To keep hold of footballs until they're collected

@Maverickess

any little fuck threatening to kick my dogs head in would find himself wetting his pants. I have a friend who looks like he'd eat a mouthy kid before breakfast (he's actually as soft as clarts, but they don't know that)

ah i thank you for your petty comment... you say you have spoken to the neighbours about the NOISE...

i have a measure of you now... enjoy your petty games with the neighbours balls..

We had NDNs’ children and adult friends smashing footballs into a brand new fence we’d been asked to pay £hundreds towards. Money comes easily to them we concluded as they weren’t bothered about the damage. We were.
When the doorbell rang we answered to sullen children whose only utterance was “Our balls’s in your garden.” No sorry, would you mind, etc.
Would they kick the balls the other way, please, we asked. “No. They go over into that garden too.” (In fact it was their besties’ garden and we very much doubted their assertion.)
One day, quite by chance, I hit on the answer. As I lobbed a ball back over the fence, I must have narrowly missed them and their friends sitting in the garden. They were not impressed. Just as we hadn’t been for years. 💪

They should go out to a park to m co around. Toddlers and infants playing ball is understandable but if theyre old enough to bother they are old enough to go elsewhere.

there you go, a nice polite friendly chat with the neighbours should sort your issue out.

i assume its YOUR fence and not THEIR fence?

Perfectly reasonable to keep them until they come round and ask for them back, it's not stealing (it would be different perhaps if they asked nicely and you said no and popped them all!).

Oh! My initial reaction to your title was ‘ah that’s nice of you!’ as I read it as the alternative would be to get rid of them. I don’t think keeping hold of them is
vindictive or anything. My kids go next door to collect balls all the time. Our neighbours are normal nice people :)

Our neighbours play cricket with proper cricket balls in our small urban gardens. I now don’t return any balls and they haven’t asked for them so I’ve just binned the ones I’ve been holding for the past six months. They know I don’t like it as I shout out when a ball comes over and we’re in the garden.

Never kicked a ball against a fence or into someone else's garden in my life and even if I had, my mum would have been the first person to tell me to stop being so inconsiderate!😘

and can't you tell the summer holidays are here... all these posts about kids making a noise in their back garden really make me sick.

kids are kids and we were all one once.. why don't you act like a fully grown adult and instead and being petty and hanging on to the balls or letting them down or doing whatever else has been suggested why don't you have an actual conversation with the parents?

This has been my solution to the constant balls against the fence and in my garden, I first used to rescue and throw back, then I used to rescue, put out of reach of the dog and they'd come into the garden and collect.
Now they stay where they are and if the dog gets them, tough shit. They feel quite at liberty to climb my fence and break it so it's not my problem if the dog gets the ball.

Some nettles have 'grown' where they were breaking the fence to get in, which solved that problem and I've always been fair and said they can come and get them if they come over, but after being told to fuck off when asking them to use the gate instead of coming over the fence and breaking it, and them threatening to 'kick the dog in the head' if she damaged the ball she caught as it came flying over, I'm done. Gate gets locked and the dog gets the ball.

My garden doesn't border anyone else's either, they are using my neighbours access to their yard as a goal area and playing in the street - they live across the road and have front and back gardens and there's a field at the top of the road with lines and goals.

Haven't had any for a while.

Is it the noise or the amount of balls coming over that's the main issue?

I got so fed up of it that I told the children the balls had bounced into mine and over my other fence in to another neighbours. Another time that my dog had eaten it. And once I just bounced it in to my black bin and never to be seen again.
I got so fed up of years of throwing them back. No apologies from the parents.
Yes I know I was man and now I do chuck them back but after a day or two.

Or when they come round tell them you’ll return the balls to the parents, show them your tiny garden & explain that of course you’ll be charging them for anything that gets broken. Including vet fees if it’s your dog.

Let the balls down. Not burst but let down. When they get sick of pumping them up it becomes a them problem.. Then they will stop coming into your garden. Ime..

What's stopping you from kicking them into another neighbours garden (apart from not being a selfish neighbour like them)?
So when they come round tell them they've gone over someone else's fence now as you followed their lead and decided to act like them 🤷🏼‍♀️ They then can travel round all the neighbours trying to locate them.