By not wanting next door's kids running up my driveway?

[doggydance79]

New next door neighbours moved in a few months ago, with 3 kids, one lower primary and two preschool, nearly school age. Our houses are both set back from the road and the driveways are next to each other for a few car lengths before reaching the road. Our house is further up a little hill than theirs, so the driveway is much longer and fenced the rest of the way up until it opens out into the parking/garden area. Because of the angles of the driveways and houses, the kids are totally out of sight of their own home once past the first part of the driveway, with fences and gardens inbetween. The parents would know where they've gone, they are very loud. Although we have met and say hello, etc, we don't know them well.

From the start, they have been using the end of our driveway daily, positioning one car near the end on theirs, and leaving space to go up around it by using our driveway instead of moving it. Now, the 2 youngest kids have taken to running up and down our driveway, top to bottom. They will run past the living room windows and stop at the top to look in through the front door (which is open to get some fresh air in, most days). I've already spoken to one of them ( the other ran off when I appeared at the door!) but it still continues. In addition to not wanting strange kids running past our parked cars into the garden and peering into the house at random times, we have 2 very nervous rescue cats, who are being scared out of going into their own garden. (I don't know if they were mistreated previously, but even the postie walking to the door is enough to send them running, as is heavy rain on the roof!)

It seems strange to me that the parents think it's OK for their kids to regularly run up to a relative strangers front door and look inside, when it's in no way shared property. AIBU in wanting them to stop, or is this actually a thing that people think is okay?

I've had this shit, neighbours kids coming up my drive or driving their bikes into my cats. I found shouting at them to stop worked well as no parent about.

Neighbours hate me but whatever, teach your kids better manners.

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba
No worries! 😊

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba
That was supposed to be a simple smiley emoji. Don’t know where that came from!

🤣

we lived down the end of a cul de sac with 2 lovely kids nearby. they were not a problem . The issue for us was the other kids about 8 houses away .they used to drive their bikes in our driveway. we politely told the kids to play near their house. The parents reaction - " whoever told my kids to play outside our house needs an axe through the head" . The couple wanted kids but for everyone else to look after them. I wish you better luck with the neighbours than we had.

If you either don't want to go round and tell the neighbours straight that they need to watch their children and keep them out of your garden, or, you fear that even if you did that, they'd take no notice and possibly have an issue with you afterwards, then as PP say, install gates, the lower down your drive the better. I'd also put in slim solar bollards towards the road, but get good quality ones. All the solar lights I've ever had tend to fail quite quickly.

Even though you don't need to justify doing it, you could say these are both safety precautions which had been planned for a long time but work had been delayed. That's if you thought it might help with neighbourly relations. Like I say, you shouldn't need to explain, but sometimes a bit of discretion does help going forward.

I think you need to be more proactive.

Go and knock when you know that they are in and talk to them about their children’s behaviour.

If you don’t want to be so confrontational it’ll cost you - install a gate next to their fence or a Ring doorbell to capture proof of the children’s CFery.

You probably don’t want to confront about the car manoeuvres so install a narrow fence.