AIBU to ask their mother to keep them out of my garden.

[Bishopsbuddy]

I live in a cul de sac. We have enclosed back gardens but open plan front garden. We have lots of kids in the street including my own who play nicely in their own gardens or in the end of the road which is quiet and has no traffic. In November a new family moved in with three children aged 15 - 9. They play football in the road and the ball goes in all the gardens and hits cars and Windows and still they carry on. I heard some noise in my back garden last night and when I let the dog out we found they had opened my side gate and one was hiding behind my shed. I watched from the upstairs and they were playing hide n seek in everyone's gardens front and back. I asked the lad I caught last night to stay out of the garden but when I got home there tonight the gate is lying open again and I can see them
Now running in and out of the gardens again. Would I be unreasonable to ask their mum to keep them out of my back yard. I'm concerned they will leave it open and either my toddler will get out of my dog will.

YANBU.

Get a lock and keep them out.

Am with Saucyjack on this one , make yourself the unreasonable ( in their eyes ) and scary neighbour , problem solved !

I would not bother with the parents, because who knows what sort of temper they have or what sort of retaliation you (or your dog) would face. Clearly they have no respect for boundaries or property.

I'd have a word with the police and ask them to speak to the neighbors and their children.

Of course you're not being unreasonable. That's an invasion of your home. I'm sure they have their own garden to play hide and seek in

Yy SaucyJack. The yelling worked for me the one and only time we had neighbourhood children running through our garden.

Make friends with them. Seriously. Having lived on rough estates with kids way worse than this I've learned that it's the only way. Smile, have a chat, get them on your side.

My Mum was master at this...her garden and flowers were always protected by the gang of kids who marauded our estate...they'd sometimes sit by her on the grass while she weeded and chat to her.

I would send an angry letter to the parents. Totally unacceptable that they're playing in road hitting cars and garage doors with the ball! Not to mention annoying if they're making a racket.
Also they are trespassing and damaging property!

Massive "beware of the dog" sign and a lock on the gate?!

They are trespassing. If you are too scared to go around there for a confrontation, maybe send a polite note explaining the issues re toddler/dog. Hopefully that will do the trick.

I may be missing something but I'm struggling to imagine a world where this would be unreasonable.

Why would you even ask?

Dontbuy. I spoke to another neighbour last night before posting this and he felt I was over reacting. He used the old boys will be boys line.

Oh ok. We'll he's a twat!

Yes, definitely reasonable to ask mums to keep their little darlings out of your garden.

And if Nosey McNoserson says anything again you can say "they left my gate wide open and I'm worried for my own child and dog.
Now bore off."

I second the sprinklers suggestion. Get a motion sensor one, then take their reaction, so you can have a laugh later. Put a row of dog shit along the gate for a few days. I dare say, once they've walked shit into their house for a few days, their parents will tell them to stay our if your garden.

Why on earth do the neighbours feel this is ok? Weird!!

Tell the parents -

Or drop your dog and toddler in their garden for the afternoon

Put a lock on and yes speak to the parents,tell them they've damaged your garage door as well the ignorant sods.

And your neighbour is an idiot Boys will be Boys,well we have 3 sons and they'd never do that to any of our neighbours and I'm pretty sure my DH was a boy once and he wouldn't have done that neither.

I'm rembering all the stuff we had in tbe garden and outbuildings when I was a kid. It was a deathtrap out there! I wouldn't let a DS roam around someone else's property - not just for that reason though.

I remember squeezing through the hedge to see next door's horse and it chewed arm off nibbled my finger. Mum said it served me right and I had no business trespassing in the first place.

Boys will be boys! Ffs what sexist claptrap. My DS wouldn't dream of running around in other people's gardens or kicking a football at people's cars, but then I wouldn't let him anyway.

Problem with sprinklers is they may think it's fun. DD wants me to get some so she can run through it like Topsy and Tim do in the credits.

lock the gate. Warn them that any footballs that come over will only be returned once.

kids of that age can go to the park for a kickabout.

Thanks for all the advice. We put a lock on the gate today and a keep out sign. We live in a private development full of professional people. Our houses all have alarms etc but as I'm in all day as a SAHM I see all that goes on. I went to speak to the mother this afternoon just introduced myself and explained that I was worried they would hurt themselves running in my back garden as it is so dark. Blah blah blah. She was mortified. However when I mentioned the garage door she said I should have stopped them
Before they caused damage. the boys were there so I said if the ball came into the garden again I would be keeping it. I see tonight they are playing down the other end of the cul de sac. Still no where near their own house!

Ah yes, we had that problem of the football being played well away from the parents' house. In fact I remember our neighbour telling us that she preferred her boys to play football away from her house as it was so noisy. Nevermind that that meant they played outside everybody else's house!