Boys fighting in garden

[HarlotOTara]

My neighbour has 4 boys under 11. The middle two and the toddler have been on the trampoline for a while. I heard a lot of noise - shouting - and looked out of the window to see the two boys really fighting (I have dds so am not up to scratch on how boys fight with each other). However it seemed to me it was really vicious with one trying to push the other over the edge of the trampoline and lots of kicking and hitting which didn't look like play to me.

There were loads of toys scattered around - bikes, slide on its side etc. which were very close to the trampoline and they could really get hurt (I think) if one fell on the toys or even just fell over the edge. I was also concerned that the toddler was on there getting in the way of the fight and could have easily fallen or something. Would I have been unreasonable to have called out or gone round? It has stopped now by the way

[LilyOfTheMountain]

Call out

Mum may have just popped for a wee

[thisisyesterday]

meh that;s just boys! well, some boys anyway. ds1 wsa at a party recently and they all started play fighting and it looked really bad b ut for the fact they were laughing

[HarlotOTara]

They weren't laughing it looked more vicious than that.

[thisisyesterday]

well, they do sometimes.
i leave them to it... if they didn't want to fight one or more of them would have gone inside/given up.

[Nighbynight]

My 2 sons go for each other fairly viciously sometimes, yelling like mad.
Probably one of your neighbours had jumped on a bit of the trampoline where the other one intended to jump, or something like that.

[Paolosgirl]

Sounds like boys to me (in fact, sounds like my DD and DS1 kicking the living daylights out of each other playing)

[junglist1]

They were playing, that's what boys do

[HarlotOTara]

Well it is hard to decribe a scene over the internet and I was watching for a little while partly to see if it was just mucking around and came to the conclusion it was more vicious than that. But that isn't what concerned me, it was the fact this was happening on a trampoline near the edge and someone could have fallen off and seriously hurt themselves because there were upturned bikes, a slide basketball net thing and other outside toys. Also 2 year old toddler who was on the trampoline could have got hurt as well.

I don't want to be an interfering neighbour but was just wondering if I should have intervened in some way.

[juicyjolly]

Is your concern that the boys were fighting so viciously or that they could have hurt themselves if they fell of the trampoline?

[Paolosgirl]

If you were worried, and providing you got on well with them and were not likely to have to deal with some nut job coming round and screaming at you for daring to tell her children off, you could have warned them to be careful of the wee one and themselves, certainly.

[Nighbynight]

It does sound like normal boy behaviour (viciousness and all).

you could have leaned over the fence and yelled at the top of your voice "OY BREAK THAT UP YOU TWO!"

[raindroprhyme]

my boys love each other very much but regularly have proper punch ups.

i used to try and seperate them but now leave them to it if there is any blood one of them tends to come and get me.

boys are rough but their is an element they need to be aware of their own physicality in order to be able to understand their feelings and not lash out in inappropiate situations or at inappropiate people (like me).

[rosiest]

Boys fight, it may not have been perfect parenting as the mum wasn't keeping a close eye on them for whatever reason, but its not your place to call out. They aren't your children. I understand you didn't want them to get hurt but boys do this all the time, and its up to the parent to deal with them.

[landrover]

yanbu

[4littlelions]

keep your nose out