Banning neighbours kids from the garden, fuming!

[chitterchitter3322]

Hi all, DS1 is aged 4 and going into Reception in September. Over the past couple of months he has made friends near his age on our street. They have came over ours many times in the holidays in our garden.

I don't mind them coming over, I've welcomed them every time. However these past 2 weeks I've noticed things go missing from my garden. I've had a suspicion of 2 siblings, one aged 3 and one aged 7.

When DS1 went over to their house yesterday he told me he saw his scooter and 3 footballs and asked for them back and they both said no.

I went over myself today to ask for them back and the parents said that they're theirs! Bloody livid! AIBU to ban them permanently from my garden?!

Obviously not U

Definitely NBU! In future I would recommend discrete labelling on toys. Someone claims they're theirs? Flip it over and show them your DS's name. I've had this happen before. Shame the thieving parents!

Why are you even asking? You want to cut all ties with that dysfunctional family asap. Then sneak into their garden in the dead of night and steal your things back. Take their garden furniture as payment for your time and inconvenience

Tell them they can come back when your DS gets his stuff back, then tell them to leave ( put an ID mark on the other stuff)

How do they get them out of your garden. You'll need to mark them, how nasty.

In what possible parallel universe do those kids ever cross your threshold again??????

AND you need to give amazing parties or install a fully working theme park in your garden, and watch their sad faces when they realize they're excluded.

Possibly, this isn't the most practical advice.

YADNBU

I'm struggling to imagine my 3 year old niece going off to play in a neighbours garden, that's so young!

But no you anbiu, get your stuff back

Are you absolutely sure they are the same ones? Did you see them yourself? I’d just want to make sure before I did anything drastic.

Buy one of those secret ultra violet pen kits, you can get them on Amazon and don't invite them back unless they bring their own toys.

definitely ours! the scooter had a wheel missing and it was the same design and the football's were the same!

How did they manage to get past whoever was supervising? Yea I know we cannot keep an eye on them all the time, but to take several items..

Gate at the back

I’d probably tell them I’d marked the items already (with ultra violet pen) just to see their faces. I’d say that unless the items magically reappeared in my garden, the next knock on their door would be the police.

It’d likely not work, but it’d make me feel better.

Also, please put a lock on your gate

Skanky little shits.

How does your 4 year old make friends in the street?

We all live on an estate and there's a long wide path between the back of around 10 houses, gatelocked, he goes out there with his sisters to play.

What I don’t get is why they are prepared to create so much bad feeling over a few footballs and a broken scooter. They’ll lose out so much more in the long run.

It says a lot about the kind of people they are. You definitely need to put a mark of some kind on your toys and I like the idea of going round there to say that you'd marked them already with UV pen. But actually do this with the other toys.

Some parents are scrounging, scheming, lying bastards by nature. It's not that they actually want the items, it's a natural reaction to just deny deny deny.

A few years ago outside school I watched a friend politely say to a classmate's dad that his son mistakenly took her DS's bike home last night and could she please pop in and pick it up.
The dad said his boy hadn't.
The mum, politely again, said her DS had told her the kid had ridden off on it. The dad denied it completely. There was no bike.
The mum said, "It's the really distinctive one? The small black bike with red on the tyres and a red saddle"
The dad said his kid didn't have her son's bike.
The mum, getting annoyed now, said, "It's in your garden! I just walked past your garden and can clearly see it, it has DS's name on it!" (it had a souvenir nameplate thing!)
To which the dad replied, "Oh no. That one in the garden? No. He found that bike last night in a field"

The mum just stared at him aghast. It's not like that dodgy family were short of bikes and toys. (Though I doubt that all the bikes were in fact, theirs legally).

Could you just walk into their garden and take his toys back? Then make sure your garden is secured, permanently mark all your child's toys and tell the thieving brats that they are not allowed in again.