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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think others people's children shouldn't be playing on my driveway?

39 replies

MissFredi · 28/04/2013 16:55

Just that really. It's where my ashtray is(on a shelf out of reach but smoke does travel) and DP wants to plant things on the strip at the side.

And plus its ours, why can they not play on their own?

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 28/04/2013 16:57

No they shouldn't. There's one child round here who used the lady over the road's garden as the park. It really upsets her. Sad

Just go out and move them on.

UnChartered · 28/04/2013 16:57

is it yours? as in part of your property or just adjoining?

spottyparrot · 28/04/2013 16:58

Not ok, I would move them on as well.

kinkyfuckery · 28/04/2013 16:58

YANBU, have you asked them to move on?

Original poster
MissFredi · 28/04/2013 17:05

I haven't spoken to them, they are quite little 5/6ish I think, so I can imagine me asking them to will cause the mother to come round about me "having a go"

It is ours, it's private rented and included in the price, and the majority of the street has a sort of unspoken etiquette that its only used by the person who lives there/friends who are visiting.

I am quite shy and introvert tbh so I might get DP to have a friendly chat when he finishes work, he's a lot better with kids he understands what the hell they're saying

OP posts:
Original poster
MissFredi · 28/04/2013 17:07

Also I feel ever so warm and fuzzy that no one has brandished a pitchfork at me for smoking.

Wineall round!

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 28/04/2013 17:07

What are they actually doing?

DeepRedBetty · 28/04/2013 17:09

No pitchfork from me for smoking! Although I keep my ashtray out the back - I don't like being stared at when indulging my guilty filthy habit.

Ta for the Wine!

KirjavaTheCat · 28/04/2013 17:13

We were always taught not to go into other peoples' gardens or driveways when playing, it was the meaning of rude. And always to ask if we needed a ball back or something.

Do people not teach that to their kids anymore? Confused

Original poster
MissFredi · 28/04/2013 17:15

Apparently not kirjava:/

They're just running around, one of them hid in my neighbours front porch roofy shelf bit when they were playing hide and seek. Nothing too harmful but I do know my neighbour works nights so I don't imagine he'd be too impressed if they woke him up.

OP posts:
SirChenjin · 28/04/2013 17:16

We still teach our kids that Kirjava - most people I know do. There are some who don't bother, but most people are still polite and mannerly.

StuntGirl · 28/04/2013 17:17

Just go outside and tell them not to play on your drive!

Original poster
MissFredi · 28/04/2013 17:19

Tbh if we could put a light at the back and fix the gate so undesirables couldn't sneak in then I'd be quite happy to go out there, but I just don't feel as safe iyswim?

OP posts:
VelvetSpoon · 28/04/2013 17:20

YANBU. Kids round here have done it in the past (I have a big, ungated driveway/front garden and no car) I have told them to go and play in their own gardens which they dont cos their parents moan about them making too much noise!

MrsRajeshKoothrappali · 28/04/2013 17:24

The bloke next door's children used to use my front pathway as a scooter ramp.

Did my nut. I sit by the window and having shouty children constantly scooting past me when I was relaxing after work was sooo fustrating.

Just tell them to move on.

DontmindifIdo · 28/04/2013 17:27

oh go out and tell them not to play on your drive. If they are only 5/6, don't be shy, they will be mortified about a grown up telling them off, just pop your head out the door and say "Don't play on my drive please." So what if the mother does come round shouty, just say, you weren't rude, you just didn't want them to play on your drive and can she tell them not to do it again in the future.

UnChartered · 28/04/2013 17:27

I'd tell them to move on too

can you breathe lots of smoke out of you nostrils while doing it like a dragon Grin

ChasingSquirrels · 28/04/2013 17:28

They are 5/6, how good with you kids do you need to be.
Go out, tell them they aren't to play on your drive - job done.

Essexgirlupnorth · 28/04/2013 17:31

A child picked a sunflower from my garden I was not impressed. We have gates so could shut them but doesn't seem to be a problem now.
What annoys me more is the older children/teenagers that build ramps for their scooters/bikes/skateboards in the middle of the road then take ages to move them when a car comes round the corner. Not a busy road but where they play is a blind bend so surprised one of them hasn't been run over yet.

Original poster
MissFredi · 28/04/2013 17:32

You have a point. At least if she comes round then I can explain to her that I don't want to get smoke on them.

And I love the dragon idea Grin

I have to go to work now anyways so considering I finish around 9 I should hope they're not out by then. Surely not that late Sad

OP posts:
SirChenjin · 28/04/2013 17:35

Just tell them not to play on your driveway - easy peasy. Honestly, they will just move on and won't give it a second thought.

missorinoco · 28/04/2013 17:36

I agree with Dontmind. Just go out and tell them.

My oldest is 5, and on the way back from school I keep having to tell him he can't hide in someone else's driveway, even if it is just by the wall. I wonder at that age if they don't really get the concept of private property unless we spell it out. I wouldn't mind if you told my kids not to play on your driveway. I would be mortified they had done so.

PregnantPain · 28/04/2013 18:05

The mother must know where her kids are. It is the height of rudeness to allow your children to play on other people's garden IMO.

NotDead · 28/04/2013 18:46

Just be sinister! Go out, put on a horror film voice and ask 'if any of you nice liiiitle cheeeeeelddreeen would like some leeeeemonade.. if you can get a skull into the jug all the better!

Molehillmountain · 28/04/2013 18:52

I always tell my children not to play on other people's drives. Most of our neighbours children and mine play together and if we're all out together, drives are agreed common ground. But the drives of those without kids and anyone's when their children are indoors are out of bounds. A polite word is absolutely fine. If mum doesn't like that then she should be out supervising. Effectively,you've been left a bit in loco parentis on your own property-not responsible for them but certainly with the right to move them on.