What have we become?

Last night something happened that made me think about how society molds us into the kind of people that we are. Do we trust too little? Are we too afraid? Is the world so bad that we dont feel safe in our own homes?

Janine and I were in the kitchen and the kids were upstairs in their rooms. The doorbell rang and Janine went to the door. We never answer the door if we dont know who it is, she she was yelling "Who is it?" loud enough for the neighbors to hear, but no one answered. We thought it was strange, but went back to what we were doing. A few minutes later the doorbell rang again and there was a knock on the door. Both of us went to the door this time and yelled again for the person to tell us who they were.. but we heard nothing. Hayden came running down the stairs and said he saw a boy running through the yard. We figured that some neighborhood kids were knocking and running. I remember doing this as a kid, but last night it kind of scared me. So Janine and I and the kids each stood at different windows to see if the kids would come back. Sure enough about 5 mins later we saw three boys come into our yard. It was dark, so we didnt recognize any of them. That scared me even more. The younger boy then started walking up to the door. As soon as he was about to knock on the door, Janine starts yelling "Shoot him! Get the gun and shoot him!". The boys took off running as fast as they could. Needless to say they didnt come back. We were in the house laughing hysterically because we had scared them so bad. It serves them right for trying to pull a prank on us! We talked about it on and off the rest of the night, because we knew we had put them in their place!

This morning when the kids and I were leaving for work and school, we found a big bag of candy on our front porch with a note that said we had been "Booed". The note said to enjoy the candy and to "boo" someone else (which means to leave candy on someone else's doorstep for Halloween). I immediately felt horrible! I am sure the kids last night were actually bringing us candy and wanted us to get it inside before we went to bed.

I still dont know who the kids were, but I am sorry that we scared them. I realize now that is was all in fun. I dont want us to be the "grumpy neighbors". I guess it doesnt hurt to trust people a little...but how much is too much?