WWYD? An upbeat "how would you handle this?" question...not deep or anything.

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
No answer is right or wrong.

This is the scene and situation.

You are at home, unable to attend an out-of-town party due to family problems, and are told that Mr. X., who was also going to fly in from out of town, canceled his airplane flight because you are not going to be there (there is no romance in this scenario...just that Mr. X may think there will be no party since you can't go.

Later on you call Mr.X. to talk to him and some young kids answer the phone, giggling. I ask for Mr. X.

Kid One: "Who? Nobody here named Mr. X."

More giggling and a hang up.

At home you are puzzled and concerned. Maybe you dialed the wrong number. you try again.

More giggling. You know it's the right number this time. You say, "Why are you in Mr. X's apartment? Who are you?"

"Joe." More giggling, he hangs up.

You don't understand why these kids are in Mr. X's house. He has no kids. He lives alone. You have clearly been told that Mr.X. is at home. He is not a kid. He is, say, around 55.

You are worried about Mr. X.

WWYD? Would you just forget it? Would you call somebody to do a well check as he is far away? Would you go on with what you were doing, since you have a lot going on? How would you handle the situation?

Again, no right or wrong answers. Just assume that Mr. X. is somebody you care about very much, although not in the romantic sense and, at the same time, you are frazzled by your own life being in an unexpected upheaval and you need to stem the bleeding from that upheaval. Do you worry about Mr. X and do anything at all or do you just assume Mr. X. will be okay?
 

KTMom91

Well-Known Member
I'd probably call for a welfare check. Better to be safe than sorry. It does sound like something strange is going on.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
How did you come to know Mr. X? If he were someone that I knew for a long time and had certain knowledge that there were no children - they could be nieces or nephews - I'd probably contact him somehow other than by phone with a simple "Sorry you can't make the party, I wish I could go but there are unavoidable circumstances at home." I'd leave it at that and see how he replies and interact appropriately to my feelings towards him.

If I didn't know him a long time, I'd do a reverse search by phone number at www.whitepages.com (or by name & city) and see who comes up in the results other than he at that number. Try it with your own phone number, you'll see who lives there, who they're related to, etc.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Yeah. She knows him a long time, but doesn't have his cell number and knows him well enough to know that he has no nephews.

Gets harder, right?
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Yeah. She knows him a long time, but doesn't have his cell number and knows him well enough to know that he has no nephews. No family at all where he moved.

Gets harder, right? I'll give another clue to throw another issue into the scenario.

He actually did not cancel his tickets. The information was wrong. He was staying with the person he'd been supposed to stay with all the time. But you don't know that. Would it cross your mind to call that friend to just check things out or would you figure you had the right information about his not being in town in the fist place. The person who relayed the information is a family member of his, but she was kind of in a frenzy when she gave the information.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Good one.

Now say you are the man who did fly to where he was supposed to go and he found out the police were called for a well check of his place because he had kids in his house. He was not related to them. He is a teacher and allowed the teens access to his house. The caller would not have known that plus she would have thought he was in his home town. But she did interfere with his students by calling the police for a well visit.

Now here's another ripple. The relative who told you that Mr. X had stayed home claims she did not say so. She is adamant. She did not tell you that and she says so to Mr. X. She said this to Mr. X. He is now angry that there was a well check at his home and that these teens may have been...scared? You are Mr. X now and these are actually some of your students from your class. How, as Mr. X. would you feel and what would you do and who would you be angry at, if anybody?

I love to do continuing stories for as long as others are willing to play :) Harmless fun. Like playing "telephone" as a kid. There is a punchline at the end.
 

Lil

Well-Known Member
Well, since a teacher has no business whatsoever allowing teenage students access to his house, he'd probably have his butt in major trouble. So yeah, if I were him I'd be mad, because I might lose my job! (Of course, I wouldn't be him.)

I though this was a real scenario too. :p
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
Well, since a teacher has no business whatsoever allowing teenage students access to his house, he'd probably have his butt in major trouble. So yeah, if I were him I'd be mad, because I might lose my job! (Of course, I wouldn't be him.)

I though this was a real scenario too. :p

Yes.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
It actually did happen. I'm just making it into "what would you do?" because I really am not sure what the right thing is to do.

Mr. X. was not with his students when they were there and,a lthough he teaches teens, they could have been eighteen or older, some that he keeps in touch with after they graduate. I mean, he does that. On the other hand, they may have been minors.

The person involved, who called up, had no idea Mr. X. was in another state.

Whatever the person decided to do, it sure caused an uproar and the person had to suffer the "consequences."
 
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Marguerite

Active Member
Looking at this hypothetically, if Mr X gets upset at the well check then he has a problem and knows that somewhere along the line, he has not been doing the right thing.

Look at it this way - let's consider there was no party, no knowledge or otherwise of Mr X likely to be home or not likely to be home. Just a good friend ringing to say hi, and hearing giggling teens on the phone. Hell yes, welfare check. And if it turns out that the giggling teens are innocent young relatives, or students, or whatever - well, a welfare check is still not unreasonable. So ickle diddums kiddies got scared by the big nasty powicemen? Tough. They should learn to answer the phone with more maturity. And Mr X? If kids are left to answer his phone in an irresponsible manner, he has to accept that the welfare check has been called just in case he really needed it, and not get so flamin' precious about it.

Good grief, what a pain in the proverbial! I'd be telling him what he could do with his anger and self-righteous indignation because it would be very misplaced.

If the positions were reversed and it was Mr X trying to get onto me, and hearing giggling irresponsible kids on the phone when there was no reason for them to be there - I'd be cranky if he DIDN'T call for a welfare check.
 
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