Hellobee Boards

I'm usually nice to them, but admittedly I don't get many in the Northeast (the Midwest was a different story). I was once told that they would go away if you tell them that you're Jewish, so that's what I do. When I was honest and told them I'm Catholic they tried harder with the conversion.

@TemperanceBrennan: same!

DH is a formerly Catholic atheist and I'm a secular humanist, I generally just listen, be respectful, and politely tell them I don't participate in organized religion. I've never had one harass me or come back.

eh. they make me wish i had a dog, a big, loud, scary dog. where we are now, it's better because we have an intercom system & i can simply say, 'i wish you all the best with your god, but i'm all set. thanks, and please don't come again.' then i don't hit the 'listen' button again to hear their reply. i don't care what your religion is, that's between you & your god and if i wanted to know more, i'd ask. more often than not, i don't. if i went door to door trying to spread atheism, i'd get hit, but somehow it's okay for certain groups to go around rubbing their religious beliefs in your face, arguing incessantly attempting to convert you. the worst is when they have kids with them. i don't think you should show disrespect or undermine what a parent is teaching their child, but if you bring your kid door to door and start religious arguments with people, it's only fair to expect that the kid is going to hear some less than positive ideas about the beliefs your attempting to shove down people's throats.

can you tell i had a lot of people come to my home attempting to convert me in the past?? i am not a fan.

I answer the door, listen, take their pamphlet and say thanks. I don't see any reason to be rude about it, listening for a few minutes doesn't hurt me in any way! granted, I've never had anyone rude or pushy come, so maybe that would change my mind fwiw, @mrs. bird: I would totally listen just as politely if someone came knocking and wanted to "convert" me to atheism!

I've never gone door to door, but DH and I are Mormon, so when he was 19 he spent his two year mission door knocking and "converting" in the Ivory Coast!

ETA: On second thought, nevermind. Just this:

Part 1: http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=6285

Part 2: http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/?p=6325

I feel bad taking their literature because we're not religious. I tell them we're not interested, but wish them a good day. I respect their dedication and efforts.

@mrs. bird:

I used to like to mess with JW's and tell them that I was disfellowshipped. They would definitely leave me alone because they can't talk to people who have been disfellowshipped. Now I just tell them not interested. I would say that I'm not the friendliest to JW's because I know they will come back (hey, I used to have to go door to door as a child when I was a JW, I know how it works!)

At our current apartment we've had someone come from the church near us and I've taken their information but that was it. We also had some Chabad guys knock on my door asking if we were Jewish, but it's not the same since they were specifically looking for Jewish people only. I told them no and they left.

@grizz: We actually have a sign that says - No Solicitation - Unless you sell thin mints!

We were getting tons of door to door salemen and JW right at LO's nap time. It was driving me crazy, so we got our awesome sign and it is wonderful.