Neighbours young kids playing football in front of house.

[jimjam2313w]

The kids are young. Like 8 years or less. They aren't really playing football, just bouncing the ball around. I heard them screaming and shouting and looked at CCTV to see the ball bouncing off our two cars. One is my classic and fragile 1977 classic.

I go out to tell the kids not to bounce the balls off the cars and (to my almost surprise) I find that neighbour mum and visiting mum are sitting there watching this. I explain that I'm concerned about my old car being damaged because it is fragile. Visiting mum reassures me that the children are being watched and that "we don't want any damage to happen either".

Anyway, I keep the cctv on as we are watching our movie and the ball once again hits out car. I go outside and both parents are gone. So I tell the children they should not be hitting my car with the ball.

What more do I do? Sometimes the responses here surprise me so I am reluctant to say that I would like to warn the neighbour one more time then speak to the community police officer. Neighbours new friends seem to smoke weed ALL THE TIME and community police officer will obviously smell this right away if they come along. I don't want that to happen. I just don't want to have football marks on my cars OR the mirrors broken off my classic.

Of course they’re going to hit the cars! Kids can’t control footballs and for the parents to be sitting blithely watching is beyond me

I'm sure the OP would prefer the parents to supervise their children. The obligatory comment you've come out with about it better for kids to be playing outside, isn't the OP's problem.

I agree that it's a really stupid idea and lazy parenting but like I said, you can't control what other people do in a public space.

Trouble is all the access to school playing fields and open spaces in general are reducing. Parents arent so inclined to go with their kids to join in a game of footy as much and so the choice boils down to some kids either playing football in the street or being left for hours bored or playing on computer games getting square eyes.

Of course they can play outside without damaging property. Its a ball and an old car. Kids need encouraged to start playing outside again. Not stuck in front of a tv someone thinks their lump of metal is more important.

I would rather some kids football bounces off my cars than a few years later a brick bounces off my windows by a kid who didnt get enough exercise and healthy play.

So short sighted......those kids that arent the op's problem are currently able to be educated and encouraged to behave correctly. Pass them on as someone elses problem and they eventually become a bigger problem and chances are they will still be on your doorstep, but now knowing the OP is the grumpy git who complained when they actually were doing something productive. Now who will become the easy target i wonder.......

Move the car, encourage the kids. Maybe try to get the parents to parent a bit better and maybe things improve.

I'm not anti car, some people need them for work etc, I'm anti car obsession. Fewer cars on the road would be great for everyone and I find it hard to sympathise with people complaining about cars getting damaged by kids playing, or scratched by people parking too close or dogs weeing on their tyres, all things I've read on here, when cars do far more damage world wide. That's a relevant opinion. Not sure why I should be a banned poster as someone suggested.

You deliberately are derailing this thread. As somebody suggested earlier, start your own climate change thread.

In other words, be a mug.

Arty, this is a public forum

‘We literally live beside the primary school. The kids usually play in there. I've kept my classic parked out front in the summer since 2008.’

realistically? Cover car, move car, or move.

the same people who complain about how much kids are ‘addicted’ to screens these days seem to me to be the same ones who moan and whine about kids playing outside.

the reality is WE have taken more and more play space and out door space from children and filled it with cars or turned it into formal areas where they can’t just play.

then we rhapsodise about the ‘freedoms’ we had as kids …

I would rather some kids football bounces off my cars than a few years later a brick bounces off my windows by a kid who didnt get enough exercise and healthy play.

Again it's not an either/or situation 🙄

It's a good time for the parents to teach their offspring respect for other peoples's property rather than watching them kick their ball against the cars and doing nothing. Also the OP says the kids can play in the primary school so why not encourage them to do that? Surely there would be more room and it would be safer.

Omg the stretches some people will perform just to disagree with an OP. Why does kids playing outside mean playing in the roads? Why is it presented as playing in the road or stuck on screens as the only 2 options? There are many other, safer places to play.

Whether you think roads are for ‘storing’ or not, we can all agree that roads are for driving, and they’re not a safe place for children to play in or near.

I could've written this during covid. 3 sets of kids on my bit of street & my house pretty much in the centre of them to meet, plus my driveway entrance made a nice easy goal area for them. The parents did sweet FA. Just happy their kids were out & not bothering them or their own cars. The kids in time saw it as a game to hit my car or garage or windows from a distance, then they'd run away. It became really stressful. Talked to the parents, got told 'it's kids being kids' and I didn't have sons so I wouldn't understand. U can't reason with stupid.

Several years on they've dispersed. 1 household retreated to computer games, barely see them. 1 household moved. 1 household the kids outgrew the area and tend to bike away to see friends. However a tale of caution. They had 1 lad friend who used to visit them & he was the worst cos he knew I had no knowledge of him, his family etc. He was worst at kicking ball at my house or encouraging younger ones to. He doesn't hang with any of my neighbours kids now but still occasionally come by with new gangs of boys and points out my house. In winter he pelted my window with ice snow balls. In spring he brought a different group and they sat on the pavement outside my house, sat on my wall, looking into my living room to see what I'd do etc. Throwing rubbish onto my front. Leavibg then returning to see if id tidied up their mess etc. The other kids didn't know me from Adam so this was clearly the boy from yrs ago still randomly wanting to goad me & introduce a new group to tge sport. It does worry me as I'm on my own, with 2 DD which I think it's partly why I'm seen as fair game. These kids only get bigger & potentially more dangerous so tread cautiously to ask with a smile & friendly explanation that ur not bothered about them playing outside, it's purely about your car not getting damaged as u don't need the hassle like they won't need the cost of repair.

I will say, we were away one time, only overnight and when I checked my basic camera I put to cover my driveway, the boys went overtime knowing I wasn't there, blatantly throwing & kicking their football at my house. I spoke to one neighbour, he denied his little juniors would do such a thing (as if he ever kept tabs) until I said, it's on camera, it deffo happened. His kid admitted it then, the dad didn't apologise but those neighbours kids did back off a bit. It is a nightmare tho. I really feel for you. I'm still debating asking the pcso for the area for advice if it starts happening again if non-local lads start it up again with this other lad. Good luck.

I find it utterly bizarre that OP has to indulge her car being damaged to prevent the kids from growing up and lobbing a brick through her window.

Where exactly are the parents in all this? Apparently it's everyone responsibility to let kids damage their stuff to ensure they don't grow into a societal problem, except the people responsible for those kids.

It's no wonder schools are like zoos these days.

Why the heck was my reply deleted. I've seen far worse on here. Sorry but my neighbour is a horrible person for letting her kids bounce balls off my house when my husband is recovering from cancer!!

@MiMiChuna That's crap and people don't realise it makes your life a misery as your home becomes a stressy place.

What is wrong with mumsnet HQ anyway. I saw C*NT written on here the other day, why did you delete my post? This site gets worse by the day.

@Liketoesforeyes it was awful & still is occasionally. I was living on high alert for a very long time, it was exhausting. I used to only get a day off when it rained and they stayed indoors, until the kids realised they liked kicking the ball thru puddles. It made me anxious about having days out with my own kids what they'd do if I was out (it was obvious cos my car was gone).

So sorry about ur neighbours. Absolutely selfish creatures, they live amongst us 😒

@MiMiChuna I hope things get better for you, I really do. We are moving soon thankfully.

Grimsqueaker, resorting to personal insults is not really a great sign of a strong argument

@Liketoesforeyes thank you. Unless you've lived it, it would be hard to understand how stressful a few young kids can make your life. Altho its not really the kids responsible, its their adults not raising them properly.
Good for you moving. I hope it goes smoothly & your new place is peaceful. And I hope the ppl moving into yours give your ball neighbours similar treatment! Petty I know but this is how it can make you feel!

@Sigmama What personal insults? It was an accurate description of your odd behaviour on this thread

We have had many problem neighbours. We thought we were safe here because we have moved to a quiet little village. But the elderly couple next door to us passed and "Asbo Joe" moved in. Does it sound like a cruel nickname? Maybe. But when I first met the new neighbour he took great delight in telling me how, where he had lived before, they had "tried to get me an Asbo for playing mah music too loud".

Needless to say, Asbo Joe is a barrel of laughs. Screaming and swearing at his kids etc.

We have never acted against the neighbours for any of their antisocial behaviour so far, but damaging the car was crossing a line.

There seem to be a lot of Asbo types replying to my thread. I would like to ask you all this:

When you are playing your music at full volume, how do you instinctively know that everyone in the street likes the same kind of music as you? That kind of insight is truly remarkable!