door was locked mostly but sometimes left ajat as it sometimes swelled up in damp weather and more than once someone broke in during the day when she fell asleep in the chair! Thankfully she was nevr harmed and only a few things were taken. When my kids were younger my front door was unlocked for them to come in and out while playing out in the cul de sac on their bikes. Where I live now I can't leave the door unlocked unless it's actually ajar. However I answer the door without thinking mostly. I'm probably too trusting! I might think twice at night.
I've just been at my son's for a few days and their door is always unlocked if they are at home until they go to bed, This thread has made me think about aspects of safety for my young GC. They don't yet play out unattended but I guess they will before long. It's only how things were when I was a child and when my children were young, but times have changed so I now wonder if they should be more cautious. DiL was brought up in a small village and DS in a market town, but they live in a city now! However they do have a dog. If anyone came in that shouldn't she would likely bark, but is hardly a guard dog!

I keep front and back door locked and have a 'No Cold Callers' sign. I answer the door during the day, but at night my husband always answers it. We once had a very strange incident where our doorbell was rung at midnight. I got my husband and he spoke through the door to a man who said he was delivering a food order ( carry out), my husband said sorry, no one ordered from here. We did not open the door and never would at that time, unless we knew them. Sadly, we have a few dubious characters in our area.

crazyH

No, not always. I may sound mean, but I have one neighbour/friend who knocks almost daily. There’s only so much I can listen to, her family (widow, no children) who don’t visit, all the young men in the pub, who want to date her (she is 85). One wants to whisk her off on a cruise. Maybe I’m jealous, but I’m just about tired of hearing the same old, same old …….so , I don’t answer her knock, 4 days out of 7 😂

I think you’d be justified in reducing that to one day out of seven! You must have the patience of a saint!

If it's a particular knock, I just know it will be my next door neighbour. In which case, I hastily nip into the kitchen, out of sight, until I think she's given up and gone. Any other knocking and I look through the side bay window and, if I like the look of them I'll open the door. If not, it's another sprint to the kitchen.