To stop throwing the balls back over the fence?

[Danielsss]

Those bloody balls. The kids next door constantly play ball games, the balls always go over our fence! We would always get a knock on the door, every 2 minutes. I ended up saying if just throw it back over, it's still as frequent!!! How do I stop this?

Just throw them back once a week.

Keep throwing them back, but burst them first. Say your dog bit them if asked what happened. By the time the little brats have remembered you haven't got a dog, they'll have learned to be more careful. Problem solved.

Or cover the balls with a bloody handprint face, give them hair made from twigs and make them your best friends.

Cry hysterically if they try to take your new friends away.

I love the kids next door to me, even though I probably throw back between 5 & 8 balls per day.

The difference is, they don't knock and ask for them back.

I think their parents probably told them to be patient and wait.

Not that they have to wait long, as we can usually spot the balls from the window, so just nip out and chuck them back.

Could you speak to their parents about the knocking? Tell them if you spot the balls you'll throw them back, but the knocking is not on?

I don't agree with damaging the balls though.

That's just petty.

KingJoffrey

agree with what worra said

Chuck them into the garden next to yours the other side. Lob them wildly all over the fucking place.
Cackle loudly while doing this.
I must really go to bed.

This happens a lot when our NDN have their grandkids round. If I get sick of throwing it back over I just open my back gate and tell them they can get it themselves.

Actually I've just remembered something from my childhood

We lived next door to an utterly miserable wanker. He was like Victor Meldrew but without the humour.

He regularly used to burst our balls with a knife and then throw them back over the fence. His poor wife (who was lovely), was absolutely mortified and his miserable wanky behaviour.

Anyway, one day he was pruning a bush and accidentally dropped the pruners over the fence, into our garden so he knocked at our door and asked for them back.

My Dad said, "Oh I just found them and threw them back over your fence".

What he didn't mention was, he'd undone the little screws that kept it together and removed one of the handles

Petty? Yes.

Satisfying? 100%

What is wrong with you all?

Throw the balls back. Suck up the fact that you live next door to healthy, active children.

Or maybe invite them to climb in and retrieve the balls themselves? They are knocking because they are being polite.

Worra

Throw them back at the end of the day/morning. Tell kids that's what will happen next time they knock "I don't like being disturbed over your ball's coming over - I will throw them back last thing/first thing when I can. "

That is reasonable. At some point children need to be at the park to do their biggest kicks etc, and back gardens are more for precision shots.

Meh.

Chuck em back. Or let them get them.

First time or two they should ask if collecting. Then just say it's ok as long as the gate is shut etc.

Isn't that what most adult humans do?

What gate? We genuinely don't have a gate that leads to the garden.

Ok actually scratch that.

Do what joffery said.

So tell them to climb over the fence.

How is a small child going to climb over a 6 ft fence?

Throw them back you misery.

YANBU

OP,
How old are the kids?
And how often do they knock at your door.?
You need to give a bit more detail please.

We get balls over the fence all the time from the kids in the house behind. They don't come knocking, they usually just wait for us to get home and we chuck them back.

What did annoy me was when they found a way to lift up the fence and they were regularly coming into the garden to fetch them and trampling all over plants, knocking over pots etc. I caught them at it one night when they must have thought I was out and asked them not to come into the garden. Luckily, they're nice kids, said sorry and don't seem to have been in since, so we're back to chucking the balls over the fence. I don't really mind throwing them back, TBH, though if they were coming over every few minutes I might be less patient.

So tell them to climb over the fence.

Why would you give the kids free rein over your garden? That's ridiculous. They could get hurt, damage plants, etc.

I would just return them at the end of the day.

We have a school at the end of our garden and that is right where their netball/basketball is. We must have had 20 or 30 balls a week some weeks.

Sorry I should say we HAD a school. We've moved!

My child was the ball kicking menace. I told him it was tough, he wasn't to disturb people. What usually happened was it would vanish forever if into neighbour one (probably stabbed and binned), back neighbour it would be one or two weeks (wilder end of massive garden), neighbour three end of day.

So if it's that annoyingly frequent just say it's going to be once a day.