The holidaymakers next door

[mindutopia]

Just a rant really, I know I’m not being at all unreasonable. We live in a very rural area that is somewhere people like to visit. It’s pretty and remote and lovely. The only house within about a mile or more is a holiday let. Owners are lovely and actually bought the property back that their grandparents used to own 60 years ago. We have no issues with them. We also have no issues with 95% of their guests. They are usually very quiet and respectful and all that.

We had a family arrive yesterday for the week, with a 5 & 10 year old (we have a 4 & 9 year old, so great we thought!). They came over to play yesterday afternoon, fine.

I woke up this morning to their 5 year old in our lounge (we have like 5 doors, it’s a big old farmhouse, we don’t lock them usually at night as literally no one bothers us down here). I returned him to his family.

They attempted to come over several times today but I sent them back as we were having an Easter egg hunt in the garden and also having lunch. They finally came over again in the afternoon (I was in the house tidying up after lunch). We live on a farm so I can’t really see much from the kitchen, or else if I’d seen them, I would have intervened.

The 5 year old got into our chicken pen, let all the chickens out, threw about £5 worth of food and grit everywhere, and then appeared in my lounge (I was tidying up toys) and chucked 4 eggs on the floor (thankfully didn’t break!). I’m over it.

I only discovered the chickens let out (for foxes to eat) and food thrown everywhere just now as I went to tidy up outside for the evening. I went to knock on holiday let’s door but was dark inside downstairs and I could hear kids in bathroom upstairs so they are obviously doing bath and bedtime now.

I’ll speak with them tomorrow, but I just needed to rant. We’ve had so many people traveling to our lovely part of the country the past couple years and it does provide income for many local people (not Dh and I, we work in careers totally unrelated to tourism). But these are the first CF we’ve had in a long time and it just irritates me. Every time I’ve returned their children to them, they’ve just been in the kitchen, drinking, and oblivious. We had a bonfire burning today. We have a river with deep fast flowing water. We also had our puppy out this afternoon, who is lovely but very big and jumpy, which is why we are careful to only have her off lead on our own farm. She definitely could have injured one on these kids in excitement if we hadn’t known they were wondering around our land. And also just the damage and expense to our livestock. I’ve had to clean out the duck and chicken houses because they filled them with pellets and they can choke without access to water. They’re here 5 more days! I will go have a word in the morning, but in the meantime, just arghhhh!

It's not all "WAG McMansions" in Cheshire OP.
As a farmer I'd have thought you'd be aware that Cheshire's quite rural and the second biggest dairy producing county in the UK.
I'm from a farming family, farms are businesses not playgrounds, they are dangerous places snd you are foolish for allowing unsupervised kids into what is effectively your workplace.

What a nerve of them! We once rented a cottage near a farm, owned by the farm and the farmer invited our small children to see some lambs and feed them which was really lovely (and marketed in the brochure for something you could do if you came at Easter) but we would never have dreamed of intruding on the farm at other times.

Can you chain your gate? I know it's a PITA & wouldn't stop a climber but might slow them up a bit!

This is one of those threads I read just to see how bizarre the mumsnet world is!

Of course it’s not normal to let your 5 year old wander a significant distance into a strangers house, or not know where they are in a farm even if you are on the farm yourself.

I’ve lived in places with no locks on doors, I’ve lived in places I lock and alarm before I go up for the night. Both are normal depending on where you are

Bring back public information films I say.

Those old enough to know will remember lonely water, disused fridges, errant frisbees (JIMMY!), Joe and Petunia, Charley et al.

And I’m pretty sure there was one about a slurry pit?

@GettinPiggyWithIt

So OP, you’ve lived all over the world in terrorism hotspots thanks to the FCO apparently and have also managed to squeeze in 40+ years of farming AND you have young kids?

Blimey. What a life 🙄
Amazed you have time to relay this yarn

@GettinPiggyWithIt I thought the same, the OP just goes on and on about that.. so the hotspot dangerous places what, between age of 20-30? Then 40 years of life on the farm, so must be at least 65 years old now, but has a 4 year old. And rather a lot of time to keep writing long posts on Mumsnet about unlocked doors.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=1_J6_O4bn0s

In the 70s we all knew how dangerous farms are. I showed this to my kids a couple of years ago, they are traumatised to this day but at least they won't trespass on any farms so they can drink rat poison and end up screaming MUMMMYYY in the night just days after attending the funerals of their best friends who also met sticky ends on the same farm with its slurry pits and runaway tractors

@collieresponder88 erm so they have to lock up an entire farm because some parents can’t be bothered to look after their children? Your comment is ridiculous and so Ill informed about lives other than your own.

Thanks everyone for your responses. To answer a few questions, no we can’t lock any gates. The gate between the holiday let and our garden belongs to the holiday let (it’s also a foot path). The gate between our garden and fields also is on a footpath so both are a right of way and can’t be obstructed. The kids can’t open the (big heavy) farm gates anyway and they just climb over. The pen around our chickens is 4 feet high with no gate, they just climbed over that too.

But I had a word with our friends who own the holiday let and they seem to have sorted it. We haven’t seen them again since, though Dh did walk past today walking the dog on the footpath and said the kids have completely destroyed the garden and pulled down a very nice rock wall. But not my circus, not my monkeys, so I’m leaving that for owners to deal with when they come down. Apparently, the dad is an employee of the husband of the couple who own the holiday let, so hopefully they’ll fix everything before they go home, or else I can imagine he’ll get a bollocking when he goes back to work.

@Furries

I’ve got no advice, and am not going to debate re doors being locked.

I’m just here as am REALLY hoping for a photo of a large-breed puppy 🐾

Ditto. Give the people what they want!

@GettinPiggyWithIt

So OP, you’ve lived all over the world in terrorism hotspots thanks to the FCO apparently and have also managed to squeeze in 40+ years of farming AND you have young kids?

Blimey. What a life 🙄
Amazed you have time to relay this yarn

I said Dh and I have grown up on farms our whole lives, all 40+ years of them, but I’m not a farmer. It’s not my main source of income. I work in international development, yes, in terrorism hotspots, before we had kids a few years ago. And we’re lucky that we have good careers that support us being able to still live in this beautiful part of the country, on a farm, and keep livestock for our own food and enjoyment. What’s odd about that?

Nothing.

OP, delighted it has been sorted.

I think you would be a fab neighbour
👍

@mindutopia I am in awe of everything you have said about your lifestyle, it sounds idyllic 🥰

The poor owners. If they've got bookings for right after these people, they might end up with some unhappy guests and lose money on it. The standard clean in between guests wont include reaping a garden.

If you're friendly with the owner, I would send them a photo of the damage in their garden. Just because I would do that if I walked past a friend's property and saw damage. If you're not friendly then maybe leave it but just seems so unfair on them. Trying to have a business and scummy people come along and ruin their property.

@mindutopia

Thanks everyone for your responses. To answer a few questions, no we can’t lock any gates. The gate between the holiday let and our garden belongs to the holiday let (it’s also a foot path). The gate between our garden and fields also is on a footpath so both are a right of way and can’t be obstructed. The kids can’t open the (big heavy) farm gates anyway and they just climb over. The pen around our chickens is 4 feet high with no gate, they just climbed over that too.

But I had a word with our friends who own the holiday let and they seem to have sorted it. We haven’t seen them again since, though Dh did walk past today walking the dog on the footpath and said the kids have completely destroyed the garden and pulled down a very nice rock wall. But not my circus, not my monkeys, so I’m leaving that for owners to deal with when they come down. Apparently, the dad is an employee of the husband of the couple who own the holiday let, so hopefully they’ll fix everything before they go home, or else I can imagine he’ll get a bollocking when he goes back to work.

Much appreciated for the update op, thought you had vanished.

@CousinKrispy

WHERE ARE PICTURES OF THE LARGE PUPPY

Oh, I knew I should have NC for this! 🤦🏻‍♀️ She is so lovely! She’s a fairly rare breedin the UK, and while I’d totally tell you my hobby (it’s open water sea swimming!), if I shared a photo of my dog, my friends and family would totally know it’s me. She is the sweetest though and has just covered me in muddy footprints. 😂

Ah bum, I came back for puppy pics! Tsk!

I’m assisting you’ve notified your neighbours of the damage to their garden and rock wall as well. Those people are entitled, negligent A-holes who have probably scored a lovely friends and family discount and are taking utter advantage. I bet the reason the poor little kid is non-verbal is because nobody’s paying him any attention and they haven’t bloody noticed.

**Assuming!

Parents don't sound very responsible.

I am absolutely gobsmacked at the amount of times you have had to explain not locking your house 😂 I live in a town now (a rather small one) but I grew up in the country on a working farm and the doors were only locked at night when we were toddlers to stop US wandering out into danger not danger coming into us. Very few neighbours. Not gates aren’t locked on fields etc because most of them have to allow footpath access to the public. Gates don’t have complicated locks etc most of the time especially during the day because you are opening them several times a day with livestock in tow and don’t want to be trying to work a lock and chain with cow nudging and licking your hands impatiently 😂. Some barns and gates are locked at night but that’s as OP said to stop people stealing big stuff like tractors or generators and livestock. The only crime we ever had on the farm I grew up in was when someone came and drained all the fuel from the generators and stole all the Jerry cans of it. That was it. In 21 years. Not a peep in the house.

i would wager these people normally do those caravan park holidays where so many parents do just let their kids wander about unsupervised all the time in and out of other peoples caravans and tents. We did one once and it’s lovely when the kids make friends at the park etc and those friends pop round and ask if your kids are free to go play but it’s a pain in the butt when it’s every five seconds and you’re like um no we are just sitting down to eat dinner now and no you cannot just come in and wait or join us today sorry please go back to your parents now. Now we go to tent camp site that are much smaller operations and it’s so much better. As someone who knows how dangerous farms can be to people who didn’t grow up around them, if the boy keeps wandering over unsupervised after the parents have been made aware that this isn’t acceptable then I would be tempted to call social services or the police when he next shows up so that they can return him and impress upon the parents the importance of supervising their children. Though is suspect the parents probably won’t care.

I would tell the kids off and tell the children not to come again. The word will quickly get round to the parents and the children will hopefully learn some manners.

Glad it’s resolved - hope they repair the wall before they go!!

as you can’t put a photo up of said puppy and you said you do open water swimming I’m going for a Newfoundland which would be HUGE and exceptionally cute and cuddly 😍😍😍😍

I see pps have beaten me to the Apaches suggestion.

Sounds like they do need educating on the dangers of farms, pronto.