Ever since I was a kid, growing up in Los Angeles–I’ve been great–perfect even, at keeping very still when a stranger knocks on my door. We didn’t live in a particularly great part of town and I knew better than to just fling the front door open at any and every knock when, as my mother explained, “we have no idea who is on the other side of the door and what they really want.
It scared me sufficiently.
My sister and I even got good at ducking down fast so that we couldn’t be seen from the outside.
When I was a young mom, I got braver because…well, now I lived in Utah and it was safer to open the door. Right? Well, that’s what I thought.
While I admit, I was never threatened or frightened at my own front door in Orem or Provo or Lindon or American Fork–I did end up buying a billion dollars worth of stuff that I really didn’t need, all because I didn’t want to be rude to the nice kid on the porch.
That, my friends is costly politeness. Something had to be done.
So, I went back to the stop, drop and roll method from my childhood and quit answering the door again…for years.
*Sigh.* There had to be a better way.
Enter Etsy and the cute little shop called Lisabees.
This sweet gal made me a couple of No Soliciting signs for my door that ward off the too kind and too cute sales folks without me having to do anything! And the best part is that I don’t even feel guilty about it because the sign is so cute that it’s actually…you know…polite. Perfectly polite. Checks all the boxes for somebody like me.
Now, you may think that another easy solution would be for me to just learn to say, “no.”
Insert gutteral laughter here.
Pretty sure saying no is a maturity level that I haven’t reached yet.
Don’t wait for it.
Heh.
