I have a sign conveniently located on my front door. It is tasteful but not discreet. It’s very easy to see as you walk up the front steps. It says “No Solicitors”.

Most times it works; actually I only get a few knock knocks on my door a month from people I don’t know. Our neighborhood is pretty heavily trafficked by magazine sales people, evangelists and canvassers. I get the occasional kid who ignores the sign or doesn’t know what it means (I know because when they knock IF I answer the door I usually ask – Did you read that sign? Do you know what it means?) There was once a guy delivering Chinese takeout menus throughout the neighborhood who was completely unsure as to whether or not he should leave one… luckily I got home from an errand in time to take the menu… can’t have too many of those you know. My point is that he stopped and earnestly considered whether or not he should leave the menu for us because we had the sign. He even told me he wasn’t sure if he was soliciting or not. Yes, he was, but I wanted the menu so it worked out in the end.

That brings me to this evening, after dinner just before I should have been tucking my kid into bed there came a series of very persistent dings from my door bell. I looked through the window and saw a woman standing there clipboard in hand and she dinged the bell a few more times.

She was there, she knew I was here and my husband, the people pleaser that he is, quickly ran into the kitchen cowering and muttering under his breath “it speaks, make it go away, it speaks”. He was very helpful.

So I begrudgingly opened the door and had a nice, if a little lengthy chat with a new neighbor who was going door to door to talk about a ballot measure coming up for a vote in November. That’s all well and good except the “No Solicitors” sign, I feel, is in effect. True she isn’t trying to SELL me anything but I have always taken “no soliciting” to mean do not try to sell or convince me of anything. Do not solicit your candidate to me. Do not solicit your cause to me. Do not solicit your religion to me. Do not solicit your service to me. Do not solicit your product to me. (it speaks, make it go away, it speaks!) In other words, no soliciting.

We do not like being solicited to. That’s why we have the sign. Actually, we got the sign shortly after a man attacked and assaulted a woman only a few blocks from here. My husband thought it would just be safer to let people know we didn’t want them here. I quite agreed.

Still, it isn’t only the attackers we wanted to keep at bay. We just don’t like strangers coming to our door trying to sell to us something or sway our thinking, no matter how useful their product or valid their opinion.

I guess the whole point of this post is; am I wrong in my thought that a “No Solicitors” sign should keep all the solicitors away? Does it really only apply to people who are asking for funds in exchange for something?