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!

Did you only read the first post @MiddleAgedBlokeHere ?

There are some really weird goofy or entitled people on threads at the moment. Obviously it isn't on to have this happen to you, OP.

To be fair, they clearly hadn't locked the bloody doors effectively either if the 5 yr old escaped that easily.

We are in fairly rural south west. I once came downstairs to find a parcel too big for the letterbox on my bottom step. The postie had clearly just let themselves in. That made me reconsider my approach to security.

is you neighbour a holiday let with high turnover of guests throughout the year?
do you have a farming business on site with expensive equipment, to the extent you have had CCTV

I have family in the north of Scotland where the above is literally the situation.

My parents don't lock their doors either and neither do any of their neighbours.

Tbh anyone who watched the first episode of Clarkson’s Farm would know about all the things on a farm that could potentially kill you so the parents are bonkers to let their child wander off.

We used to go camping on a tiny site in France which has farm buildings and implements, animals and a large pond on the site. The owners were very clear about all the dangers and how children should be supervised at all times. But there would always be families with little kids (4-8 yrs old) who would pitch up, put up the tent then open a bottle of wine whilst their children went exploring/ran wild/irritated the rest of the families who were actually watching their children. They were all quite naice middle class families, but as soon as they were “on holiday” they seemed to think it was up to everyone else to keep an eye on their children so they could have a drink.

YANBU OP, and whether you lock your doors or not is a non-issue.

I live in precisely same circumstances; except my kids are adult. We are lovely, chatty and pleasant but never ever invite anyone in (we have a garden full of toys made from logs etc for grandchildren) We talk about the lambs and calves if they ask, local attractions, give directions/emergency milk etc. We'd be v happy with 95% of people but the occasional CF spoils it for everyone.
I now have a sign that says "private: due to the rising cost of ammo no warning shot will be fired" and a locked gate (low gate but bolt is too low for child to reach over to it)
A farm is a very dangerous place and whilst freedom in the countryside is lovely, children should not be unsupervised.
My grandchildren have grown up in farming, I wouldn't dream of letting them out of the garden unsupervised at any time. They are aged 7-12. Other than the environment, the sheer size of the machinery means you simply wouldn't see or feel them underneath it no matter how sensible they're being.
I empathise. Good move to tell the owners.

Agree with all posters.its your responsibility to tell them what you've said here.and never ever ask holiday makers over to your gaff.home I mean