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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Boys playing football in the street

37 replies

hibbledibble · 10/07/2015 21:02

I haven't said anything as I don't know if I am being unreasonable.

Two boys, aged around 10 are kicking a ball around on the street.

It makes me a bit twitchy as I'm worried they will kick it through a window, or into our brand new car. My brother broke several windows playing football as a child so that's where this worry comes from.

At 9pm I think they should probably be in too.

What do you think?

OP posts:

Writerwannabe83 · 10/07/2015 21:04

There are always boys playing football in our street and I have no problem whatsoever in going out there and "saying something"

AgentProvocateur · 10/07/2015 21:07

Just leave them. They're not doing any harm. Talk to them IF they break a window of hit a car. They'll go in soon.

Haffdonga · 10/07/2015 21:09

Kids playing out on a lovely warm evening is such a rare thing these days. I think you should leave them to it and enjoy the neighbourly feel it will bring you.

Ledare · 10/07/2015 21:09

Our NDN DC are doing it as well, having moved on from shrieking on the trampoline and shouting for their parents over and over and OVER again from the end of the garden.

There is something about the noise of a ball bouncing smacking against things that makes me want to scream. I don't know why

I am going to modify the House Stark Words and adopt, "Winter is Fucking Brilliant" for mine.

Original poster

hibbledibble · 10/07/2015 21:11

Same for me ledare every kick and I'm worried something will be broken. I realise it is my incredibly accident prone brother who has caused this anxiety.

OP posts:

Lurkedforever1 · 10/07/2015 21:12

Yabu. They aren't damaging your property, and it's not too late for children that age to be out, they're doing what kids are meant to be doing

BlueberryWafer · 10/07/2015 21:14

Yabvu! It's much better than them sitting inside playing on a games console! What has the world come to that children can't play football in the street?!

youbethemummylion · 10/07/2015 21:14

When I was little in the 80s some windows did smash from a football but these days you would have to kick the ball bloody hard to break a window. Unless it's a classic car, greenhouse or single glazed house windows. I think they need to be in by 9:30/10 though otherwise the noise is verging on anti social.

Floralnomad · 10/07/2015 21:17

Provided they are playing outside their own homes i don't think there is much you can say until they actually hit your car etc . If they come from further up the road tell them to go outside their own houses .

Original poster

hibbledibble · 10/07/2015 21:19

I agree it is great they are out playing, but just thought that a local park might be a better place to kick a ball (there are lots around here).

I accept I may be morphing into a grumpy old girl.

OP posts:

Ledare · 10/07/2015 21:20

I don't know... When I was young, children played in parks, not in the street. Maybe there were more of them around then, or children were allowed out at a younger age.

We don't have pavements in my street so they are in the actual road with their ball / bikes, just after a blind bend. It's a bit baffling, that. There is a park a bit further up. I expect their parents want them where they can see them in front of the house but it's a bloody dangerous place to play. My other neighbour is so worried she wants to report to the HA.

Teabagbeforemilk · 10/07/2015 21:21

Yabu. They are doing what kids do.

Really dislike this thinking. It's their street too, assuming they live on it.

Ledare · 10/07/2015 21:21

X-post about parks OP.

BackInTheRealWorld · 10/07/2015 21:23

If they break a window then you talk to them or their parents or the police. If they don't break a window then you don't.

However, spending all your time now stressing and worrying that maybe at some point down the line they might break something is very sensible and not a pointless waste of time at all. Enjoy.

primulaprimulina · 10/07/2015 21:25

A street is a residential area, NOT a football pitch. We have had all sorts of damage caused to our property by footballs, (car wing panal dent, car windscreen wiper broken, wing mirror broken, plant tubs knocked over, plants flattened, hanging baskets knocked off wall, gate panals broken) the list goes on. We got in touch with our local neighbourhood police team and local estate officer and the kids' parents were given warnings. This problem can ruin your life so those who say 'they're not doing any harm' have obviously not suffered with this type of nuisance. Call the police and get these kids moved!

Teabagbeforemilk · 10/07/2015 21:27

prim in your case they have caused damage. Thy haven't in the ops case. Complete waste of police time. I don't like dogs. Don't complain about people walking their dogs past my house several times a day

CharlieAustinsMagicHat · 10/07/2015 21:44

YABVU.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of playing football out until it was almost too dark to see the ball. Somebody tried to stop us by putting up a 'No Ball Games sign' until the local police told them to take it down.

BlueberryWafer · 10/07/2015 22:11

Count yourself lucky, OP - we had the words "fuck off" carved into the paintwork on our car a few weeks ago! Can we swap - I'll have the footballs
I may have been hasty before, if there are parks nearby then yes, they probably would be best playing football there.

MayPolist · 10/07/2015 22:15

It's a public road ie theirs as much as yours

Lurkedforever1 · 10/07/2015 22:18

I imagine they aren't in the park at 9 for the same reason my dd and her friends aren't even in summer when it's light. Up to 8 or so yes, but after that the group that provides safety in numbers generally disperses homewards and I like her within my/ another parents sight.

shadypines · 10/07/2015 23:34

Hi OP, I see both sides of this one as I;ve been on both sides i.e. my children have kicked balls in the street and I;ve been on the receiving end (and not a nice one) of neighbours kids doing it.

I think it depends on a couple of things, like how are they kicking it? Just tapping it to each other's feet or big kicks that are obviously louder and make you on edge that they are going to cause damage? If it's the latter then I think you have a perfect right to go out and ask them to be careful near your property. Have they actually hit your car at all?

I also think 9pm is getting quite late but I suppose on light summer nights you have to be a bit more tolerable. I always made mine stop the ball kicking around 9pm being conscious of the fact it's getting late and it's quite noisy.

sweetgrape · 11/07/2015 00:24

It's a public road ie theirs as much as yours
Public roads aren't for football though.

sweetgrape · 11/07/2015 00:27

Where I used to live there were some boys who'd start playing football atmidnight. I had to go out many times and ask them to stop.

Yellowbird54321 · 11/07/2015 00:34

YABU - when I read your thread title I smiled and thought good for them and why not?

5Foot5 · 11/07/2015 00:37

At the moment I take a tolerant view of this.

I have recently come back from holidays in Tuscany. We spent a couple of nights in the most wonderful village in southern Tuscany (Sovana). After dinner we sat in the bar next door to the hotel and, while England U21 played Italy's U21 on the TV, the little boys of the village played football in the village square. Eventually the little boys drifted home and as soon as they had gone the men came out from the bar and took their place kicking the ball about in the village square.

It was all so happy and innocent and just so right somehow.

So long as they don't do any actual damage I don't see the problem. When I was a kid I played my way to the Wimbledon final (in my head) while hitting a tennis ball against the wall again and again and again. I guess that might have been annoying but no-one complained at the time.

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