Knock softly and carry a quiet clipboard

I read dooce's post yesterday about people who knock on your door enthusiastically, thereby waking up a sleeping baby, and related. Our house is Realm of the Picky Sleeping Children, Especially Those Named Rocco, and once he goes to sleep, we will go to some lengths to keep him there. WonderGirl is now very conscientious about tip-toeing past his room when he's napping, after several early episodes during which she awakened the sleeping beast and saw Mommy and/or Daddy cry with frustration and then threaten to bring Rocco into her room to be entertained the next time he woke up, too early, crying. (To be fair, I should say that her two walking options are tip-toeing and elephant-footing. There is no in-between. It's not like we keep her on a leash. Often.)

Anyway, it happened to us last night. After the kids were in bed, I saw the dreaded red t-shirt approaching our door (it's local primary season here) and the enthusiastic campaign worker rang the bell and immediately knocked, with the power and force of the Hand of God. It was loud, it rang through the neighborhood, and it immediately woke Rocco. DT and I had both flown to the door, trying to keep her from knocking, so when we opened it with horrified faces and teacherly "SSHHHH!"s, she could already hear Rocco starting to scream.

To her credit, the campaign worker looked horrified as well, burst out with a huge apology and literally ran across the street, hopefully with a new determination to let the doorbell do its job.

Incidentally, she was promoting a candidate for whom I already planned to vote. It was a similar feeling to when I see a poorly-driven car adorned with bumper stickers which merit the QoD seal of approval. I want to think that everyone who agrees with me politically also knows how to be considerate and safe.