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AIBU?

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Original poster

School kids walking on my front garden wall

296 replies

Randomo · 04/06/2021 17:02

Why do parents think its okay to have their kids walk on my front garden wall (2 foot high)....

Whats worse are the kids that sit on the 'pillar' at the entrance to my drive. (A 3 foot high brick pillar with a flat top).

When I was a kid I was taught not to walk or sit on others property. I dont blame the kids so much as the parents. Its drives me nuts. I used to call them out on it, but given up now....too many different/new parents each year.

Or am I the one with a problem?

OP posts:
StillCoughingandLaughing · 05/06/2021 11:22

[quote HamAndButterSandwich]@StillCoughingandLaughing

Have to say you do sound remarkably joyless or clueless. Of course walking on walls brings joy to kids. Always has done, hopefully always will. The simple things are the most important at that age.[/quote]
Have they never heard of Netflix?

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 05/06/2021 11:24

@Flowers500 it is an interesting one. I never used to let my DCs walk on walls that belonged to people's houses. I wouldn't like it if children walked on ours, but wouldn't bother me enough to go out and ask them to stop. I do think it is rude though.

MintyMabel · 05/06/2021 11:25

bit hard to explain, but I dont think it would work easily here; as between each brick there is a 1 brick gap in height; if this makes any sense. Imagine there is a brick missing between each brick in the row basically.

How can they walk on it then?

Anyway, you’d still be able to put an angled coping stone on that. Plenty of options available. Or put up a sign saying the wall is unsafe.

ItAlwaysPours · 05/06/2021 11:26

All those saying it's fine seem to be oblivious to the cost for the owner. My garden wall (single brick) was fine until the little cherubs on the school run and in the neighbourhood decided it's the best place to walk/sit/play football against/deliberately kick when they spotted a weak spot (which they had created sitting on it). I came home one day to the whole side of wall caved in. A neighbour told me who it was and the parent's response....oh yeah sorry about that. So now I've had to pay out for a new wall and the child is too young to be charged with criminal damage. You might think it's joyless, but I bet you wouldn't if you were having to pay out as much.

MintyMabel · 05/06/2021 11:26

Of course walking on walls brings joy to kids. Always has done, hopefully always will. The simple things are the most important at that age.

Eating biscuits brings joy to kids. Should the OP open her kitchen and let them do that too?

Sargass0 · 05/06/2021 11:29

Open your door and shout "get up yer own end" very loudly

Undersnatch · 05/06/2021 11:34

@ItAlwaysPours

All those saying it's fine seem to be oblivious to the cost for the owner. My garden wall (single brick) was fine until the little cherubs on the school run and in the neighbourhood decided it's the best place to walk/sit/play football against/deliberately kick when they spotted a weak spot (which they had created sitting on it). I came home one day to the whole side of wall caved in. A neighbour told me who it was and the parent's response....oh yeah sorry about that. So now I've had to pay out for a new wall and the child is too young to be charged with criminal damage. You might think it's joyless, but I bet you wouldn't if you were having to pay out as much.
Actually for me personally, my wall is over one hundred years old and I’d see kids walking on it as part of its natural wear and tear, and associated costs would just be par for the course in my mind. I think that’s what low walls are for! But my eyes have been opened that not everyone feels the same, which is fine.
Original poster
Randomo · 05/06/2021 11:36

@MintyMabel

bit hard to explain, but I dont think it would work easily here; as between each brick there is a 1 brick gap in height; if this makes any sense. Imagine there is a brick missing between each brick in the row basically.

How can they walk on it then?

Anyway, you’d still be able to put an angled coping stone on that. Plenty of options available. Or put up a sign saying the wall is unsafe.

They walk on the alternating bricks that are sticking up /higher. (Its only a 1 brick gap between each)
OP posts:
Undersnatch · 05/06/2021 11:36

Ps I think kids deliberately kicking at your wall is completely different to a small child walking along as they go on their way.

CastAColdEye · 05/06/2021 11:42

@Sargass0

Open your door and shout "get up yer own end" very loudly
Ha ha! The sound of childhood.
ChainJane · 05/06/2021 11:53

Could you put something on top of the wall that would prevent them walking on it? People used to put broken glass on top of walls but you can't do that these days, you can be sued if someone gets hurt. But you could try those anti-pigeon spikes, they would make it hard to walk on. Or maybe anti-climbing paint, something like that.

LateAtTate · 05/06/2021 11:56

@ChainJane you can’t be sued by people who injure themselves while trespassing on your property...

IMNOTSHOUTING · 05/06/2021 11:58

Bloody hell some people here are completely insane. Broken glass on walls to prevent a little child have a bit of fun? Why not just spend time doing something other than peering out through your curtains.

mam0918 · 05/06/2021 12:04

My house is on the way to school and our wall is just over 1 foot and no kids walk on it.

They do on the one outside school but thats just a grass patch attached to the school (not near any houses).

RincewindsHat · 05/06/2021 12:13

Why are there so many people insisting their child's need to have fun by walking on someone else's property trumps that person's right to have their property respected?!

Insanity.

Sure walking on low walls is fun, but OP has a right to say whether or not she's happy to allow it and as the property owner her wishes have to be respected. That's all there is to it.

kittie01 · 05/06/2021 12:20

Wow I can’t believe so many have an issue with this. Kids walk on my walls all the time it’s no big deal. Putting spikes up is a horrible and dangerous thing to do. Kids will be kids, how would you feel if they got impaled on a spike. Either build your wall up higher or stop being so petty

Deadringer · 05/06/2021 12:23

I am on the wall fence with this one, on the one hand i would find it annoying, on the other i often walked on walls as a child, it's just something kids do.

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 05/06/2021 12:23

@kittie01

Wow I can’t believe so many have an issue with this. Kids walk on my walls all the time it’s no big deal. Putting spikes up is a horrible and dangerous thing to do. Kids will be kids, how would you feel if they got impaled on a spike. Either build your wall up higher or stop being so petty
OR educate your children to respect other people's property, wait til you get home and walk on your own wall?
FindingMeno · 05/06/2021 12:26

@LateAtTate I think you can be sued by a trespasser. It's my understanding that you owe a duty of care if there is something that could potentially be dangerous and you do not take steps to mitigate that danger.

Averyyounggrandmaofsix · 05/06/2021 12:30

I can't believe a reason not to use broken glass is that you may get sued??? Lovely!

BluebellsGreenbells · 05/06/2021 12:43

My children loved walking on walls, they were never allowed to do so on private property.

Kids will be kids, how would you feel if they got impaled on a spike. Either build your wall up higher or stop being so petty

How about crap parent will be crap parents - who refuse to respect others property?

honeylulu · 05/06/2021 12:52

Can you put a trellis or railings on the top? We used to have a shaggy hedge that sort of loomed over the top of the wall. When we took the hedge out to have our driveway paved and expanded we noticed lots of people using the front wall for a nice sit down (we are close to town centre so lots of pedestrian traffic) or kids walking on it. Not only that but dropping (whether purposely or not) rubbish in the flower bed.

The wall is now being repointed and once that's finished we're having railings on top and a pointy coping stone on the gate post. Our Internet cable runs through that wall and if the wall collapses the cable will be fucked.

itsgettingwierd · 05/06/2021 12:54

Yanbu.

Put a sign up "loose bricks due to people trespassing on the wall. If you choose to do the same the owners cannot be held responsible for any accident or injury"

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 05/06/2021 12:55

[quote FindingMeno]@LateAtTate I think you can be sued by a trespasser. It's my understanding that you owe a duty of care if there is something that could potentially be dangerous and you do not take steps to mitigate that danger.[/quote]
I'd always understood you couldn't but googled after reading this , and it seems you can; not just for something obvious like embedded glass but also if you haven't maintained your property and it causes injury to a trespasser.
So it seems that if your wall becomes unstable, because of children walking on it, and you're not checking it often enough so one of the children gets hurt, you could be sued. By one of the parents who thinks it's ok to have let their children cause the damage in the first place.

Lollypop4 · 05/06/2021 13:01

My DC have been taught to not walk on others property in this way.
It would annoy me too and I would put up planters or similar