Children playing in garden

[SMarie123]

My neighbours have an electrical cable running along the wall between our two houses. I have a 4 year old and a 2 year year old, we are in Ireland so we have been home for 3 weeks already.

My husband is a front of line healthcare worker and is doing 13 hour days every day (including long days from home at weekends) I am supposed to be working but really I am minding kids... thank god for nice bosses. anyway yesterday I was on conference calls and I put them in the garden. There was no drama specifically, but I could tell I was causing the neighbours annoyance (they are retired and like to spend time in the garden. The man is always doing gardening and they watch him as they are home in the day just now).

Anyway the lady complained that the 4 year old pulled the wire (didn't break it or anything). She said she was concerned for his safety.., in the grand scheme of things it is just such a petty point but she went on and on.... Now I feel like I can't put them in the garden which is super annoying. He hasn't gone near the wire again but it was such a dramatic reaction.

I am torn between bringing round a card to apologise and just being indignant. Longer term I don't think it pays to fall out with your neighbours.

@Nicknacky - the known hazard that the neighbours have caused.

MN has gone MAD lately. Your neighbours are 110% in the wrong. they need to sort the wire out. Then your children wont be able to touch it ever again. End of. I think you are verging on enabling this situation to be entertaining the fact that you were in the wrong to let two little kids look at your neighbours, what utter rubbish.

It doesn’t matter who caused the hazard and it doesn’t hurt less just because it’s the neighbours. So whilst the hazard is there, the kids shouldn’t be out alone. That’s just common sense.

I think the problem is that they want to be 2 meters away from your DC. if your DC are at the wall then they are restricted in where they can be. That's just the current circumstance. Try to move whatever it is that they are using to get up to look over. Ask your neighbours to move the cable and try to get DC to spend time away from the fence.

Interesting.

So it's AOK to put up potentially illegal, dangerous stuff, in this case a really a really dodgy electrical wire.

And if anything goes wrong it's not their fault but the fault of the person who is on the receiving end. In this case, children.

Usually a woman. . One who is working from home while caring for 2 little kids with a key worker partner.

Yeah fuck me she's a bastard.

Seriously?

@Beetrootrocks
^This with bells on

Its obvious that something should happen with the wire, the neighbour can probably remember all the public information films from the 70s.

Again, Nicknacky, explain why do you have to supervise a two-year-old all the time in a back garden that is obviously designed to be a safe space for them to play in. I was playing out in the street when I was two with a six-year-old looking after me. The streets are too dangerous for small children nowadays, but a back garden? What is likely to happen if the mother takes her eyes off them?

I have 2 children of similar ages across the back from me. I love chatting to them over the fence. They are small children. What would they learn about neighbours who don’t want to see them or speak to them.

Next door need to sort the wire out, you should sort the fence out. The garden is an extension of someone's home, it would really annoy me having people peer in all the time, eurgh.

Can your dh go round and sort the neighbours out? Eg I’m x type of HCP and have treated people for electrocution. It needs to be gone. Now and properly installed in the ground!

That wire could electrocute you or your dcs even without touching it if you were touching or just beside the wall. Electricity jumps.

No wires in your garden. Would you do that ? If you can get the fence to be higher, than do it asap, Good fences makes good neighbours. It is not your job to supervise the neighbours wire. You supervise your kids. Until the fence is higher, or the wire is gone no, your garden is not a safe haven.
You are not in the wrong. You are being too nice. What is the point to have a backgarden if you can't use it ?

Can you put something over the wire? Gaffer tape it all up? Tape plastic pipe over it? Barricade the area where the wire is? Of course it’s fine for kids to be in their garden. Secure and no pond.

2 is FAR too young to be outside under the supervision of only a 4 year old.

That wire is dangerous and shouldn't be accessible from your side. Tell them to move it onto their side.

@Mummyoflittledragon
Don't go panicking people by spouting nonsense. A 220v line does not "jump"! A cable is only a hazard to handle if the insulation is degraded. Common signs are dry rough powdery surface, cracks/splits of lack of flexibility. Granted it shouldn't be there but a cable by its self is not a hazard. If it's a section of SWA they could use it as a swing and it wouldn't matter!

This is the wire

She wasn't saying he would electrocute himself, she was saying he could cut his hand on the clips securing it.

My husband and I are not DIY people but it doesn't look degraded to me.

We will make it higher when the madness is over. This is only short term.

2 is FAR too young to be outside under the supervision of only a 4 year old but they're not, they're under the supervision of the OP who can see them.

OP can you do your calls outside? I took my laptop outside when it was warmer to do some video calls.

I do often do the calls outside but there was someone cutting wood, so it was noisy. I also typically have speakerphone on which I know is annoying. The gardens are very on top of each other

Yes it's flex or Twin and Earth. It shouldn't be there but it's not a hazard as stands from its current condition. Bodge of an installation though! Can you unclipped it and push it over their side? Simple solution all round.

My two year olds wandered round their garden without me following them. So long as the garden is enclosed and not full of hazards it’s no different than your sitting room surely? The main danger seems to be he might cut his finger.

NameChange
I have heard people say they didn’t touch a plug with dodgy electrics (just close). I was going on this. Having now looked it up this sounds unlikely so I stand corrected.

However, that wire looks really dangerous. There is also something, which looks like a loop to the top of the photo. This needs removing now: It’s a hazard. The nails, the loop, the placement, perhaps the type of cable...

Don't send your kids in the garden when you do these calls. It is the time you put them in front of the TV watching something that will keep their attention for the duration.

Take them in the garden when you an supervise them outside. Gardens are not playgrounds, and not the time to let your kids let out stream so you can have some peace and quiet and inside, even if it is to work.

I've got a electric cable going out to my shed for lights and a plug and it's about 5 times the thickness of the cable in your photo.

I'm sure that that's a standard indoor cable in your photo and surely shouldn't be used outside.