neighbourhood kids broke my xmas lights

[Niceguy2]

OK, so I need to know if I would be unreasonable here.

Situation is this. Couple of days ago OH & I put up our xmas lights outside in our garden. A part of this was the lights up the tree. To do this, we've trailed a cable across our own garden and up the tree.

The garden is at the front of the house and the tree is in the middle. There's no fence but its clear its our land.

We live on a cul-de-sac and last night I heard this almighty thud followed by a child crying. I opened the door and saw one of the kids who lives around the corner sprawled in the middle of the road. He'd fallen over. I asked if he was ok and he was crying a bit but said he was before hobbling off.

This morning I find my cable to the xmas lights broken. What I think has happened is that for whatever reason he ran straight across my garden, in the dark didn't see the cable and that must have tripped him over and the momentum carried him into the road.

So the question is AIBU to find his parents and complain? To be honest I'm not even that fussed about the cost. The thing is if something cracks off on the estate, that bunch of kids always seem to be involved. A while back some money went missing, they were there. When my garage door broke, they were there. It's always something, they roam the estate like they own it. But its never them. No sirree, it's always someone else....but they just always happen to be there.

Sorry, just to add when I say "child", they're between 12-14. The lad that went flying is 13.

Put a fence up?

I'd just be glad he was ok, a car could have come when he was on the road

I'd say in this instance YABU.
It was clearly an accident and the child was obviously hurt and upset.
If it was dark enough to not have seen the cable, then it must have been pretty dark and possibly the child didnt realise where the garden started/ended.

tbh if your garden is not fenced off and you know that its walked across you should take more care. you could be liable to be sued.

If they are people like that I wouldn't bother finding the parents to complain. It won't achieve anything except making you a target for the next time they want to do something out of order.

Hopefully the child will have learned the lesson that he should not go onto other peoples property.

As you didnlt se it and he didn't say how he came to be injured I don't think you can really apportion blame. Perhaps you should put a temporary barrier up and luminous tape on the cable.

I would ask the neighbour what their child was doing in your garden last night. I doubt you will get a reasonable outcome to this but it is worth making a point about it. You could report it as damage but it probably wouldn't go very far, as there doesn't appear to be any other witnesses.

You could ask PCSO to have a word with the parents about them being in your garden and antisocial behaviour.

Complain about what? That a kid ran across your garden I live in a cul-de-sac of unfenced gardens and the kids' play often goes over several gardens. I thought that was the point of them, actually.

It was an accident - and thank goodness there was no more serious injury or you could have found yourself on the receiving end of a complaint.

the kids' play often goes over several gardens. I thought that was the point of them, actually.

the point of your neighbour's gardens is to provide a play area for local kids? i strongly disagree. having only just been able to afford a house with a garden, i like mine to be kept neatly and like to think that my ornaments / new plants won't get trampled.

just because something doesn't have a fence and a "keep out" sign doesn't make it a trampling ground for local teenagers.

I don't like children playing in my garden either, I've put a lot of effort into making it look nice and I don't want it trampled.

OP- are you allowed to put any kind of boundary up? I know there are restrictions in a lot of newer cul-de-scas but I'm sure no-one would object to a very short hedge, it only needs to be a foot or two high just so that there is a visible boundary between your garden and the pavement. I've planted one along the front of my garden and it's definitely helped to stop my garden being used as a football pitch.

Well it works for us in our lane - those of us with kids allow the kids to use our gardens collectively.

Classydiva, interesting pov.

My garden should not be walked across. It would look stupid if I put a fence in front. I live on a fairly new build estate so open front garden's are the norm. One house at the very front of the estate has put a fence up and frankly it looks very stupid.

I think I'll leave it. He broke my lights by running where he shouldn't and the tarmac dished out some cosmic justice. Lesson learned I guess.

What I'll do is next time I see them, I'll speak to them nicely. They are still kids I guess, even if trouble does seem to follow them.

I, er, planted some thorny roses to form a hedge along the front of my garden. It seems to have deterred interlopers.

Although you're probably right about who is responsible, you can't prove it for sure. Some positional planting on the corners of your front garden would probably be a good idea.

I wouldn't say anything under these circumstances. Good ideas about the thorny borders!

Check with the parents that the lad is OK, subtly mentioining that he broke your Christmas decorations as he fell.