Not Answering my Front Door Anymore

So I answered my front door yesterday to find a guy selling Kirby vacuum cleaners. He slyly made his way into my house and started demonstrating his vacuum. I told him up front that I was not going to buy a vacuum. He said that I didn't have to buy anything, but if I would just let him do his demonstration he would get credit for it. He wanted to use my phone to call into his office to let them know he was doing a demonstration. I told him that I didn't have a home phone, only a cell phone. He then asked if he could use the cell phone. I said no because it would cost me my minutes. He then pulled out his cell phone to place the call. At this point I remember a story I saw on the news were sales people will use your phone to call into their office and it will put your phone number on their calling list. Because your phone called their number then it is not illegal to call you back even if you are on the "Do Not Call" list. I am very glad I did not let him use my cell phone.

Then of course he goes through his demonstration. At the end I again tell him that I am not going to buy his vacuum. He calls back to his office and tells them that he is done with the demonstration and that I was not interested in buying the vacuum. As he is slowly packing up his stuff, all of the sudden his manager shows up at my door and wants to talk to me about why I do not want to buy their vacuum. She talks to me about how if I were a good mother I would not want my new born baby to be in the filth that is in my house and that with this vacuum I could give my baby a safer, cleaner environment. I continued to say no and finally after an hour they both left.

After they left I realized a lot of things. First, they could have robbed me or done anything at the point they were in my house and no one would have known until it was too late and there would have been nothing I could have done.

The biggest thing that bothers me about the whole incident is the way I reacted through it. The reason I opened the door in the first place was because I had the TV on and I knew that he could hear the TV and knew I was home. So I felt it was rude not to answer. I know this is silly, but it is just the way I felt. Then once he was in my house I felt uncomfortable and I told him that I was not going to buy anything, but he was a very smooth talker and no matter how many times I said no he kept going. I felt really uncomfortable once his manager showed up and they were both working on me, trying to get me to buy this vacuum. I still had not been forceful and asked them to leave. I just felt like forcefully asking them to leave would be rude and I kept thinking that surely they will leave soon. They also didn't give me much time to say much of anything. They just continued to talk and make points and try to convince me to buy their vacuum.

In retrospect, I should NOT have opened my door. Even if they could hear that I was home, that doesn't mean I am obligated to open my door to them. Once they were in my house and I started to feel uncomfortable, I should have forcefully asked them to leave. If they still did not leave (as I am sure they would not have) I should have picked up my phone and called the police. I re-play the situation in my head and I can come up with lots of different ways I could have handled the situation that would have been better than the way I did handle it. I really put Addison and myself in a bad situation. God protected us. Maybe this was God's way of teaching me not to open my door to people unless I know them. I am not going to open it anymore to strangers, because the next time the person might not really be a sales person.

Why is it that we sometimes do really stupid things because of the fear of looking rude?