To think this response was absolutely batshit to someone showing concern?!

[WoahHeyThere]

So we have a community page where people mostly post about lost cats, why the police helicopter is out, homeless people begging outside the local shop etc. Last night this woman (who appears to be a neighbour but I don't know her personally) posted something and the response was just absolutely mental and I can't believe some of the comments. She deleted the post in the end I assume because there was just too much stupid on one post.

Basically the long and short of it is, there are some garages down the bottom of one of the cul-de-sacs, there's about 10 and I'd say 8 out of 10 have asbestos roofs. I own one of them but cannot see them from my house (mine is not asbestos). She commented that there were a group of kids running around on the roofs, then jumping off them into a large skip that is full of rubbish and old broken bits of wood and fence panels (belongs to a local fencing guy who rents one of the garages). She was clearly wanting to make the parents aware incase one of them broke an arm/leg/their neck, and the tone of the post was not really a complaint/moan iyswim. Though she later replied to someone else that they were staring into her house and told her to fuck off when she told them to get down.

Well...I can't remember all that was said but in came the posts such "kids can't do nothing these days" "it's just kids being kids leave them to it" "they're not your kids so why you bothered" "leave them alone at least they're not out stabbing and robbing people" "back in the day we used to do stupid shit like that all the time, broke my leg but I'm still alive to tell the tale". There were obviously more sensible people like myself that saw the actual concern and commented in support but the above comments definitely outweighed them.

AIBU to think some people are lacking in the common sense department?! In what world is kids running around on asbestos roofs that they could fall through and jumping into a skip full of old wood that might have old rusty nails poking out, just "kids being kids". I'm absolutely baffled.

I left all our FB community groups but missed them all so much I re-joined them all again.

I spent a very happy afternoon in lockdown sitting with my jaw on the floor following a post as the comments were amazing

When we were still doing the Thursday night clap, a local lorry driver had covered his lorry in thank you NHS signs and did a drive by of the local hospital in it.

The following week some bright spark thought an organised drive by would be a good idea and we ended up with about 100 lorries/tractors/even a bloody combine harvester joining in. It was completely mad and caused absolute chaos right outside the hospital.

Police posted on the FB page to say lovely gesture but please don’t do that again. 1. We’re supposed to be in lockdown and not making non-essential journeys, and 2. It caused massive congestion round the hospital so ambulances couldn’t get in and out of the main entrance.

Fair enough I though, but someone shared it to the community page. People were completely losing their shit left, right and centre. It was insane.

Same page had hundreds of posts complaining about neighbours walking their dog twice in one day/buying wine in the local co-op/etc.

Madness

Was it the Nextdoor site?
That thing is batshit, in my area it's modded by sexist racists. There has been a thread on there about a local Black History mural, the local paper incorrectly reported the council are spending a million quid to maintain it, the pile on of "I'm not racist but" comments were disgraceful and embarrassing. It then turned out the paper was wholly and entirely wrong but these racists didn't care, it was all George Floyd was a violent criminal and all lives matter. Some poor woman on there who was pointing out how racist they were being was given some dreadful abuse, but then the mod popped up and had a go at her, threatening her!
It's worse than Facebook.
In the case of the woman warning people, if I was her I'd think fuck them, if they want their offspring in traction then so be it. You can't cure stupid.

Anyone who posts or reads local Facebooks groups is definitely BU. Those things are insane

Children actually get more freedom/tolerance if the adults around keep an eye on them and the parents take responsibility to tell them of if they do anything stupid.

Yes to this. Really parents should be pleased when other adults keep an eye out for their child's safety. They're quick enough to complain when things go wrong for their child. I'm always quick to thank another parent when they've rightly told my child off for something they really shouldn't be doing, in case my response stops them for doing it for the next child. Sadly most adults are afraid to intervene now because of the reaction they are likely to get from the parents. It makes society a worse place for everyone both now, and in the future when these kids grow up.

People are thick - and breed thick kids unfortunately.

They are probably worried that if people put a stop to their kids’ ‘high jinx’, then they’ll end up coming home and might expect some parenting action.

People are thick - and breed thick kids unfortunately

I don't know if the kids are necessarily thick. In the right environment I'm sure they would be fine generally. It's the toxic attitude from their home that causes much of the problem. Kids need adults to guide them. When that fails, it all fails.

Although I guess that's pretty much what you said noproblem

What is it people mean when they say children don't have anything to do?

Like seriously, never in history has there ever been more entertainment. Ok, so some things aren't running. I get that, my children don't go to clubs etc at the moment, but there are hardly sort on things to do.

Granted my children are all 10 (nearly 11) and under, maybe I have het to experience that stage but I really don't understand. Granted my children will sulk if banned from electronic equipment but still find plenty to do.

Something about the local facebook pages that seem to bring out the hard of thinking and the out and out racists and bigots (in my area at least)

OMG I know where you live as this is my local FB group too. This has never happened to me on Mumsnet before.

FWIW, OP, I suspect the children's parents would be the first to sue the owner for damages if their child were hurt and there were no action taken once the garage owners knew children were playing on the roofs and the site didn't have appropriate warning signs for parents. I'm not saying they would succeed but stupidity generally presents hypocritically.

Our local FB page has days when it's full of similar batshittery. I know full well that if one of these kids injured themselves then the same people who trot out the "kids being kids" line would be the same ones calling for compensation.

Local Facebook is a minefield.

YANBU. I can't stand reading my local Facebook page. Agree with others that they know it's probably their children and just can't be bothered doing anything about it. It's quite shocking really as it does sound quite dangerous.

@Springersrock

We had something similar here although initially just one HGV which got more elaborate in terms of decoration every week (Christmas & strobe lights, sirens, dance tunes etc). Some of our streets are very narrow & twisty so driver wasn’t able to go everywhere, even if he disconnected the trailer. Apparently he was selfish & exclusionary for not sourcing a smaller vehicle & some kids were crying because they were as excited as they would be at Christmas & he’d ruined it for them! Was equally parts entertainment & batshit crazy

Hilariously, I think we’re part of the same group (helicopter gives it away!). I remember seeing that post and thought people would be concerned but everyone seemed to be raging that she didn’t want the kids to be safe!

Yes they will soon learn and if they get hurt

And then their parents will sue the *rse off the owner of the garages and the local papers will be full of sad-face picture of little Brandon with his one remaining eye because he got the other put out landing head first on a shard of metal.

Ours is the opposite. My husband was playing football in the street with our then 10 year old and a, light ball (just kicking it back and forth between the who if them) and a neighbour berated him in case the ball hit her car (in her drive, around 10m away,)
DH was furious, posted on our local site and was told in no uncertain terms that people work hard to buy cars and he should respect other's property.
As our estate is all detached houses, with double drives/garages, this was effectively saying children should not play outside at all just in case a precious car is hit by a very light ball.

Our local village facebook page is mostly quite sensible. The very occasional spat occurs, but is dealt with by the moderators. If they think a pile on is occurring with people sticking the boot in (why are the posters who do this typically the semi literate ones? Is it because they are frustrated and unhappy with life and have to hit out at others?), the moderators close comments or delete the post.

I left the community page for the small market town nearby because the mob stupidity on that page was triggering me

We get the same here. Though these teens are tearing up the village. One night they even managed to break into a street light box and plunged the roads and surrounding streets into darkness by ripping out the wires. The engineer couldn't believe how bad it was. They could have just turned stuff off but no, they destroyed it.

And the Facebook posts concerning these kids are crazy. These kids are now opening peoples unlocked doors (knock a door run is sooo 2019. They're actually opening unlocked doors, sometimes throwing stuff in, toddlers and pets be damned) in a previously quiet village where locking doors was never really a thing for most folk during the daytime. And their parents and relatives online just blame it on them having nothing to do. The poor little munchkins, what could we expect?!

When I was young I reckon we had a damn sight less to do. No smart phones with a constant supply of entertainment, no shops open after tea, (no cash to spend for that matter!) No games consoles, no social media and less places to go like skateparks etc.

Boggles the mind really. My teen wouldn't see the light of day if they embarrassed me like that causing a public ruckus damaging property, trespassing or shouting at people to fuck off!

There was a trend in the town I grew up where teenagers would ride bikes on the road or pavement and suddenly and deliberately swerve in front of cars forcing the car to do an emergency stop

Same here, and a similar ‘kids will be kids’ attitude on SM. I witnessed one of them doing it one day. It was the kid of the Head of a local school. My judgey pants went so far up my own backside I gave myself a wedgie. Idiot child.

Local Facebook groups are nuts.

Oh this thread is brilliant!

Those pages keep me very entertained
As we have several batshit crazy local councillors who really do think they run the world it's hilarious!

Although I do text my teen and tell him they are posting crap on Facebook so just make sure you are no where near xyz place which to be fair he isn't usually!

@WoahHeyThere

Yes indeed yellowmaoampinball. Clearly the children's parents are of the same mind.

Our has had much of the same in the past, there was a period of time where the kids on mopeds were a big problem and the posts were almost daily. There is always a select few who supported them and suggested they were doing nothing wrong.

Yet the page is full of "Could be nothing but saw this person doing (completely non-suspicous) thing, keep you're wits about you"

Oh god I hate those posts about 'suspicious' behaviour. There's usually some other comment about them possibly have Irish accents or looking 'foreign'.

Busybrain2020 and dizzyupthegirl86 ahh no way haha I was in 2 minds about posting incase someone recognised 🤣 that bloody group is just ridiculous isn't it!?

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one whose a bit at their attitudes anyway, can always count on good old Mumsnet

To be honest I don't get all this "kids get a load of slack for just being kids" etc cos I'd say the posts I see, a good 9 time out of 10 they actually are being little shits.