Congress person. Members of Congress. Senator / representative. I'm better with those than with mail carrier. "Carrier" sounds so... not like a person to me. Makes me think of "troop carrier", I guess.

> The parents didn't hear them saying, "Don't answer it!"

Well I got the suspicion they don't ever answer the door, not even the adults, maybe due to security concerns... (thus giving me that spurt of anger about society nowadays), but in their defense I do believe the door bell was broken as the dog wasn't responding to it, only to the knocking. Whereas our dogs jump up and bark and try to get to the door whenever the doorbell rings.